Royce Vavrek is a Canada-born, Brooklyn-based librettist and lyricist who has been called “the indie Hofmannsthal” (The New Yorker) a “Metastasio of the downtown opera scene” (The Washington Post), “an exemplary creator of operatic prose” (The New York Times), and “one of the most celebrated and sought after librettists in the world” (CBC Radio).  His opera “Angel’s Bone” with composer Du Yun was awarded the 2017 Pulitzer Prize for Music.

With composer Missy Mazzoli he wrote “Song from the Uproar,” premiered by Beth Morrison Projects in 2012, and subsequently seen in multiple presentations around the country. Their second opera, an adaptation of Lars von Trier’s “Breaking the Waves,” premiered at Opera Philadelphia, co-commissioned by Beth Morrison Projects, and directed by James Darrah to critical acclaim in September of 2016. The work won the 2017 Music Critics Association of North America award for Best New Opera and was nominated for Best World Premiere at the 2017 International Opera Awards.  A new production premiered at the Edinburgh International Festival in the summer of 2019, produced by Scottish Opera and Opera Ventures, helmed by Tony Award-winning director Tom Morris and earned star Sydney Mancasola a coveted Herald Angel Award for her performance.  Their next opera, an adaptation of Karen Russell’s short story “Proving Up,” was commissioned and presented by Washington National Opera, Opera Omaha and The Miller Theatre in 2018, was a finalist for the MCANA Best New Opera Award of that year.  They are currently developing a grand opera for Opera Philadelphia and the Norwegian National Opera based on an original story by two-time Governor General’s Award-winning playwright Jordan Tannahill, as well as an adaptation of George Saunders’ Booker Prize-winning novel “Lincoln in the Bardo” for The Metropolitan Opera.

Teaming up with Swedish composer Mikael Karlsson, Royce wrote the story and text for two dance projects, “Crypto,” choreographed by Guillaume Côté for Côté Dance and “Evidence of It All,” choreographed by Drew Jacoby for SFDanceworks, featuring narration by the Academy Award-nominated actress Rosamund Pike. They are currently developing two grand operas: an adaptation of Lars von Trier’s “Melancholia” to premiere at the Royal Swedish Opera in 2023, and “Fanny and Alexander,” working alongside creative partner Ingmar Bergman, Jr. to musicalize his late father’s classic film for La Monnaie de Munt in 2024, in a production to be directed by Ivo van Hove. Both operas are to feature renowned mezzo-soprano Anne Sofie von Otter, for whom Mikael and Royce wrote the song cycle “So We Will Vanish,” premiered by the Swedish Chamber Orchestra in 2021 to critical acclaim.

His collaboration with composer David T. Little led Heidi Waleson of the Wall Street Journal to proclaim them “one of the most exciting composer-librettist teams working in opera today.”  In April of 2016 they premiered their first grand opera, “JFK,” at Fort Worth Opera, a co-commission with American Lyric Theater and Opéra de Montréal that was called “ravishing” (Opera News), earning a ten-star review in Opera Now Magazine.  This followed the success of their first opera, “Dog Days,” which received its world premiere in September of 2012 at Peak Performances @ Montclair, in a production co-produced by Beth Morrison Projects and directed by American maverick Robert Woodruff.  The work was celebrated as the Classical Music Event of the year by Time Out New York and a standout opera of recent decades by The New York Times.  They are currently developing an original work for the Metropolitan Opera through the Met/LCT commissioning program.

Royce has also worked extensively with composer Paola Prestini, first on the song cycle “Yoani,” inspired by the blog posts of Yoani Sanchez, and then on “The Hubble Cantata,” a virtual reality oratorio produced by VisionIntoArt/National Sawdust in association with Beth Morrison Projects. They recently presented the workshop premiere of “Silent Light,” an opera based on the Cannes Jury Prize-winning film by Carlos Reygadas at the Banff Centre for Creativity, a collaboration with the director Thaddeus Strassberger, and are currently working on a new opera inspired by Ernest Hemingway’s “The Old Man and the Sea.” They are also developing “Film Stills,” a project for mezzo-soprano Eve Gigliotti that dramatizes four of Cindy Sherman’s iconic photographs through musical monologues composed by Paola, Missy Mazzoli, Nico Muhly and Ellen Reid, and directed by R.B. Schlather.  Royce and Paola’s collaboration can be further heard on the AIDS Quilt Songbook: Sing for Hope recording, where their song “Union,” as sung by Isabel Leonard, is featured.

