The American Opera Project has been awarded $9,000 by OPERA America’s Opera Grants for Female Composers: Commissioning Grants.

The grant will be used toward the commissioning of “Precipice,” a new work by Rima Fand.

“Precipice” is an object theatre/chamber opera that tells the story of one woman’s struggle to find her authentic voice in American’s mountain west.

Fand is a Brooklyn-based composer, musician, and vocalist who has created music for experimental puppet theater, musical theater, and even clown shows. She has performed with such ensembles as the Luminescent Orchestrii, Sherita, and Hydra.

OPERA America’s Opera Grants for Female Composers: Commissioning Grants supports the development of female composers writing for the operatic art form. Past winners of the grant include Du Yun, Rhiannon Giddens, Caroline Shaw, Mary Ellen Childs, Rene Orth, Luna Pearl Woolf, Leanna Kirchoff, Jennifer Higdon, Missy Mazzoli, Shelia Silver, and Laura Kaminsky, among many others.