LIBLAB

Be Part of Canada’s Premier Opera Creation Lab!

Tapestry Opera’s Composer-Librettist Laboratory (LIBLAB) is Canada’s flagship opera creation intensive. The LIBLAB is designed to bring writers and composers together in an intensive that supports collaboration and experimentation.

From July 15 to 25, 2025, the intensive program will take place at Tapestry Opera’s new creative hub, the Nancy & Ed Jackman Performance Centre. This year’s LIBLAB will bring together four librettists (top row, left to right): Rachel Gray, Sarah Henstra, Pierre-André Doucet, and Christene Adina Browne. They will collaborate with four composers (bottom row, left to right): Rebecca Gray, Saman Shahi, Roydon Tse, and Prokhor Protasoff.

Guiding the participants throughout the process are composer James Rolfe and director Michael Hidetoshi Mori. They will be supported by some of Canada’s most versatile contemporary performers, including soprano Reilly Nelson, mezzo-soprano Adanya Dunn, tenor Keith Klassen, baritone Jorell Williams, and collaborative pianists Jennifer Tung and Hyejin Kwon.
Since its inception in 1995, LIBLAB has served as a dynamic space where composers, librettists, and interpreters of new works meet, seed ideas, and explore the collaborative process. Fondly referred to as opera speed-dating, the LIBLAB offers artists the opportunity to collaborate with multiple artists in a short period. Participants can experiment and learn about opera creation, work with some of Canada’s premier interpreters of new works, and find collaborators with whom they have the best chemistry!

Applications for LIBLAB are closed!

Deadline: February 2nd, 2025

Program Details

• Dates: July 15 – 25, 2025 
• Location: 877 Yonge Street, Toronto, ON
  Tapestry Opera’s new home for the performing arts in the heart of Toronto! 
• Format: Full-time, in-person, 10-day intensive workshops and collaborative sessions complete with mentorship from experienced facilitators. Each composer-librettist collaboration is over 2-3 days and includes the creation of a mini libretto and mini score, performed by singers and pianists on the day of completion. 
• Schedule: This is a creation intensive, and while the formal schedule will be mostly 10 am – 5 pm, creators frequently use evenings for writing and composing. 
• Creator Honorarium: This year, LIBLAB composers and librettists will be paid a $2000 honorarium to offset the cost of life outside of LIBLAB so they can fully immerse themselves in the creative process.

The LIBLAB is open to creators working in English and French and intending to create in English or French. The facilitation will be primarily in English. Tapestry often balances experienced participants with emerging artist participants to ensure a range of styles and approaches, and there is no age threshold for who can apply. Some existing work in the opera, art song, or music theatre sphere is recommended for emerging artists or artists new to opera.  

The team supporting LIBLAB participants will include four experienced new works singers, SATB, two experienced new works pianists, and two expert facilitators from the theatre and music world

Why Join LIBLAB?

• Network with Leading Artists: Connect with talented composers and librettists from the performing arts sector.
  
• Develop New Works: Create seed ideas to be pitched for full commissions. Many successful Canadian operas and/or creative teams began in LIBLAB. Fun Fact: Over 90% of Tapestry Opera’s world premiere new operas result from collaborator connections made and the seeds planted during LIBLAB!
  
• See Your Creations Come to Life at Hyperspeed (aka speed failure): Experience the thrill of hearing your and others’ 48-hour-old works interpreted by premiere artists. Watch as new creations succeed or fail as they are brought to life by passionate performers!
  
• Opportunity for a Staged Presentation: A selection of opera shorts developed during LIBLAB will be polished, staged and presented to a live audience as Tapestry Briefs (4 performances, October 2025).
  
• Lunch is on us! From experience, we know that some of the best ideas come when creatives have a chance to break bread together. So, Tapestry Opera provides lunch throughout the 10-day intensive, along with coffee, tea, and snacks to start each day, helping to keep the creators fuelled and focused.
  

LIBLAB Alumni News

Tapestry Opera commissions by LIBLAB alumni have won the Music Critics Association of North America Award for Best New Opera the last two years!

The award recognizes musical and theatrical excellence and is given annually to an operatic world premiere presented in North America the previous calendar year.

2023 – Commissioned by Opera Philadelphia and Tapestry Opera, composer RENE ORTH and librettist HANNAH MOSCOVITCH’s 10 Days in a Madhouse had its world premiere at Opera Philadelphia as part of Festival O23 in September 2023 at the Wilma Theater.

2022 – Produced in collaboration with OCAD University and developed with support from the National Arts Centre’s National Creation Fund, composer NICOLE LIZÉE and librettist NICOLAS BILLON’s R.U.R. A Torrent of Light also took home 6 Dora Mavor Moore Awards in 2022 including Outstanding Production and Outstanding New Opera.

Learn more here: https://tapestryopera.com/award-winning-commission-10-days-in-a-madhouse/ 

LIBLAB Alumni

2025

Librettist: Rachel Gray
Librettist: Sarah Henstra
Librettist: Pierre-André Doucet
Librettist: Christene Adina Browne.
Composer: Rebecca Gray
Composer: Saman Shahi
Composer: Roydon Tse
Composer: Prokhor Protasoff.