The Atlanta Opera, in partnership with Georgia Tech Arts, will present the world premiere of “Water Memory (Jala Smriti)” on June 12 and 14, 2026, at the Ferst Center for the Arts at Georgia Tech in Atlanta.

The work, which was composed by Kitty Brazelton with a libretto by Vaibu Mohan and commissioned by The Atlanta Opera after the duo won the Antinori Foundation Grand Prize in the company’s 96-Hour Opera Project in June 2024, follows Janani, a South Asian woman navigating the early stages of dementia, and her adult children as they begin to grieve the mother they are slowly losing.

Conductor Chaowen Ting, a faculty member at Georgia Tech’s School of Music, will lead a traditional chamber ensemble alongside percussionist TeAiris Majors, who will blend live and recorded audio to create a layered, mixed-reality sonic experience.

The production is directed by Gregory Luis Boyle and features Marian Anderson Award-winner Idira Mahajan in the central role of Janani, joined by Tanushka Sisodiya and tenor Joseph Ittoop as her adult children, and soprano Samantha Burke as the AI character MPO (Memory Processing Operator).

Though the opera engages deeply with questions surrounding artificial intelligence and its role in human care, the work was created entirely without AI assistance. The creative team collaborated with specialists in gerontology and memory-assistance technology through several Georgia Tech research institutes, including the Institute for Neuroscience, Neurotechnology & Society and the A-I CARING Institute.

“Collaborations like Water Memory show how powerfully the arts can bring scientific questions into human focus,” said Christopher Rozell, executive director of Georgia Tech’s Institute for Neuroscience, Neurotechnology and Society, per an official press release. “They open the door to meaningful conversations about how emerging tools like artificial intelligence might one day support care, connection, and dignity for individuals and families.”

June is designated as Alzheimer’s & Brain Awareness Month, lending the production additional resonance. A talk-back panel discussion with representatives from Georgia Tech’s research institutes will follow the June 14 performance.