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After six years of work, I am finally in the last stages of composing my opera THE MENSCH, making the instrumental parts. It's been a long journey, and the largest musical work I've ever written -- 2 1/2 hours of music, for soloists, chorus, and orchestra. I am looking forward to hearing the premiere, and I am in conversation with various opera professionals about possibilties. I am encouraged by the interest this opera has generated so far in the opera world. Acts I and II have been workshopped at Indiana University and Lyric Theatre @ Illinois, and several singers have been singing arias from the opera on the audition circuit.

THE MENSCH tells the story of a good guy from the Holocaust, Anton Schmid, who was drafted into the Wehrmacht but worked undercover to save hundreds of Jews from the Vilna ghetto in Lithuania. My opera is a combination of representations of real people and events, tied together with my own imagined narratives (I also wrote the libretto.) I had wanted to "fact-check" my libretto with someone, perhaps a Holocaust scholar, but I was nervous about doing it -- what if I found someone who thought they knew things but wasn't completely correct? Well, I had the incredible happenstance of getting to meet an actual survivor from the Vilna ghetto! The world-renowned painter Samuel Bak was ages 8-10 when he lived in the ghetto, and, even at age 92, he still has remarkably detailed memories of his experiences. He graced me with his time one afternoon when I was visiting Boston (for the National Opera Association conference, no less!) I was able to read parts of my libretto to him, and he commented. Fortunately, the only change I will make, as a result of our meeting, was that I will include his name as a character referred to in the opera! I asked him what he would have been called, as a child then -- he answered, "Samek." The line where I will pay homage to him is spoken by a child: "Mama, why can't I go play with Samek?"

Here is a recording of my conversation with Samuel Bak:

This spring is shaping up to be quite busy, for performances of my other operas. The song Matzoh Brei is being sung in numerous productions of the multi-composer opera THE LUNCHBOX PROJECT, performed by Reimagining Opera for Kids.

My opera MOOCH THE MAGNIFICENT will be performed in Bloomington, IN through a collaboration of Reimagining Opera for Kids, Stages Bloomington, and the MAYO Bridges youth orchestra. I will conduct that performance. MOOCH will also be performed by the Vanderbilt Opera Theatre in Nashville, TN.

Yet another opera of mine, RUFUS AND RITA, is to be taken on tour this summer in Manitoba, Canada, by the Manitoba Underground Opera.

Looking ahead to Summer 2026. my TWO LATIN DANCES (trumpet version) is on the repertoire list for the final round of the Collegiate Solo Competition of the Schwob Brass Festival. The tuba version is on the repertoire list for the Teupha Rising Artist Solo Competition as well as the 2026 ITEA South Central Regional Tuba Euphonium Conference's Artist Solo Tuba Competition and the Leonard Falcone Competition.

Last June, a new song of mine, "Resilience," was premiered at the United Nations in Vienna, Austria. The song was written at the invitation of tenor Angelo Pollak, who gave an extraordinary premiere performance with pianist Markus Hadulla. The music was adpated from two arias of THE MENSCH, and the lyrics were crafted specially to fit the occasion, which was a forum on human trafficking.