In 2014 Royce premiered “27,” his first collaboration with composer Ricky Ian Gordon, at the Opera Theatre of Saint Louis.  Created for renowned mezzo-soprano Stephanie Blythe, the work brought to life Gertrude Stein’s famous salon at 27 rue de Fleurus in Paris.  Mark Ray Rinaldi of the Denver Post wrote that the opera “tells a great American story, about Gertrude Stein, as well as opera in the 21st century.”  The opera was subsequently presented by Pittsburgh Opera, MasterVoices at New York City Center, Michigan Opera Theater, Opéra de Montréal and Opera Las Vegas.  In 2017 their adaptation of Gail Rock’s Christmas classic “The House Without a Christmas Tree” for Houston Grand Opera was premiered to critical acclaim.

Other recent and upcoming projects include “Strip Mall” with Matt Marks for the Los Angeles Philharmonic; “Epistle Mass” with Julian Wachner for Trinity Wall Street, “Midwestern Gothic” with Josh Schmidt for Signature Theatre, Virginia; “Naamah’s Ark” with Marisa Michelson for MasterVoices; “O Columbia” with Gregory Spears for HGOco; “Knoxville: Summer of 2015” with Ellen Reid for the University of Tennessee, Knoxville and National Sawdust; “The Wild Beast of the Bungalow” with Rachel Peters for Oberlin Conservatory; “Jacqueline” with Luna Pearl Woolf for Tapestry New Opera; “Adoration” (based on the film by Atom Egoyan) with Mary Kouyoumdjian for Beth Morrison Projects; “The Cremation of Sam McGee” with Matthew Ricketts, supported by a grant from the Canada Council for the Arts; and “My Family // Cambodia, 1975” with Vivian Fung, which will be given a developmental workshop by the Canadian Opera Company in 2025.

Royce is the Artistic Director of Toronto’s experimental opera company Against the Grain Theatre.  He holds a BFA in Filmmaking and Creative Writing from Concordia University’s Mel Hoppenheim School of Cinema in Montreal and an MFA from the Graduate Musical Theater Writing Program at New York University.  He is an alum of American Lyric Theater’s Composer Librettist Development Program.

As a theatre director-author, conductor, and composer, Karmina Šilec executes projects with various companies, drama and opera houses, festivals, and ensembles worldwide. Renowned for her original and research-oriented approach, Karmina has brought freshness to the music theatre world. Her projects have been granted with major international awards in the fields, including Music Theatre Now awards for Threnos (2021) and From Time Immemorial… (2008), and the International Robert Edler Prize (2004).

Her projects have been performed on stages and festivals of the highest esteem, including the Festival d’Automne á Paris (FR), Ruhrtriennale (DE), Prototype Festival NYC (USA), Holland Festival (NL), Moscow Easter Festival (RU), Dresdner Musikfestspiele (DE), Golden Mask (RU), Melbourne Festival (AU), Operadagen (NL), Auditorium, Rome (IT), Steierischer Herbst (AT), Tokyo Metropolitan Art Space (JP), St. Petersburg Philharmonic Hall (RU), Radialsystem (DE), World Music Days (organized by the ISCM), Hong Kong Cultural Centre, Teresa Carreño Theater (VE), Teatro Colon (AR), Z Space (USA) and Esplanade (SG), among others.

Šilec does not shy away from politically charged material. Her diverse range demonstrates a broad range of thematic concerns that are driven by the need to respond to current social and political transformations. She is drawn to disturbing issues that stir emotions and rile audiences rather than placate them. Her works are loci for debate, contestation, and provocation. They intentionally put at risk ideas that are insufficiently interrogated.

Karmina takes a creative approach to several critical political issues of our time, using a research-informed approach. She foregrounds stories, situations, and issues that are all too often overlooked, suppressed, or ignored, and tries to contribute to the acceptance of the Otherness, to integrate the marginalized, transform, and heal. For example, she tackles misogyny and sexism through an examination of the creativity of women in isolated environments (such as monasteries, concentration camps) and research of himenology (virginity) as a phenomenon. She has used her artistic voice to speak politically on the necessity of the radical transformation of human-animal relations, above all in the transition from animal to meat. Her work has explored the phenomenon of collectivities when infected by ideology and dogmatic principles. She has critiqued the murderous violence behind religions, populism, and radicalization; the abuse of church and state with their political doctrines and corrupt practices; and challenges facing societies in transition. In her projects, she often puts music in a self-reflective frame by examining the complex relation between music and trauma. Her work posits that music becomes a universal symbol of suffering and the ultimate sanctuary in despair.

