I head back to the woods of Oregon funded in part by a powerfully flexible Open Artist in Residence program by Art in Oregon. I'll be working further on the opera. It's now in the stage of filling in ensemble music, and adding minor subtle tweaks to parts of the libretto to give the character arcs a magical sense of intertwine with each other and with the audience. 

It's a delight to spend focused time with my characters, sounds, and instrumentation again. I enter a world. 

I just returned from my final residency at the Sitka Center for Art and Ecology. I spent time savoring the stunning environment—and writing Suzy's arias and the Suzy + Sam 6 Duet. 

As I said goodbye to the creative incubator phase of my relationship with Sitka, I welcomed in a new phase of —from incubator to manifestation. Now Sitka and I are partnered to bring this gestated work into the world.

It's a wonderful next step, truly exciting, truly bountiful. Stay tuned for more to come. 

I am beyond thrilled to announce that ONE DEATH IN SEVEN DOORWAYS is the recipient of a 2025 Oregon Community Foundation Creative Heights Grant for $74,000. This large and validating award, designed to help artists create new innovations in their disciplines, and their career trajectories, will allow us to complete collaborative composing and premiere this unique, genre-defying work. Read the OCF announcement here. 

It has been a very busy year and I am excited to move forward with this momentum behind us. Thank you OCF! Thank you to everyone who donated and participated in getting this project through its proof-of-concept phase so that it could apply for and receive this level of funding. This opera has  so much to give the world, and I am thrilled it will have its chance to reach a broad audience. 

The grant is fiscally sponsored by the Sitka Center for Art and Ecology, which has been a supporter of this opera since its inception. The Sitka Center will also be bringing some pre-production workshops to Oregon's coastal communities, sharing the opera with a part of Oregon dear to my heart. 

Fantastic news! ONE DEATH IN SEVEN DOORWAYS has received a $2000 Open AiR (Artist in Residence) grant from Art In Oregon. This new program supports artists to self-create residencies to deepen their work in a focused atmosphere. I will be using the grant to rent a cabin in the woods where I can continue composing the opera both in focused isolation and with one of the projects collaborative composers. What an exciting and fun opportunity! Thank you Art in Oregon!

I am happy to announce that I am staring the second (culminating) year as the inaugural Music Fellow at the Sitka Center for Art and Ecology. This next year will be focused on support for ONE DEATH IN SEVEN DOORWAYS in the form of composing retreats, grant support, and workshops for local community members. 

In their first round of granting as the new non-profit Friends of IFCC, I received a $5000 grant to continue work on ONE DEATH IN SEVEN DOORWAYS. This organization expands the Artist in Residence program begun by Interstate Firehouse Cultural Center (IFCC) and Portland Parks, through which I received a $12,000 grant to workshop the opera in 2024. What a thrill to have a second year of funding through the IFCC commitment to supporting artists. The funds include support from the 1803 fund and the newly formed Portland Department of Arts and Culture. It's an honor to be a part of this growth and development in the arts in Portland. Thank you Friends of IFCC! 

After an incredibly successful 2024, we are beginning the process of fundraising to complete the composing and raise a premiere. Our incredible funders got this project off the ground and now we are looking to expand and increase our funding base to get the project ready to perform. The first round of grant applications were sent in in November, and there are more in the works. Read our 2024 Funders Report to learn more or Donate now to help us get to the next level!

I am SO pleased to say that the community workshopping preview was a wonderful success. People really connected with the work, appreciated the message, the humor, the music, the beauty—and the invention. We are editing together the highlight video that we filmed during workshopping so that more people can get a glimpse into what we are doing. Donors will get exclusive access to the video of the preview night! 

Wednesday May 22, 2024 we are having a mini-preview of a few scenes followed by a grief circle to discuss the content of the work. It's an exciting culmination of 6 weeks of workshopping during my IFCC artist residency. We really discovered amazing things in this opera and I am excited to share a small taste of that with an intimate audience. 

Whew, it's been a road! I am so excited to start trying this thing out! Starting Monday April 15-June 9 we will be workshopping a few scenes at the IFCC (Interstate Firehouse Cultural Center) theatre as part of my residency there. We begin tomorrow! I am nervous, assembling folders, crunching budgets, reviewing new edits from composers, and figuring out how to help the bassoon player who can't stand up! It's such a wonderful gift to be working on this in three dimensions. I feel like the luckiest person on earth.