“Since its inception 4 years ago, the 96-Hour Opera Festival has grown to be one of the flagships of The Atlanta Opera,” says Tomer Zvulun, the Carl W. Knobloch, Jr. General and Artistic Director of The Atlanta Opera. “Over a relatively short period, this project has introduced us to bold, new creatives whose passion for storytelling has brought important new works to life. This program provides a supportive infrastructure for these fresh voices to be heard. We are energized by the work and the artists headed our way in the coming months and are looking forward to a great festival.”

The Festival’s public events are scheduled over three days at the Ray Charles Performing Arts Center at Morehouse College:

• Friday, June 20 at 7:00 pm EDT – World Premiere Steele Roots

• Saturday, June 21 at 3:00 pm EDT – Competition Showcase featuring 5 new opera scenes, a preview of the commission from last year’s winner, voting and awards

• Sunday, June 22 at 3:00 pm EDT – performance of Steele Roots

Tickets are available as a Festival pass for admission to one performance and the competition. A Festival pass is $50; Tickets to Steele Roots are $35 general admission; Tickets to the Competition Showcase are $25 general admission.
Tickets are available at https://www.atlantaopera.org/about/96-hour-opera-festival/ or by calling the Atlanta Opera ticket office at 404-881-8885.
The Ray Charles Performing Arts Center is located at 900 West End Ave, SW, Atlanta GA, 30310 – on the campus of Morehouse College.

The 96-Hour Opera Competition, now in its fourth season, celebrates emerging creative talents from underrepresented communities and offers a unique platform for composers and librettists to bring new stories to life. Competition participants are selected through a rigorous process and mentored by industry leaders to prepare and stage bold, new, original ten-minute operas in just 96 hours. Five operas are presented in competition for a $10,000 award as part of a $25,000 commission to create a new chamber opera to premiere at an upcoming Festival. Each creative team includes a composer and a librettist who have three months to write an opera scene on a prompt provided by The Atlanta Opera. With 96 hours to rehearse with the musicians, each team’s work is judged by a distinguished panel. The prize is awarded at a Competition Showcase that is open to the public and will be available to view as a livestream through the Atlanta Opera Film Studio.

The 96-Hour Opera Festival is sponsored by The Antinori Foundation, The Coca-Cola Foundation, The Rich’s Foundation, UPS, and the National Endowment for the Arts. Additional support is provided by the Fulton County Arts & Culture and by The City of Atlanta Mayor’s Office of Cultural Affairs. The Atlanta Opera is grateful for the continuing support of these sponsors for the creation of new opera.

Announcing Competition Finalists

Selected from a field of more than 60 applicants, these finalists will compete for the prize/commission.

Rebecca Gray and Rachel Gray

Gillian Rae Perry and Mo Holmes

Daniel Reza Sabzghabaei and Ashlee Haze

Dina Pruzhansky and Hai-Ting Chinn

Iván Enrique Rodríguez and Laura Barati

The teams will write their opera scenes and bring their completed works to Atlanta in June 2025. The winning team is announced at the end of the Competition Showcase on Saturday, June 21. The panel of judges includes genre-busting composer and writer Ricky Ian Gordon, acclaimed singer and Associate Director of the Laffont Competition at The Met Priti Gandi, award-winning director, playwright, and teacher Tazewell Thompson, NY Times bestselling and award-winning author Andrea Pinkney, acclaimed opera singer Morris Robinson, Jennings Hertz Artistic Director of the Alliance Theatre Tinashe Kajese-Bolden, and General and Artistic Director of The Atlanta Opera Tomer Zvulun.

Steele Roots – A World Premiere

Winners of the 2023 competition, composer Dave Ragland and librettist Selda Sahin have created a new chamber opera titled Steele Roots, a work based on the life of Carrie Steele Logan (c1829-1900). Carrie was a formerly enslaved woman who dedicated her life to caring for needy children in Atlanta, GA, and is now buried in the historic Oakland Cemetery. She founded the oldest black orphanage in the United States – an institution still serving children today. Eminent director Tazewell Thompson mentored the winning team throughout the 2-year process of bringing this opera to production.  

Steele Roots is an opera that examines themes of legacy, family, and perseverance through the lens of its central character, Carrie Steele. Set in the late 19^th century at the Atlanta Terminal train station and moving into the present day, the story follows Carrie, who used her literacy, integrity, and compassion to care for abandoned children while raising funds by selling her autobiography to establish a permanent home for them. Carrie’s legacy is explored via Ruth, a 12-year-old in her care who is learning to read, and Raymond, a coworker who supports her efforts. The narrative shifts between past and present as Michael, a modern-day father, arrives seeking a connection to his family roots to become a better father to his newborn daughter. The story explores ideas of community, responsibility, and the enduring influence of one person’s actions. Carrie’s efforts endure in the Carrie Steele-Pitts Home, an Atlanta institution and a testament to her determination and vision. With its blend of music and dialogue, Steele Roots reflects how a single person can change the world for the better.

Composer Dave Ragland is an Emmy-nominated composer, conductor, vocalist, and educator whose operas for children and other works have been performed across the country. He is based in Nashville, where his opera One Vote Won was honored with the 2021 American Prize in Composition.

Librettist Selda Sahin is an Emmy-winning songwriter whose work has appeared in the feature film American Reject and the short film Grind starring Anthony Rapp. With her usual writing partner, Derek Gregor, Sahin has an additional premiere of a musical Particle premiering in 2025.

Directed by Tazwell Thompson and conducted by Nicole Neely, the cast features Atlanta favorite, soprano Indra A. Thomas as Carrie Steele with baritone Daniel Rich, who recently made his debut at The Met in Der Rosenkavalier, as Raymond. Ruth is performed by TAO Studio Artist soprano Amanda Sheriff and Michael by tenor Martin Bakari, who was seen on The Atlanta Opera stage in the title role of Charlie Parker’s Yardbird and in Porgy and Bess (Mingo). Rehanna Thelwell, mezzo-soprano, brings her exceptional talent to the role of Sarah and was last seen on The Atlanta Opera stage in A Midsummer Night’s Dream (Hippolyta).  The creative team includes the renowned Scenic/Props & Projection designer Donald Eastman, Costume designer Gibron Shepperd, lighting designer Jaime Mancuso, and sound designer Fabian Obispo.

Workshop Preview of Water Memory