ADORATIONADORATION

MARY KOUYOUMDJIAN is a GRAMMY®-nominated composer and documentarian with projects ranging from concert works to multimedia collaborations and film scores. A finalist for the 2024 Pulitzer Prize in Music and a first-generation Armenian-American, she draws on a sonic palette rooted in her heritage, including family directly affected by the Lebanese Civil War and the Armenian Genocide. Combining her interest in music as documentary with a background in experimental composition, she progressively blends the old with the new. A strong believer in freedom of speech and in the arts as an amplifier of expression, she often integrates recorded testimonies of resilient individuals with field recordings of place, inviting empathy by humanizing complex experiences of social and political conflict.

Kouyoumdjian’s 2026-2027 season includes the release of the world premiere recording of her evening-length sonic-documentary album Paper Pianos, a Pulitzer Prize-finalist in Music, directed and written by Nigel Maister and performed by the GRAMMY® Award-winning ensemble Alarm Will Sound, out on Cantaloupe Music. The season also features the world premieres of two new orchestral works, including Keep Your Eyes Open, featuring Stephanie Childress as conductor and narrator in collaboration with cultural historian and author Colin Dickey, co-commissioned by the Tampere Philharmonic Orchestra, Milwaukee Symphony Orchestra, and Naples Philharmonic; as well as In Their Tongue, a work co-commissioned by the Fresno Philharmonic, California Symphony, Knoxville Symphony, and Indianapolis Chamber Orchestra as part of New Music USA's Amplifying Voices program. Kouyoumdjian is currently working on a new viola piece for Hank Dutt, a former violist of the Kronos Quartet, as well as several large-scale works.

Kouyoumdjian has received commissions for such organizations as the New York Philharmonic, Kronos Quartet, Carnegie Hall, Metropolitan Museum of Art, Beth Morrison Projects/OPERA America, Alarm Will Sound, Bang on a Can, International Contemporary Ensemble, Brooklyn Youth Chorus, the Houston Symphony, American Composers Forum, Roomful of Teeth, WQXR, REDSHIFT, Experiments in Opera, Helen Simoneau Danse, the Nouveau Classical Project, Music of Remembrance, Friction Quartet, Ensemble Oktoplus, and the Los Angeles New Music Ensemble among others. Her work has been performed internationally at Carnegie Hall, Lincoln Center, New York's Museum of Modern Art (MoMA), the Metropolitan Museum of Art, MASS MoCA, the Barbican Centre, Brooklyn Academy of Music (BAM), Millennium Park, Benaroya Hall, Prototype Festival, the New York Philharmonic Biennial, Cabrillo Festival, SF Jazz, Big Ears Festival, 21C Music Festival, and Cal Performances.

Her opera Adoration, adapted from Atom Egoyan’s 2008 film, was commissioned, developed, produced, and premiered by Beth Morrison Projects in New York City before receiving its West Coast premiere at LA Opera to rave reviews. The world premiere recording was released on Bright Shiny Things in August 2025 and was nominated for a GRAMMY® Award for Best Opera Recording, making history as the first opera by an Armenian composer in the category. Kouyoumdjian’s debut portrait album, WITNESS with the Kronos Quartet, was released through Phenotypic Recordings in 2025 and was called “powerful, poignant” by Gramophone and “gorgeous, brutal, and awe-stricken” by FLOOD Magazine. In May 2025, her Pulitzer-nominated music-documentary, Paper Pianos, commissioned by Alarm Will Sound, was performed at The Clarice Smith Performing Arts Center following its 2023 premiere at EMPAC.

Kouyoumdjian’s residencies include Buffalo String Works, Alarm Will Sound/The Mizzou International Composers Festival, Roulette/The Jerome Foundation, Montalvo Arts Center, EMPAC, and Exploring the Metropolis. Her music has been described as “eloquently scripted" and "emotionally wracking” by The New York Times and as "politically fearless" and "the most harrowing moments on stage at any New York performance" by New York Music Daily. In her work as a composer, orchestrator, and music editor for film, she has collaborated on a diverse array of motion pictures, including writing the original score for the documentary An Act of Worship (Capital K Pictures and PBS’s POV Docs) and orchestrating the soundtrack to The Place Beyond the Pines (Focus Features). 

