Laura Kaminsky

Laura Kaminsky joined the Conservatory in 2024 and is a professor of composition. With “an ear for the new and interesting” (New York Times), she frequently addresses social and political issues in her work with a distinct musical language that is “full of fire as well as ice, contrasting dissonance and violence with tonal beauty and meditative reflection” (American Record Guide). Her first opera, As One (with librettists Mark Campbell and Kimberly Reed), is the most produced contemporary opera since its 2014 premiere, with more than 65 productions internationally. 

Her other operas include Some Light Emerges and Today It Rains (Campbell and Reed); Hometown to the World (Kimberly Reed); Finding Wright (Andrea Fellows Fineberg); February (cowritten with Lisa Moore); Lucidity (David Cote); Upcoming: The Post Office, a chamber opera in poems (Elaine Sexton; Queen City Opera); Time to Act (Crystal Manich with dramaturgy by Amy Hutchison, presented in collaboration with the Pittsburgh, Montana, and Santa Barbara operas and Boston Conservatory); Force of Nature (Fellows Fineberg; Utah Opera); Arboreal (Fry Street Quartet); Vanishing Point (Carpe Diem String Quartet); and Threnody…October 2024 (pianist Mackenzie Melemed). Awarded the Polish Gold Cross of Merit (Zloty Krzyż Zasługi RP) by the president of Poland for exemplary public service and humanitarian work, Kaminsky also has been recognized by the National Endowment for the Arts, Koussevitzky Music Foundation at the Library of Congress, Opera America, Chamber Music America, and USArtists International, among others. Kaminsky also is on the faculty at SUNY Purchase and serves as a mentor for Seattle Opera’s Creation Lab.

Highlights

• OPERA America Commissioning Grant for Lucidity—On Site Opera, Seattle Opera, Opera in the Heights, Ithaca Opera, Tri-Cities Opera, Syracuse Opera, 2024 
• OPERA America Repertoire Development Grant for Time to Act—Pittsburgh Opera, Opera Santa Barbara, Opera Intermountain Bozeman, 2024 
• OPERA America Commissioning Grant for Time to Act—Pittsburgh Opera, Opera Santa Barbara, Opera Intermountain Bozeman, 2023 
• National Endowment for the Arts for Finding Wright, 2021 
• Composers Now Visionary Award, 2019 
• William and Flora Hewlett Foundation 50 Arts Commissions for Today It Rains; Opera Parallèle), 2017 
• Opera America Commissioning Grant for Today It Rains (Opera Parallèle), 2017 
• Opera America Commissioning Grant for Some Light Emerges (Houston Grand Opera), 2016 
• National Endowment for the Arts for As One, 2014 
• Opera America Discovery Grant for As One, 2014 
• BAM/Kennedy Center DeVos Institute Fellowship Award for As One, 2013 
• Koussevitzky Music Foundation in the Library of Congress Commissioning Award, 2011 
• Polish Gold Cross of Merit (Zloty Krzyż Zasługi RP), awarded by the president of Poland for exemplary public service or humanitarian work, 2015
• ASCAP/Chamber Music America Adventurous Programming Award, 2013