Composer Gillian Rae Perry and librettist David Davila have won the fifth annual 96-Hour Opera Project at The Atlanta Opera’s NOW Festival.

The duo will now take home the $10,000 Antinori Foundation Grand Prize and a commission to write their chamber opera, “The Sickness” for the company.

Their winning work is set during Georgia’s Gold Rush on Cherokee land and follows Eliana Banks as she navigates greed, loyalty, and the consequences of the Indian Removal Act of 1830. The work was also selected as the Audience Favorite by popular vote. Runner-up honors went to composer Thomas Whitman and librettist Gabriel Jenkinson for “While the Sky is Still Gold.”

The showcase took place on June 13 at the Ray Charles Performing Arts Center at Morehouse College. This year’s competition asked all five competing teams to develop original stories centered on the Georgia Gold Rush of 1828 and its consequences, including the Trail of Tears. The festival also featured a preview scene from “Rosenbaum and Li,” last year’s winning project by composer Dina Pruzhansky and librettist Hai-Ting Chinn, now in development toward its full premiere with The Atlanta Opera in 2027.

This year’s mentor-judges were composer, conductor, and pianist B.E. Boykin; Priti Gandhi, associate director of the Laffont Competition at the Metropolitan Opera; director and playwright Tazewell Thompson; author Andrea Davis Pinkney; April Powell of Tyler Perry Studios; stage director Thaddeus Strassberger; and Atlanta Opera General and Artistic Director Tomer Zvulun. The remaining eight finalists each received a $1,000 honorarium.

The 96-Hour Opera Project is supported by The Coca-Cola Foundation and The Rich’s Foundation, with the Grand Prize supported by The Antinori Foundation.

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