Creators in Concert: OPERA America’s IDEA Opera Resident Artists
Laura Jobin-Acosta, composer
Laura Jobin-Acosta is a multicultural composer and soprano with a focus on vocal music. She is a participant in Washington National Opera’s 2023–2024 American Opera Initiative (AOI) and was a finalist in Beth Morrison Project’s BMP: Next Gen in 2021. Her work has recently been commissioned by Brick Church, Ensemble Pi, Canterbury Choral Society, and Five Boroughs Music Festival. In addition to her commissioned work-in-progress for Washington National Opera’s AOI, Jobin’s current opera projects are The Curious Lady of Lyme Regis, a short opera/opera-film about paleontologist Mary Anning, and La Alcaldesa, a full-length opera about Puerto Rico's Felisa Rincón de Gautier or “Doña Fela,” the first woman to be elected as mayor of a capital city in the Americas. Her other large works include The Seven Last Words of Christ, a chamber oratorio for soloists and choir, and the upcoming premiere of Breaking the Barrier, a setting of poems by Harlem Renaissance poet Claude McKay for choir, soloists, organ, and jazz instruments.
Jobin-Acosta received a 2021 IDEA Opera Residency from OPERA America.
Bonita Oliver, composer
Bonita Oliver is a multidisciplinary artist and improviser. She creates deeply emotional, body-in-space concept art using voice, music, environmental soundscapes, and movement — driven by a motivation to heal personal and ancestral trauma in order to make way for discovery and connection. Her mission is to engage the community through reexaminations of history, ritual, co-creation, facilitation, and activism.
Oliver’s creative process is in the moment and responds to stimuli — be it internal or external — through embodiment and interaction. Her live works exhibit this process in real time. Oliver, who also performs under the name French Leave, is originally from Springfield, Massachusetts. She is an actress, playwright, multi-award-winning filmmaker, and member of the Screen Actors Guild, American Federation of Television and Radio Artists, New York Women in Film and Television (NYWIFT), and Women of Color Unite (WOCU).
Oliver received a 2022 IDEA Opera Residency and a 2023 IDEA Opera Grant from OPERA America for her series in development — AR Arias: Sojourner Truth.
Yosvany Terry, composer
Yosvany Terry is a saxophonist, composer, and educator who received his earliest training from his father, Eladio “Don Pancho” Terry, a violinist and Cuba’s leading player of the chekeré. After mastering this Afro-Cuban percussion instrument, Terry went on to receive his classical music training from the National School of Arts and Amadeo Roldan Conservatory in Havana. As a musician-composer, he incorporates American Jazz traditions with his own Afro-Cuban roots to produce performances and compositions that flow from the rhythmic and hard-driving avant-garde to sweet-sounding lyricism. He is a practitioner of the Arará tradition and draws on Yoruba practices and melodic traditions for his compositions. Terry brings his inimitable style to stages all over the world, and he has been recognized with a Grammy nomination, a Doris Duke Award, and commissions from Chamber Music America, the Jerome and Rockefeller Foundations, and the MAP Fund. He is on the faculty of Harvard University.
Terry received a 2022 IDEA Opera Residency from OPERA America for his opera Aponte.
Qian Yi, composer
Qian Yi is a leading figure of Chinese opera (Kunqu) who established her career as a soprano with the Shanghai Kun Opera Company. She rose to international prominence in 1998 when she performed the lead role of Du Liniang in Lincoln Center Festival’s 19-hour production of The Peony Pavilion, which toured throughout the world. She created the role of Precious Auntie in San Francisco Opera’s 2008 world premiere of The Bonesetter’s Daughter, by Stewart Wallace and Amy Tan. More recently, she appeared as the lead role in Huang Ruo’s Paradise Interrupted, a new installation opera at Spoleto Festival USA for which she also wrote the libretto. Yi has written two plays, A Robe for the Moon and Fox Spirit, and developed the collaborative ensemble piece Moonlight Meditation. She composed a series of arias, The Legend of Rainbow Fairy, and performed in its premiere in Taiwan in 2009.
Yi received a 2022 IDEA Opera Residency from OPERA America for her first opera, The Encompassing (working title).
Pamela Jones, senior artist development manager, OPERA America
Pamela Jones has performed as a soloist all around the world with various organizations such as the New York City Opera, the Bregenzer Festspiele, the Royal Danish Theatre, and the Mostly Mozart Festival. She won the Best Supporting Actress Award at Ireland’s Dundalk International Drama Festival, and she has won the National Opera Association Vocal Competition Legacy Award twice. She regularly performs in the chorus of the New York Philharmonic Orchestra. Jones holds a master’s degree in voice performance from Indiana University. She served on the Black Opera Alliance Leadership Council, and she is a member of the National Association of Negro Musicians (NANM).
As OPERA America’s senior artist development manager, she facilitates the Performer Development Network meetings and administers programs to help artists, including the IDEA Opera Residencies, Feedback Auditions, Career Expansion for Artists, Regional Auditions, and Career Blueprints for Singers. She also serves as a strategic advisor for the HBCU Opera and Musical Theater Collective.