composer

For many composers, writing for the voice draws out their most expressive, artful, and experimental music. It is the most rewarding of all instruments to write for—and the most challenging. The New Voice Composers Studio, directed by Jake Landau, offers early career composers the valuable experience of working directly with singers on their own music.

Guided by our composition and vocal faculty, each composer works with a small group of singers and instrumentalists to workshop and premiere a two-character scene. Composers additionally receive lectures, masterclasses, and private lessons on their music and attend the rehearsals, stagings, and performance of their original work.

Heartbeat Opera's "The Duel" gathers some of the most distinct voices spanning contemporary Opera and Musical Theater today. Featuring writers Reese Anderson, Mark Campbell, Christian De Gré Cárdenas, Susan Kander, Jake Landau, Nevada Lozano, Deborah D.E.E.P. Mouton, Kamala Sankaram, and Dan Schlosberg, this concert  commissions different musical responses to the same prompt, presenting them all at 54 Below.

Following their recent collaboration on Mark Campbell's one-man musical Songs From An Unmade Bed, Jake and Mark pair up again for "The Duel", this time in the realm of opera.