Composer Dina Pruzhansky and librettist Hai-Ting Chinn have won the fourth annual 96-Hour Opera Festival’s competition from The Atlanta Opera. The duo received the top prize for their work, Rose, Tree (Rosenbaum and Li). Set in 1967, the opera scene explores the dissolution of cultural boundaries as two mothers – a Jewish Holocaust survivor and an American-born Chinese woman – support their children’s interracial relationship. The work was performed before a live matinee audience at the Ray Charles Performing Arts Center at Morehouse College on Saturday, June 21.

L-R:  Librettist Hai-Ting Chinn and composer Dina Pruzhansky are awarded the top prize in The Atlanta Opera's 96-Hour Opera Festival 2025.

The winning entry was selected from a slate of five entirely new and compelling 10-minute opera scenes, each rehearsed over the course of four days – 96 hours – by teams of composers and librettists chosen for the competition and showcase. Hosted in partnership with Morehouse College School of Music, the 96-Hour Opera Festival also featured the world premiere of Steele Roots, a powerful chamber opera by Dave Ragland and Selda Sahin about the life of Carrie Steele, an unsung Atlanta hero. Ragland and Sahin, winners of the 2023 competition, spent the past two years developing the piece with support from The Atlanta Opera, leading to its premiere on June 20 and an encore performance on June 22.

For this year’s competition, each creative team was invited to craft an original story centered on love overcoming barriers and boundaries, either physical or metaphorical. Past competitions looked at artificial intelligence and historical figures or events relevant to Atlanta and Georgia.

In the judged competition, TransBliss™, a comedic work by composer Rebecca Gray and librettist Rachel Gray that features a cosmic miscommunication between two aliens through an AI matchmaker, was selected as Runner-Up. The Audience Favorite award, chosen by popular vote, went to Desert Bloom by composer Gillian Rae Perry and librettist Mo Holmes.
Pruzhansky and Chinn will share the $10,000 Antinori Foundation Grand Prize and have been 
commissioned by The Atlanta Opera to develop the scene into a full chamber opera. The remaining finalists each received a $1,000 honorarium. Travel, housing, singers, pianists, and rehearsal space were provided by The Atlanta Opera with support from Morehouse College.
The 2024 competition winner, Water Memory (Jala Smirti), by composer Kitty Brazelton and librettist Vaibu Mohan, was presented in workshop at this year’s Festival to an invited audience as part of its development plan. The work will receive its world premiere at the 2026 event.

About the 96-Hour Opera Festival
Selected from a field of more than 60 applicants, the 2025 composer/librettist teams were:
•  Rebecca Gray and Rachel Gray -- TransBliss™
•  Gillian Rae Perry and Mo Holmes -- Desert Bloom
•  Daniel Reza Sabzghabaei and Ashlee Haze -- sub rosa
•  Dina Pruzhansky and Hai-Ting Chinn -- Rose, Tree (Rosenbaum and Li)
•  Iván Enrique Rodríguez and Laura Barati -- Mi sangre, mi corazón

Teams arrived in Atlanta with their 10-minute operas already written and were matched with a cast of singers and a music director tailored for their needs. Over the next 96 hours, the teams and their casts rehearsed and prepared for the judged showcase held on Saturday, June 21, at 3 pm.

Industry leaders served as mentors during the process and then served as judges for the 
competition. This season’s mentor/judges included
•  Ricky Ian Gordon, multi-genre composer and writer
•  Priti Gandhi, associate director of the Laffont Competition at The Met, General Director of 
Minnesota Opera, and acclaimed singer
•  Tazewell Thompson, award-winning director, playwright, and teacher
•  Andrea Davis Pinkney, award-winning and New York Times-bestselling author
•  Tinashe Kajese-Bolden, Jennings Hertz Artistic Director of the Alliance Theatre
•  Tomer Zvulun, General and Artistic Director of The Atlanta Opera

The 96-Hour Opera Project is supported by the Coca-Cola Foundation, The Rich’s Foundation, 
Slumgullion Charitable Fund, the City of Atlanta, Georgia Council for the Arts, and Fulton County 
Arts & Culture. The Grand Prize is supported by The Antinori Foundation.
More information about the composers, librettists, and judges can be found here.
https://www.atlantaopera.org/festival/
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