Glimmerglass Festival

Glimmerglass is proud to present the world premiere of the youth opera Rumpelstiltskin and the Unlovable Children by Jens Ibsen and Cecelia Raker. Deep in the forest lives a gaggle of feral, unlovable children. They work their hands to the bone every day in service to the evil wizard Rumpelstiltskin…he makes them do chores! And brush their teeth regularly! And talk about their feelings! It’s the WORST. But then one day, Rumpel tells them the story of how his childhood friend, a talented businesswoman, got forced to marry the king. Suddenly all the Unlovable Children’s narratives about who they are begin to unravel. When Goldie, the eldest of them, learns that she’s actually the long-lost daughter of that Queen, she’s faced with a tough choice: go live the life she'd imagined as a princess, or stay with the unconventional family that has nurtured her true self?

San Francisco Symphony

Emerging Black Composers Project winner Jens Ibsen grew up in the Bay Area, where he soaked up samba, soul, R&B, and progressive metal along with the music of Ghana and the African diaspora—all influences you might detect in Drowned in Light, a world premiere.

The John. F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts

WNO’s acclaimed commissioning program for contemporary American opera enters its ninth exciting season, showcasing three new 20-minute operas. Guided by Program Director, Robert Ainsley, the Cafritz Young Artists will join with members of the WNO Orchestra to premiere each of the new works in a virtual concert setting. Each opera will be performed in English and highlight a very different aspect of American life and culture. This season, Pulitzer Prize-winning composer Anthony Davis, acclaimed librettist and dramaturg Kelley Rourke, and renowned conductor David Neely act as mentors for the three teams of composers and librettists.

First Congregational Church of Berkeley

Piedmont East Bay Children's Choirs Performing Department choirs invite you to Make History with us - showcasing new works by Jens Ibsen and Eric Tuan, choreography by Kali Futnani, and the debut of our Ecco conducting scholars instructed by Joel Chapman! Innovation and exploration await you for this very special performance.

National Sawdust (livestream)

Featuring BMP: Next Gen's 10 finalists: Gabriel Fynsk, Elizabeth Gartman, Eli Greenhoe, Gabrielle Herbst, Jens Ibsen, Laura Jobin-Acosta, Maya Miro Johnson, Niloufar Nourbakhsh, Timothy Peterson, and Huan Sun. Discover the most exciting new voices in opera and music-theatre. First launched in 2017-18, the BMP: Next Gen program was established to help BMP stay connected to a new generation of composers, singers and artists just coming out of school. Aspiring composers from coast to coast are invited to submit vocal works up to ten minutes in length. BMP Creative Producer Beth Morrison and Executive Director Jecca Barry select ten first-round finalists from these applicants and then produce an evening of new music out of these submissions. Two composers are then chosen by a panel of invited professionals in the field for a second-round competition, returning the following year to each showcase a new and original 30-minute work. Ultimately, one of these two finalists will receive a commission for an evening-length work, including the development and World Premiere production of their project.

In its largest commissioning project to date, Cincinnati Song Initiative commissions a single song from each of the ten composers taking part in the inaugural National Association of Teachers of Singing (NATS) composer mentorship program. The songs will be produced in a concert video and premiered as CSI’s season finale, celebrating the work of budding composers and providing an international platform for their works to be heard.

The NEC Chamber Singers share a program of non-idiomatic choral works by Black composers, spanning from the Renaissance to the 21st century, from as far away as Brazil and Germany, and as close to home as one can be - an NEC alumnus. This concert was created using a combination of in-person ensemble recording and remote submission.