As author-director, she has developed a unique artistic concept – Choregie. Choregie focuses on the creative process that brings the musical notion of composing to the theatrical aspects of performing and staging. In Choregie, a ‘meta composition’ is created by positioning different materials (movement, music, words, visual) into a bigger composition. Choregie is a performance in the ‘no-man’s-world’ – a world that is not a world of music, nor drama nor dance; it is a scenic adventure. Each new project signed by Karmina Šilec is an expedition into the field of the unknown and the unexplored. The various and multiple dimensions of these projects surface in multi-disciplinary stage performances which logically complement the musical tissue and permeate with the basic elements of musical theatre – the concept of Choregie.

She has published: BABA: Catalog and Colossal Balkan fiction (fiction/essays, Založba Sanje (SI), 2021), Nolite tacere – Translated in music (essays, Carmina Slovenica (SI), 2013), and DERT endemic songs (poems, Carmina Slovenica (SI), 2021).

Karmina Šilec is an artistic director of CARMINA SLOVENICA, New Music Theatre CHOREGIE and ensamble !Kebataola!.

Sidra was commissioned as the first black female choreographer to make works for New York City Ballet in the fall of 2020 (Fall Digital Season) and 2021 (Fall Fashion Gala/Innovators & Icons Program). The work “SUSPENDED ANIMATION”, performed at the David H Koch Theater and The Kennedy Center, was nominated for a Bessie Award. Recent features of her historical work at NYCB include Essence Magazine, NY1, News12, and Amsterdam News. In 2023, she was the choreographer of ARENA in collaboration with acclaimed visual artist Derek Fordjour for his feature solo show at Petzel Gallery (New York Times Critic Pick). She was featured on air for a special segment on the TODAY Show NBC- “How choreographer Sidra Bell is blazing a trail for next generation: Groundbreaking dancer and choreographer Sidra Bell talks about making history at the New York City Ballet and blazing a trail for future generations”.

Her career has spanned over 20 years and her choreography has been seen throughout the United States and in Denmark, France, Austria, Bulgaria, Turkey, Slovenia, Sweden, Germany, China, Canada, Aruba, Korea, Brazil, and Greece. Bell has created over 100 works. Notable commissions include BODYTRAFFIC, ODC/Dance Company. Ailey II, The Juilliard School, Whim W’Him, Nevada Ballet Theater, Nashville Ballet, Boston Conservatory at Berklee College, Point Park University, River North Dance Chicago, Big Muddy Dance Company, Ohio State University, NYU Tisch School of the Arts, Sacramento Ballet, Boulder Ballet, New Dance Partners Kansas City (Owen/Cox Dance Group), Ballet Austin, Springboard Danse Montréal, Boston Dance Theater, St. Louis Dance Theatre (Big Muddy Dance Company), GroundWorks Dance Cleveland, HoustonMet, Mutual Dance Theater Cincinnati, Cornish College, University of California at Long Beach, National Choreographer’s Initiative Irvine, Alonzo King’s LINES Ballet School (BFA & Traning Programs), Robert Moses’ Kin, CalArts, LEVYdance San Francisco (NEA Award funded collaboration), Arts Umbrella Vancouver, University of Texas at Austin, Bennington College, Uppercut Dansteater Copenhagen, Motto Dans Kolectif Istanbul, Derida Dance Center Bulgaria, Skidmore College, Goucher College, The Peabody Conservatory at Johns Hopkins University, University of Oklahoma, The Ailey School (BFA & Certificate Programs), University of Minnesota, University of Michigan at Ann Arbor, Purchase College Conservatory of Dance, Howard University among many others. She was the beneficiary of Dance/USA’s BIPOC Female Choreographers in Ballet Initiative, which supported the works Nashville Ballet and Nevada Ballet Theatre. Many of these works included live music collaborations notably for The New York City Ballet, The Juilliard School, and Nashville Ballet.

