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LAURA KAMINSKY, possessing “an ear for the new and interesting” (The New York Times), frequently addresses social and political issues in her work. Her first opera, As One (co-librettists Mark Campbell and Kimberly Reed) is the most produced contemporary opera since its 2014 premiere with 65+ productions internationally. Classical Voice America posits that “Kaminsky writes effectively for the voice, whether in searing, soul-baring arias and duets or recitative-like passages that propel the narrative” while American Record Guide notes “her music is full of fire as well as ice, contrasting dissonance and violence with tonal beauty and meditative reflection.”
The success of As One has led Kaminsky down a path of multiple opera projects: the As One team has since been commissioned twice—by Houston Grand Opera for Some Light Emerges (2017) and Opera Parallèle/American Opera Projects for Today It Rains (2019). Hometown to the World (libretto: Reed; Santa Fe Opera) premiered in 2021, Finding Wright in 2022 (libretto: Andrea Fellows Fineberg; Dayton Opera). She was co-librettist (with novelist Lisa Moore) and composer for February, commissioned by Newfoundland’s Opera on the Avalon; it premiered there in 2023. Lucidity, with librettist David Cote (On Site Opera, Seattle Opera, Opera in the Heights, Tri-Cities Opera, Opera Ithaca, premiered in 2024, and has since been produced in Regensburg, Germany, and will be part of La Monnaie/de Munt’s 2026-2027 season in Brussels). Spring 2026 offered two world premiere productions: The Post Office, a chamber opera in poems, with words by Elaine Sexton and design by architect Charles Renfro (commissioned by Queen City Opera; produced by American Opera Projects and Spruce Peak Arts; presented at BAM) and Time to Act (libretto by Crystal Manich; dramaturgy/direction by Amy Hutchison; for Pittsburgh Opera, Opera Santa Barbara, Opera Montana and Boston Conservatory of Music at Berklee; it was also presented by Boston Conservatory in a partnership with National Sawdust in New York, where it was recorded for a CD on the BSS label, to be released in fall 2026).
Recent solo and chamber music works include Threnody…October 2024 for pianist Mackenzie Melemed, recently recorded on his debut album, Tulevaisuus, on the BSS label; Arboreal for the Fry Street Quartet; Ruminations for solo guitar, recorded by David Leisner on Dedications (Azica); and Dis/enchantment (libretto: Andrea Fellows Fineberg) for 2 mezzo sopranos, guitar and string quartet (commissioned by the Del Sol String Quartet). Ruminations, arranged for solo marimba will premiere in late 2026 at the Charles Ives Music Festival. Also upcoming is The Blue Bottle Variations for string octet (for the Fry Street and Cassatt String Quartets). Kaminsky has worked with the Fry Street Quartet and climate change scientist and activist Dr. Robert Davies to create Rising Tide: The Crossroads Project (2012), for which she composed a string quartet woven through an evening-length science performance project that confronts a planet under siege and a future in peril, inspiring audiences to change course. This evocative performance about global sustainability that weaves art and science together through music, prose and imagery has had close to 100 performances internationally and has been made into a 71-minute long film.
Having lived and worked in West Africa (Ghana, National Academy of Music at Winneba, 1992-1993) and Eastern Europe (based in Poland, as director of the European Mozart Academy, 1996-1997), Kaminsky’s musical language is eclectic, drawing from many sources of inspiration and deep study. According to The New York Times, “innovative sound has been a driving force for Ms. Kaminsky since she was a child. Among her influences (are) Dmitri Shostakovich, Meredith Monk, Stephen Sondheim and Brazilian pop.” The prestigious online journal, newmusicbuff, states “Kaminsky’s compositional skills allow her to evoke pretty much whatever emotion she chooses. Her style shows influences and echoes from classical forms, jazz, pop, minimalism all integrated into a largely tonal/post romantic style which easily engages listeners and manages to be highly expressive.”
Awarded the 2016 Polish Gold Cross of Merit (Zloty Krzyż Zasługi RP) by the President of Poland for exemplary public service and humanitarian work, Kaminsky has been recognized by the National Endowment for the Arts, Koussevitzky Music Foundation, Opera America, Chamber Music America, USArtists International, CEC ArtsLink International Partnerships, Likhachev-Russkiy Mir Foundation Cultural Fellowship, Composers Now, and has received six ASCAP-Chamber Music America Awards for Adventuresome Programming. Head of composition at Purchase College Conservatory of Music, and a professor serving both the composition and opera/voice programs at Boston Conservatory of Music at Berklee, Kaminsky is co-director, with librettist Deborah Brevoort, of Seattle Opera’s Creation Lab. She was a mentor for the Washington National Opera’s American Opera Initiative and the Juilliard School Blueprint Fellowship program, has led The American Opera Project’s Artistic Advisory Council, and served on the boards of Opera America, Chamber Music America, the Virginia Center for the Creative Arts, and the Hermitage Artist Retreat. [as of June 2026]
