The Seattle Opera Creation Lab

June 13, 2025 @7:30pm & June 15, 2025 @2pm

Tagney Jones Hall inside the Opera Center

Me and Grace Ward have been writing an opera, and performances are just around the corner!

As part of Seattle Opera's Creation Lab, we were tasked with a 20-minute opera from the ground-up. It was a lot of work, from libretto writing to composing to orchestrating. But we are excited to present our opera, Caccini's Ghost, to a public audience!

Giulio Caccini has been the Medici’s court composer for the last four decades, with the help of his ghostwriter daughter Francesca. When Francesca’s daughter, Margherita, decides to enter her own music for the Medici’s consideration, she unearths decades of trauma and deceit within her family tree. Caccini’s Ghost explores opera’s iconic Caccini family at their breaking point. Will they find a way to stick together and preserve their legacy, or is that very legacy poisoned at the roots?

Caccini's Ghost will be performed alongside 3 other operas, made by the other members of the 2024-2025 Creation Lab cohort. So your presence will support the work of multiple rising librettists and composers.

Many thanks to the Seattle Opera and the Creation Lab team, including Marjoram Lynn, Zach Redler, Deborah Brevoort, Daren Weissfisch, Jerre Dye, and Laura Kaminsky for their direct support and guidance as we've made this story. Additional thanks to our singers and musicians, whose talents will be invaluable as we begin rehearsals next week.

Tickets are Pay-What-You-Wish through the Seattle Opera's website. Being a part of this program and composing this piece has been such an incredible opportuni ty. So please join us for the premiere of some new works and stellar performances!

"Help Us Grow" - A Benefit for Gaisma

June 2, 2025 @7pm

Village Theatre Everett - Cope Gillette Theatre

Join us for an evening of new works with Gaisma Theatre Group! Gaisma will be hosting a fundraiser to aid their mission of uplifting local PNW musical writers. I will be performing a couple of works from Buried Deep alongside the works of other creators.

In addition to the works of musical writers, the evening will also feature music by the jazz combo, The Jazz Pearls, plus local artists displaying their artwork.

This is your last chance to secure tickets, so join us through this link and we'll look forward to seeing you there!

Updates from this Month

Thank you to the Currents team!

The past couple months have been a whirlwind and a lot has happened, so I believe some catch up is in order!

Earlier this month, we presented a new iteration of Currents! Thanks to a generous award from the City of Bothell Arts Commission and a wonderful partnership with McMenamins History, AC Petersen and I were able to expand this piece out with two big new numbers and a new cast.

We were glad to welcome on Helen Marion-Rowe, Cassidy Cheong, Sandra Waters, and Van Lang Pham into our cast. Additional thanks to Sam Peters for accompanying and assistant music directing, Marilyn Gonzalez for stage managing, and K.D. Schill for costume coordination. And we are very grateful to the full audience who came out to support the work!

We had the unique opportunity to host a panel discussion after the performance, hosted by Gail M. Nomura. This panel included a conversation with Shigeru Nishida (who was 12 years old when his family was incarcerated at Heart Mountain during Japanese internment), as well as other community leaders preserving our history and seeking to protect the rights and civil liberties of all Americans in the present day.

Coming up on the horizon:

June will be a busy month!

On June 2nd, I'll be presenting pieces in Gaisma Theatre Group's fundraiser! "Help Us Grow" will be an evening of original works by various local writers, all to help Gaisma's aim to foster new work in the Pacific Northwest.

And the Seattle Opera Creation Lab will be performing June 13th and 15th! Me and Grace Ward have put a lot of work into our opera, Caccini's Ghost, and we're nearing the final stretch. We can't wait to show you what we've been working on, so we'll look forward to seeing you there!