Sidra Bell Dance New York (SBDNY, Inc.) her nonprofit dance troupe celebrated its 20th anniversary in December 2021. She was nominated for Outstanding Choreographer at The Bessies in 2023 for the company’s retrospective evening-length show “IN | REP”. The company tours internationally collaborating with cutting-edge institutions in dance, theater, and design. Its body of work has been presented in venues across the globe including the critically acclaimed evening-length works “ReVUE”, “STELLA” and “MÖNSTER OUTSIDE” (National Dance Project Award Winner and collaboration with Swedish band New Tide Orquesta). The company received a 2023 Creative Capital Award in collaboration with composer Immanuel Wilkins (New York Time Best Jazz Albums 2020) for a new work “COMMUNION”. Mainstage presentations of her company include The Metropolitan Museum of Art, The Met Breuer, Contemporary Arts Center New Orleans, Aronoff Center Cincinnati, Manship Theatre Baton Rouge, Cape Fear Community College Wilmington, NC, Kelly Strayhorn Theater Pittsburgh, One Dance Week Bulgaria (Plovdiv), Vara Konserthus (Sweden), Kungsbacka Teater (Sweden), Emens Auditorium Indiana, New York Live Arts, Dance Theater Workshop, The Duo Theatre, Gibney, Tangente Montréal, University of Illinois at Edwardsville XFest, and 92Y. Company creative residencies have been presented and hosted by Dance Theater Workshop, New York Live Arts Studio Series, Contemporary Arts Center technical residency, PearlArts Pittsburgh, Kelly Strayhorn Theater & Alloy Studios, Vara Konserthus Sweden, LevyDance at ODC Theater San Francisco (Rainin Foundation/NEA), Chutzpah! Festival with The Dance Centre Vancouver, Dance Place D.C., CPR-Center for Performance Research Mellon Residency, MAD at Stella Adler, Tisch Summer Dance Festival, Arts Umbrella Vancouver, Point Park University, and SITE Sweden. The company was named “#1 in Contemporary Dance in 2014” by the Pittsburgh Examiner, as one of ArtsATL’s “Notable Dance Performances of 2012”, and in the “Top 10 for Best in Dance in 2010” by the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette. Bell is a producer and crafted a multi-year relationship with Baruch Performing Arts Center in NYC for seven home seasons. She has also self-produced her company at Dance Mission Theater SF and ODC Theater SF.

Bell has been a cultural ambassador for contemporary dance in Bulgaria (America for Bulgaria/Trust for Mutual Understanding/Derida Dance Center) and Turkey (the U.S Embassy & Motto Dans Kolectif). Through these engagements, she was featured on the local news in Istanbul and met with the Mayor of Sofia. She has been an extensive collaborator for acclaimed director and composer Karmina Sîlec (Slovenia) for her groundbreaking work in vocal theatre and opera. She was a collaborator and movement advisor for new music, interdisciplinary works with Sîlec’s “Fauvel” (Slovenia 2015), “Threnos” (Slovenia 2020), “BABA” (with Kitka Music Ensemble San Francisco 2023), and “Old Man and the Sea” (MassMoca, Arizona State University & University of North Carolina Chapel Hill 2024 with Sîlec, Paola Prestini, and Beth Morrison Productions). In 2012 Bell was commissioned as the choreographer for the feature film TEST set in San Francisco during the height of the AIDS crisis in 1985. TEST was awarded two grand jury prizes from Outfest.

Bell was a Master Lecturer at the University of the Arts in Philadelphia (2012-2024 Capstone in the Foundation Series Sophomore Performance & Coaching Project), and an artist-in-residence at Harvard University, and two-time visiting lecturer at Harvard University (Office of the Arts and Theater, Dance, & Media). She has held Adjunct Professor positions at Ball State University in Indiana, Georgian Court University in New Jersey, Marymount Manhattan College, LINES B.F.A. Program at Dominican University, Georgian Court University, and Barnard College. She was a University of Minnesota Theater Arts & Dance Cowles Visiting Artist and an artist in residence at Cornish College of the Arts (Seattle). Her body of work was featured in the Harvard University Theater, Dance & Media course “Contemporary Repertory: Dance Authorship in the 21st Century”. She has been a pedagogue teaching her methodology in special engagements at prestigious programs for dance and theater including University of North Carolina School of the Arts, Stella Adler Studio for Acting, International Festival of Dance in Goiania (Brazil), University of Colorado Boulder, Derida Dance Center Bulgaria, Jacob’s Pillow, Movement Invention Project, SpringboardX, Movement Invention Project (Founding Collaborator), University of Wisconson-Madison, Vancouver’s Arts Umbrella, Montréal’s Ballet Divertimeno, University of Michigan Ann Arbor, Toronto’s Canadian Children’s Dance Theater, Velocity Dance Center Seattle among many others . She was the inaugural teaching artist at University of the Arts Sophomore Performance & Coaching Project where she led a teaching team under her pedagogical methods since 2012. Bell is the founder and creative director of the award-winning MODULE Laboratory™, a New York City-based immersive platform centered in improvisation for intergenerational movement and theater artists. MODULE Laboratory™ has been presented at New Dialect (Nashville), Arcos Dance (Austin), Drexel University (Philadelphia), The Ohio State University (H.A.T.C.H. Columbus), Greenstreet Studios (Boston), LINES Ballet School (San Francisco), PeartArts (Pittsburgh), Nevada Ballet Theater Education (Las Vegas), and has also been produced at TanzFabrik (Berlin). In 10-years the laboratory has brought together over 500 artists from around the world.

