Praised as “strikingly original” (NY Times), composer Kamala Sankaram moves freely between the worlds of experimental music and contemporary opera. Her work has been performed internationally at venues including Dutch National Opera, Los Angeles Opera, Carnegie Hall and the Kennedy Center. She has been artist-in-residence at the Glimmerglass Festival, the Brooklyn Botanic Garden, and is currently in residence at Minnesota Opera. As a biracial Indian American and trained sitarist, Kamala has drawn on Indian classical music in many of her works, including Thumbprint, A Rose, Monkey and Francine in the City of Tigers, Jungle Book and the forthcoming The Many Deaths of Laila Starr. Also known for pushing the boundaries of form and style, she has created an opera for the trees of Prospect Park (as winner of the 2021 Creative Time Open Call), the world’s first virtual reality opera, an augmented reality music walk for Van Cortlandt Park in the Bronx, and a techno-noir featuring live datamining of the audience, among other pieces.

Last season, Sankaram’s one-act opera The Infinite Energy of Ada Lovelace, with a libretto by Rob Handel, was seen at Mannes School of Music and Oberlin Conservatory of Music; her family opera Jungle Book, with a libretto by Kelley Rourke, joined Washington National Opera’s holiday programming; and her biographical opera Thumbprint, with a libretto by Susan Yankowitz, made its European début, captivating German audiences at Oper Wuppertal. In addition, Sankaram composed an original piece for piano and voice for the Music Academy of the West. This season brings exciting new work including a chamber opera for the Kilkenny Arts Festival and a highly anticipated commission for Opera Philadelphia entitled Complications in Sue. Future seasons bring a world premiere commissioned by Wolf Trap Opera, as well as a mainstage and chamber opera to premiere at Minnesota Opera through their New Works Initiative.