Seven leading New York music organisations have joined forces to relaunch VOX: American Voices Opera Lab, a programme dedicated to presenting excerpts of new grand operas by contemporary American composers. Originally founded by New York City Opera in 1999, VOX ran until 2012 before falling dormant when the company ceased operations.
The collaborative partners are American Composers Orchestra, Beth Morrison Projects, Manhattan School of Music, Mannes School of Music, MasterVoices, the Metropolitan Opera and the Perelman Performing Arts Center (PAC NYC). Each partner contributes specific resources to the project: American Composers Orchestra provides the orchestra; MasterVoices the chorus, with its Artistic Director Ted Sperling serving as music director; and the Metropolitan Opera’s Lindemann Young Artist Development Program supplying the principal singers, with additional singers from Manhattan School of Music and Mannes School of Music. PAC NYC serves as the presenter and venue, with Beth Morrison as director and creative producer.
Performances will take place on 1 April 2027 at PAC NYC, presenting four works-in-progress as book-in-hand concert excerpts of 20 to 30 minutes each, performed with soloists, full orchestra and chorus.
Beth Morrison said: “VOX has long served as a vital showcase and laboratory for newly created grand opera – an initiative unlike any other in the United States. It has been 15 years since I produced the final VOX for NYCO, and I have been searching for a way to bring it back ever since. A new vision for VOX is born. With this foundation in place, we now turn to composers for submissions that will spark the next chapter. Together, we will create a truly distinctive event – one rooted in collaboration and driven by a 21st-century approach to making new work.”
Submissions for the 2027 presentations open on 15 May 2026, with a deadline of 1 August 2026. For further information, visit VOXAmericanOpera.org
