OPERA America has announced the recipients of its 2026 Commissioning Grants from its Opera Grants for Women Composers program.

The grants which total $135,000 will promote the development of new work by women-identifying composers and bring visibility to women composers across the field. Funds up to $50,000 support the composer’s commissioning fee for a full production of a new opera. Awards may range from 50% the composer’s fee to up to 100% of the fee if the work features a woman librettist and is a co-production.

Grantees were selected by a panel of industry experts including composers Nathan Felix and Carla Lucero, Executive Director of Santa Fe Pro Musica Daniel James, and librettist Diana Solomon-Glover.

The 2026 grant recipients are:

• Beth Morrison Projects for “The Silver Cypress” “(سرو سیمین),” composed by Niloufar Nourbakhsh with libretto by Stephanie Fleischmann
• The Glimmerglass Festival for “The Snow Queen 2.0,” composed by B.E. Boykin with libretto by Deborah Brevoort
• Hogfish for “Wholly Unwinding,” composed and written by Hailey McAvoy
• Opera Memphis for “Catalogue Gurl,” composed by Lisa DeSpain with libretto by Jerre Dye
• Resonance Works for “The Velveteen Rabbit,” composed and written by Gilda Lyons
• The Industry for “Si me tocaras el corazón,” composed by Tania León (librettist to be announced)
• Utah Symphony | Utah Opera for “Song of the Lark,” composed by Laura Kaminsky with libretto by Andrea Fellows Fineberg

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