Kouyoumdjian holds a D.M.A. and M.A. in composition from Columbia University, where she studied primarily with Zosha Di Castri, Georg Friedrich Haas, Fred Lerdahl, and George Lewis; an M.A. in Scoring for Film & Multimedia from New York University; and a B.A. in Music Composition from the University of California, San Diego, where she studied with Chaya Czernowin, Steven Kazuo Takasugi, Anthony Davis, Steven Schick, and Chinary Ung.

Dedicated to new music advocacy, Kouyoumdjian is a Co-Founder of the annual new music conference New Music Gathering, served as the founding Executive Director of contemporary music ensemble Hotel Elefant, and served as Co-Artistic Director of Alaska's new music festival Wild Shore New Music.

As an avid educator, Kouyoumdjian is the Associate Professor of Composition for Collaborative Media at Mannes School of Music at The New School; she has previously been on faculty at Columbia University, the Peabody Institute at Johns Hopkins University, Boston Conservatory at Berklee, Brooklyn College's Feirstein School of Cinema, Mannes Prep, and the New York Philharmonic's Very Young Composers program. Kouyoumdjian is proud to have her music published by Schott's PSNY and is based in Brooklyn, NY

Opera/Music Theater libretti include David T. Little’s Dog Days (Zankel Hall, New York City Opera VOX) and Vinkensport, or The Finch Opera (Bard Conservatory); Jeff Myers’ The Hunger Art (American Lyric Theater, Center City Opera Theater, Burning Bayreuth); Jay Anthony Gach’s Nora at the Altar-Rail (A.L.T.); andKristin Hevner’s Bully Pulpit (Metropolis Opera Project). A founding member of The New Ensemble, he contributed lyrics ton on play: shadows of a dream and Black Snow in collaboration with composer Andrew Gerle. As a filmmaker, Royce wrote and directed From Sky and Soil (Corus Young Filmmakers Initiative), I Will Not Be Sad Anymore (Quebec Cooperative Filmmakers Initiative), Pig and Bear (Frigid Fest NY) and Good Woman, a collaboration with American fashion designer Marc Bouwer. Upcoming projects include collaborations with Missy Mazzoli, Du Yun, Nick Martin, Rachel Peters, Mark Baechle and Matt Marks. Artistic Director of opera-theater company The Coterie, founded with soprano Lauren Worsham. B.F.A: Concordia University, Montreal; M.F.A: NYU.

Laine Rettmer is an artist and director working across photography, film, moving image, installation, opera, and live performance. Based in Brooklyn and Providence, their work examines how images shape social behavior, queer identity and desire, memory, and historical imagination. Performance is one of the primary methods through which Rettmer makes images. Across their practice, directing, staging, and photography operate as interconnected forms of image-making. Repetition, rehearsal, citation, and blocking function as both methods and subjects.

Rettmer's forthcoming solo exhibition at the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, curated by Daisy Alejandre, opens in November 2027 and runs through April 2028. Their work has also been presented at the Brooklyn Museum, Manifesta 11, MoMA Public, the MIT Museum, Vizcaya Museum and Gardens, and NADA New York.

As a director, Rettmer has worked with Beth Morrison Projects, Los Angeles Opera, New York City Opera, Boston Lyric Opera, Opera Omaha, On Site Opera, and White Snake Opera, among others. Adoration, presented by Beth Morrison Projects at the Prototype Festival and by Los Angeles Opera at REDCAT, was nominated for a Grammy Award for Best Opera Recording. Rettmer's feature film La Bohème received a theatrical release through Toho Cinemas in Japan. Their feature film Oblivion received Best Musical Film at the Cannes World Film Festival and Best Experimental Feature at the Touchstone Independent Film Festival.

From 2014 through 2017, Rettmer served as founding and resident stage director of LoftOpera, helping shape the company's artistic identity through productions including The Barber of Seville, La Bohème, The Rape of Lucretia, and Macbeth. Their final production with the company, Macbeth, received WQXR Operavore Freddie Awards for Best New Production and Best Director. The New York Times named The Barber of Seville one of the top classical music productions of 2014, while the Observer included La Bohème among its best operas of the decade. From 2019 to 2025, Rettmer also served on the Artistic Advisory Board of On Site Opera.

