BMP: Next Gen

Responsible for “changing the face of opera” (The Wall Street Journal), BMP: NEXT GEN returns for the final round of its second cycle, as Beth Morrison Projects’ leaders set out to discover the next generation of boundary-pushing composers. Chosen from a group of ten finalists during Round 1 in 2021 for their “haunting” (Christopher Koelsch, President & CEO at LA Opera) and “stunningly beautiful” (Pulitzer Prize winning composer, Du Yun) work, composers Elizabeth Gartman and Niloufar Nourbakhsh return with their BMP commissioned 30-minute vocal-theatre works, It is a Comfort to Know and Threshold of Brightness respectively. Following the concert, one of the composers will receive a commission for the development and world premiere of a full-length opera. The winner will be announced immediately following the concert on June 24.

Each piece will be performed both nights with Kamna Gupta as music director and the Contemporaneous music ensemble. It is a Comfort to Know by Gartman has a libretto by Susan Bywaters, is directed by Madeline Whitesell, and follows the leader of a death cult and their followers as they anticipate the end of days. Threshold of Brightness by Nourbakhsh has a libretto by Lisa Flanagan, is directed by Shadi Ghaheri, and follows a famous and controversial Iranian poet, Forough Farrokhzad, as she is seriously injured in a car crash and enters a dream-like state where she reckons with the ghosts of her past.