University of Oklahoma named Bell the Brackett Distinguished Visiting Artist Chair in 2021. She was the 2019 Honoree at CPR-Center Performance Research’s Gala in New York City and a 2018 Honoree at Michiyaya’s Gala in New York City. She has a B.A. in History from Yale University (named a Yale Scholar) and an MFA in Choreography from Purchase College Conservatory of Dance (Patricia Kerr Ross Awardee).  She has won awards, notably a 1st Prize for Choreography at the Solo-Tanz Theater Festival in Stuttgart, Germany in 2011 for the solo “Grief Point.” Her work “Conductivity” won 2nd prize for the performer at the Solo-Tanz Festival. “Grief Point.” and “Conductivity” toured through Germany and Brazil. February 3 was named SIDRA BELL DAY by Mayor Thomas Roach in the City of White Plains, NY.

Bell has been a featured guest speaker at Shack15 (Djerassi in San Francisco), The Juilliard School (dialogue with Tommy DeFranz), MIT Design Panel, Dance Lumiére (New York/ San Francisco), Harvard University, Yale University Master’s Tea and panels, Cornish College, Goucher College, Derida Dance Center (Bulgaria), The Spence School, University of Minnesota, University of the Arts Knowing Dance More, Boston Conservatory at Berklee College to name a few. She was named Distinguished Alumna in 2022 at The Spence School NYC. She is on the boards of CPR-Center for Performance Research and Springboard Danse Montréal. She is on the advisory committee for Michiyaya Dance. She has sat on numerous panels and advisory committees including The Heinz Foundation, New Music USA, Pew Foundation, CalArts MFA, Hollins University MFA, University of the Arts MFA, Movement Research (Van Lier Fellowship), and Springboard Danse Montréal. She has been engaged a choreographic mentor at The Juilliard School, Marymount Manhattan College, and NextFest (composer/choreographers). Additional press features of Bell include Essence Magazine (featuring Alicia Graf and Bell- “How Alicia Graf Mack And Sidra Bell Are Defining The Next Generation Of Dance”, Town & Country Magazine, Cero Magazine, TimeOut Chicago, and Good Company WKYC Cleveland.

Currently, she is mining her living archive in an action installation entitled RETURN TO FORM that includes ephemera, objects, costumes, sculpture 3D renderings, print books, film, documentary footage, interviews, live performances, and photographs. With the support of NPN Storytelling Grant and Arts Westchester, it has been presented at Gibney and at Greenburgh Public Library.

As a lifelong learner, she is currently engaged in adult education programs including Gyrotonic® (The Celia Fund for Diversity in the Field of Gyrotonic® Awardee), self-guided Pilates Instructor Academy, and as a PhD student at The Ohio State University. She is greatly influenced by her early Montessori education at Bank Street School for Children and her work as a dancer in Avodah Dance Ensemble (social justice ensemble lead by choreographer/founder JoAnne Tucker). As a solo performer, she recently collaborated with sound artist Sita Shay at Joe’s Pub, Union Stage D.C., and The Bach Festival in Virginia. She was a solo artist in residence at Yaddo (2022 and 2023 Patricia Highsmith-Plangman Residency Awardee, Saratoga Springs) and at Djerassi Artist Residence Program (California). Her research has been supported by the Toulmin Foundation and the University of the Arts Faculty Research Development Fund.

Her essays have been published in Antiracism in Ballet Teaching “Futurities”, edited By Kate Mattingly, Iyun Ashani Harrison, and Dance Magazine’s “Why I Dance”. Additionally, photographs of her and her work have been featured in “Movement at the Still Point” by Mark Mann and “Choreography and Couture” by Marc Happel and Pari Dukovic (for New York City Ballet & designer Christopher John Rogers). She was featured in the documentary “Her High Frequency” by Annette Brown and was also included in the viral video “Exquisite Corps” by filmmaker Mitchell Rose. She was named the inaugural artist in residence at Gibney from 2022-2024 where she engaged with all the departments in presenting and education.