Rettmer's work has received support from the National Endowment for the Arts, the Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts, the MAP Fund, and the School of the Museum of Fine Arts Traveling Fellows program. Fellowships and residencies include the Art School Alliance Fellowship at HFBK Hamburg, the Watermill Center, Vermont Studio Center, Skaftfell Center for Visual Art, and the Center for Arts, Design, and Social Research.

Rettmer is Associate Professor of Photography and Expanded Media and Graduate Program Director of MFA Photography at the Rhode Island School of Design. Previously, they were a residential scholar at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

Alan Pierson is the Artistic Director and conductor of the acclaimed ensemble Alarm Will Sound, and served as the Artistic Director and conductor of the Brooklyn Philharmonic. As a guest conductor, Pierson has appeared with the Los Angeles Philharmonic, the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, the Hamburg Symphony Orchestra, L.A. Opera, Nationaltheater Mannheim, the London Sinfonietta, the Steve Reich Ensemble, the Orchestra of St. Luke's, the New World Symphony, and the Silk Road Project, among other ensembles. He is co-director of the Northwestern University Contemporary Music Ensemble, and has been a visiting faculty conductor at the Indiana University Jacobs School of Music, the Eastman School of Music, and at the Banff Centre for the Arts and Creativity. Pierson regularly collaborates with major composers and performers, including YoYo Ma, Steve Reich, Dawn Upshaw, Osvaldo Golijov, John Adams, David T. Little, Augusta Read Thomas, David Lang, Donnacha Dennehy, La Monte Young, Tyshawn Sorey, and choreographers John Heginbotham, Christopher Wheeldon, Akram Khan and Eliot Feld. He has spearheaded critically acclaimed cross-genre collaborations with artists like Yasiin Bey, Erykah Badu, and Medeski Martin and Wood. Beyond his work in the concert hall, Pierson is an avid recording producer and artist, having released 30 albums on Nonesuch Records, Sony Classical, Cantaloupe Music, Oehms Classics, and Sweetspot DVD. Mr. Pierson received bachelor degrees in physics and music from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and a doctorate in conducting from the Eastman School of Music. In 2022, he received the Eastman School of Music Centennial Award.

AFSOON PAJOUFAR is an Obie Award-wining stage designer based in NYC . Afsoon designs sets and environments for play, opera, and live performances. She comes from Tehran-Iran where she received her Bachelor of Fine Arts-Painting, from Azad Art and Architecture University. Afsoon’s work has been presented in venues and festivals including MCC, Theatre for a New Audience (TFANA), Playwrights Horizons, Lincoln Center, Brooklyn Academy of Music (BAM), Berkeley Rep, EMPAC, New Ohio Theatre, Bard Fisher Center, Harvard TDM, MIT, Bard Summerscape and Prototype Festival. Internationally, her work has taken her to Berlin, Alte Münze and Cologne, Schauspiel Köln. Her design for Cabaret was chosen for the 2019 American Exhibit at the Prague Quadrennial of Performance Design and Space.

Nominations: Lucille Lortel Award - Elliot Norton Award

MFA in Scene Design - Boston University

Member: United Scenic Artists Local USA 829

Daniel Neumann is a Brooklyn-based sound artist, organizer and audio engineer. He holds a masters degree in media art from the Academy of Visual Art Leipzig and studied electronic music composition. Neumann’s practice engages hybrid installation-performance formats to explore how sound interacts with space and how spaces can be shaped by sound. He thinks of sound as an interdisciplinary field enabled by audio procedures. Neumann’s works have been presented at Pinacoteca Bellas Artes Universidad de Caldas, Loop Barcelona, Moss Arts Center Blacksburg VA, Fergus McCaffrey Gallery, MoMA PS1, Knockdown Center, Pratt Institute, Eyebeam, Sculpture Center, Fridman Gallery and many other venues.

As a curator, Neumann runs CT::SWaM (http://ctswam.org), an event series that engages in spatial sound works and focused listening. In September 2016 he co-curated 9 Evenings + 50 at Fridman Gallery. As a sound engineer, Neumann is the acoustic designer of The World Is Sound at the Rubin Museum and head engineer for Blank Forms, Alarm Will Sound, Diamanda Galás and David Guetta. In 2013-16, he was the head engineer for live events at MoMA PS1.

Scott is a lighting designer and educator working in a diverse array of performance mediums, including theater, dance, music and opera.

