OPERA America Awards $100,000 in Discovery Grants to Eight Women Composers
By Afton MarkayOPERA America has announced the recipients of the 2026 Discovery Grants from its Opera Grants for Women Composers program.
The Grants totaling $100,000 will support the development of new opera and music-theater works. In addition to cash awards, OPERA America will provide travel support and free registration for the 2026 Discovery Grant recipients to attend its 2026 and 2027 Opera Conferences. These events offer opportunities for grantees to develop relationships with potential creative partners and producers. Grant recipients also receive mentorship and access to professional development programs, including workshops on the business aspects of new work development.
The recipients of the 2026 Opera Grants for Women Composers are composer and librettist Lila Blue for “SEE/UNSEE;” composer Catherine Brookman (with collaborators Jen Pitt and Emily Duncan) for “Easy Baby;”
composer Suzanne Farrin for “Macabéa” (with librettist Sergio Chejfec); composer Danielle Jagelski (with librettist Rhiana Yazzie) for “Little Ones;” composer and librettist Jiyoung Ko for “Three Women;” composer and librettist Hailey McAvoy for “Wholly Unwinding;” composer Gillian Rae Perry for Desert Bloom (with librettist Mo Holmes); and composer Diana Wharton Sennaar (with librettist Mai Sennaar) for “YITA (Seeing Again).”
The 2026 grantees were selected by a panel of industry leaders consisting of librettist Joseph Reese Anderson, composers Jasmine Arielle Barnes, Clint Borzoni, and Susan Kander, director Sarah Ina Meyers, and the Metropolitan Opera’s dramaturgy/opera commissioning associate, Karl Ronneburg.
The program is supported by the Virginia B. Toulmin Foundation.
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