Paola Prestini, Mark Campbell and Kate DiCamillo

Composer Paola Prestini has collaborated with poets, filmmakers, and scientists in large-scale multimedia works that chart her interest in extra-musical themes ranging from the cosmos to the environment. She has created, written, and produced large-scale projects such as the largest communal VR opera, The Hubble Cantata, and the eco-documentary currently on PBS, The Colorado. As an immigrant, many identities, cultures, and values have collided and interlocked within her helping create a synthesis of both unique and universal ideas that naturally manifest into music. On a more granular level, folk melody is infused into the creation of original melodic lines that are deconstructed then supported with complex harmonies, rhythms, counterpoint, and electronic worlds. Her work incorporates improvisation, live electronics, foley, and spatial elements. It is of the moment, political, ambitious, and always curious. Prestini is a Co-Founder of VisionIntoArt, a non-profit new music and interdisciplinary arts production company in New York City. She is also a Co-Founder/Artistic Director of the non-profit music organization National Sawdust.

The theme of hope and belief amid impossible circumstances is a common thread in much of Kate DiCamillo’s writing. In her instant #1 New York Times best seller The Miraculous Journey of Edward Tulane, a haughty china rabbit undergoes a profound transformation after finding himself facedown on the ocean floor — lost, and waiting to be found. The Tale of Despereaux — the Newbery Medal–winning novel that later inspired an animated adventure from Universal Pictures — stars a tiny mouse with exceptionally large ears who is driven by love to become an unlikely hero. And The Magician’s Elephant, an acclaimed and exquisitely paced fable, dares to ask the question, “What if?” Kate DiCamillo’s own journey is something of a dream come true. After moving to Minnesota from Florida in her twenties, homesickness and a bitter winter helped inspire Because of Winn-Dixie —her first published novel, which, remarkably, became a runaway best seller and snapped up a Newbery Honor. “After the Newbery committee called me, I spent the whole day walking into walls,” she says. “I was stunned. And very, very happy.” Her second novel, The Tiger Rising, went on to become a National Book Award Finalist. Since then, the master storyteller has written for a wide range of ages. She is the author of six books in the Mercy Watson series of early chapter books, which stars a “porcine wonder” with an obsession for buttered toast. The second book in the series, Mercy Watson Goes for a Ride, was named a Theodor Seuss Geisel Honor Book by the American Library Association in 2007. DiCamillo, who was named National Ambassador for Young People’s Literature for 2014–2015, says about stories, “When we read together, we connect. Together, we see the world. Together, we see one another.” Born in Philadelphia, the author lives in Minneapolis.

Librettist Mark Campbell, whose work has received a Pulitzer Prize and GRAMMY Award, is happy to be premiering his 6th opera with Minnesota Opera; the others he has co-created for the company are Silent Night (Kevin Puts, composer), The Shining (Paul Moravec, composer), Dinner at Eight (William Bolcom, composer), The Manchurian Candidate (Kevin Puts, composer), and Memory Boy (Reinaldo Moya, composer). Mark has created 40 opera librettos, lyrics for seven musicals and text for eight song cycles and three oratorios. His many works include Sanctuary Road, The (R)evolution of Steve Jobs, As One, Elizabeth Cree, Stonewall, Later the Same Evening, A Thousand Acres, The Secret River, The Nefarious, Immoral But Highly Profitable Enterprise of Mr. Burke & Mr. Hare, The Other Room, Today It Rains, Rappahannock County, Stone Soup, Volpone, Bastianello/Lucrezia, and Songs from an Unmade Bed. Other awards include: the first Kleban Foundation Award for Lyricist, two Richard Rodgers Awards from the American Academy of Arts and Letters, a Jonathan Larson Foundation Award, a New York Foundation for the Arts Playwriting Fellowship, the first Dominic J. Pelliciotti Award, and a grant from the New York State Council of the Arts. In 2020, Mark created the annual Campbell Opera Librettist Prize, the first award in the history of opera to honor librettists; he funds the award which is administered by OPERA America. He also co-created and funds the True Voice Award to help in the training of transgender singers. Upcoming premieres include: A Nation of Others for the Oratorio Society of New York at Carnegie Hall (Paul Moravec, composer); Unruly Sun for Orchestre classique de Montréal (Matthew Ricketts, composer); Supermax for Long Beach Opera (Stewart Wallace, composer; Michael Korie, co-librettist) and All Shall Rise for the Oratorio Society of New York at Carnegie Hall (Paul Moravec, composer). markcampbellwords.com