His work has been seen in venues throughout the world including the Athens and Epidaurus Festival, Benaki Museum (Athens), Brooklyn Academy of Music, Guggenheim Museum NYC, German Republic Theater (Kazakhstan),Goodspeed Opera, Judson Church, Lincoln Center Festival, Melkweg (Amsterdam), Playmakers Repertory Company, Prototype Festival, Radialsystem V (Berlin), Segerstrom Concert Hall, Spreehalle (Berlin), Studio Theater and Walt Disney Concert Hall.

His work for dance includes designs for Shen Wei Dance Arts, Ate9 Dance Company, Alonzo King LINES Ballet, David Dorfman, KTDance, Parijat Desai Dance Company, Atlas Dance and Aiko Kinoshita.

His long history of collaborations with Robert Wilson includes "Der Sandmann" (Düsseldorfer Schauspielhaus), "Zinnias" (Peak Performances), "The Odyssey" (National Theater of Greece) and "KOOL" (Guggenheim NYC) as well as the exhibition "The Hat Makes the Man" at the Max Ernst Museum. (Brühl, Germany).

Scott is an Associate Professor at California State University Fullerton and has served as an adjunct professor at Colorado College and Montclair State University, a teaching artist at the Brown-Trinity Rep Consortium, and a guest lecturer at the Yale School of Drama and NYU's Tisch School of the Arts.

Scott is a founding member of Wingspace Theatrical Design and a co-creator, with Burke Brown, of the Wingspace Mentorship Program, a free, one-year program designed to broaden access and disrupt barriers early-career designers encounter while trying to advance their careers in the performing arts

Scott is an avid hiker and backpacker and when not in the theater can often be found scaling his way up a mountain to enjoy the views from the top.

Rachel Dainer-Best is an NYC based Costume Designer for film, television, live performance & advertising.

Rachel Dainer-Best is known for It Comes at Night (2017), The Place Beyond the Pines (2012) and Beasts of the Southern Wild (2012).

Born in Florence, Italy, NYC based.

Italian, English, and Spanish speaker.

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After moving to the US, Camilla studied computer science and music. It's at the intersection of technology and live performance that Camilla fell in love with projection design and storytelling (plays, operas, musicals, dance, and everything in between).

Work as a projection designer on productions including at Carnegie Hall, Miami City Ballet, TheaterWorks Hartford, Lincoln Center/Juilliard415, Brooklyn Academy of Music, LA Opera, Kennedy Center, Beth Morrison Projects, Boston Baroque, Cal Performances & UMS Michigan, Baltimore Center Stage, Walt Disney Concert Hall/LA Master Chorale, Long Center/Conspirare, Yale Opera, Heartbeat Opera, Yale School of Drama, Montreal New Music, Music Academy of the West, National Sawdust, Roulette, as well as for recitals, chamber music, and theater at Repertory Theatre of St. Louis, Indiana University opera, Repertorio Español, PROTOTYPE Festival, Mass MoCA, and others.

Broadway: Associate video, Illinoise.

Camilla produced and directed works including Song from the Uproar (CT), Talk to Me Like the Rain (NH), La Resurrezione (IN), If This is a Man: music, science, and humanity (IN) - which included the US Premiere of Ennio Morricone's Se questo e` un uomo for chamber orchestra, soprano, and reciting voice.

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As an Italian coach & translator, original translations for Carnegie Hall (L'Arpeggiata), Apollo's Fire, and diction coaching.

As a classical vocalist, "Cunegonde" Candide, "Celia" As You Like It, and "Drusilla" L'Incoronazione di Poppea. Chorally, she sang with the Yale Schola Cantorum and NY Philharmonic. Instrumental proficiency in piano and harpsichord.

Guest lectured at institutions including Princeton, Yale, Penn State, Pratt, and Dartmouth. 

- BS in Computer Science & BA in Music (Minor in Italian Studies) from the University of Notre Dame

- MA in Digital Musics at Dartmouth College.

- MFA Yale Drama

April Goldberg is known for Relay (2024), Anora (2024) and Materialists (2025).

Sarah Herdrich (they/them) is a Brooklyn-based stage manager working primarily on new works. Recent work includes shows at Williamstown Theater Festival, Fresh Squeezed Opera, Clubbed Thumb, and Hostos. This is their first show with Bedlam!