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A natural musical storyteller with “a knack for overturning musical conventions” (The New York Times), composer David T. Little is known for stage, concert, and screen works permeated with the power of the unexpected. Little probes the deep corners of human psychology, invoking political, historical, spiritual, and social themes as pathways for exploring the human condition. His broad catalog speaks to the mix of light and dark that we experience in life, unafraid to invoke the mythical, bewitching, disturbing, surreal, or comedic. He has drawn acclaim for operas including Dog Days, JFK, and the comedy Vinkensport, or The Finch Opera (all with libretto by Royce Vavrek), as well as his GRAMMY®-nominated opera Soldier Songs.

Little’s recent work Black Lodge was nominated for the 2024 GRAMMY® Award for Best Opera Recording and is the recipient of a Music Theater Now international prize. Black Lodge, a metal-infused opera with a libretto by poet Anne Waldman, was premiered by Beth Morrison Projects at Opera Philadelphia, with a soundtrack released by Cantaloupe Music. It received its European premiere at the O. Festival in Rotterdam this past May, received its West Coast Premiere in October, 2024 as part of an experiential Halloween event presented by CAP UCLA, and its New York premiere in January as part of the 2025 Prototype Festival. In November 2025, it will travel to Sweden for performance at Malmö Opera and Folkoperan.

In September, 2024, Little unveiled his opera What Belongs to You. Based on the celebrated novel by Garth Greenwell, developed for GRAMMY®-winning tenor Karim Sulayman and Alarm Will Sound, and directed by Mark Morris, and would go on to be awarded the 2025 Music Critics Association of North America Best New Opera Award. This arrived on the heels of another major work, the searching theatrical choral work, SIN-EATER, premiered in Philadelphia by The Crossing and Bergamot Quartet in the fall of 2023, conducted by Donald Nally. Based on the ancient practice of paying the poor to ritualistically “eat” the sins of the rich—allowing the privileged to move onto the next life cleansed of their guilty deeds—The Wall Street Journal praised the work’s “shattering impact.”

Little is at work on a commission from the Metropolitan Opera / Lincoln Center Theater New Works Program, as well as several other new stage, film, and concert projects.

Little has been commissioned by the world’s most prestigious institutions and performers, including recent projects for The Metropolitan Opera/Lincoln Center Theater new works program, the Kennedy Center, Baltimore Symphony Orchestra, New World Symphony, London Sinfonietta, The Crossing, Kronos Quartet, and Beth Morrison Projects. His music has been presented by Carnegie Hall, Venice Biennale, Holland Festival, LA Opera, Houston Grand Opera, Opera Philadelphia, Opéra de Montréal, the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, and the LA Philharmonic. Little’s recorded catalog includes over 20 commercial releases, on such labels as New Amsterdam Records, Pentatone, Sono Luminus, Bright Shiny Things, and Cantaloupe Music.

Little is the founding artistic director and former drummer for the amplified chamber ensemble, Newspeak, which explores the relationship of music and politics, while confronting head-on the boundaries between the classical and rock traditions. They have released four commercial recordings, with a fifth on the way.

David T. Little received a 2023 Fellowship from the New Jersey State Council on the Arts and is a recipient of the Copland House Residency Award. His music is published by Boosey & Hawkes. Learn more at www.davidtlittle.com.

Matt Mehlan is an artist, musician, and producer based in New York City, where he is Associate Artistic Director at Roulette.

An active figure in underground music; Matt leads the band Skeletons, records and performs under his own name and as Uumans, and runs the record label Shinkoyo / Artist Pool. He was a co-founder of the original Silent Barn space in Queens, NY, a member of the 19 piece supergroup Congotronics International (with Deerhoof, Konono No 1, Juana Molina, Kasai Allstars), and has produced, recorded, mixed, and/or mastered releases by Zeena Parkins, Janka Nabay, Anthony Braxton, Yusef Lateef, Joe McPhee, Jobs, Body Metta, Lia Kohl, Kamau Patton, The Fly Girlz, and Wet Ink Ensemble, among many others.

Matt has performed around the world and recorded music for Shinkoyo, Ghostly International, Tomlab, Crammed Discs, and contributed sound work to projects by artists Ian Cheng, Naz Riahi, Ilana Harris-Babou, Karthik Pandian & Andro Zinz-Browne, and Julia Pello.

Matt has held a number of positions at Roulette, starting as a sound a sound engineer in 2006. From 2018-2022 he managed the Archives at Experimental Sound Studio in Chicago, creating public programming around the Sun Ra / El Saturn, ESS, and Malachi Ritscher Collections and acquiring the Studio Henry and Fred Anderson Collections during this time.

Matt holds a BM in Technology in Music and Related Arts from the Oberlin Conservatory of Music (2004), and an MA in Arts Administration and Policy from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago (2016), where he taught for 5 years in the departments of Sound and Arts Administration and Policy. He currently teaches part-time at The Eugene Lang College at New School, and mixes recordings at his STUUDIO.

Composer Sarah Kirkland Snider writes music of direct expression and vivid narrative that has been hailed as “rapturous” (The New York Times), “groundbreaking” (The Boston Globe), and “ravishingly beautiful” (NPR). One of the “Top 35 Female Composers in Classical Music” (The Washington Post), Snider’s work has been commissioned and/or performed by the Boston, Chicago, Cleveland, National, and San Francisco Symphony Orchestras; New York Philharmonic; Birmingham Royal Ballet; Emerson String Quartet; Renée Fleming; Colin Currie; eighth blackbird; and Roomful of Teeth, among many others. Snider’s recent works include Forward Into Light, an orchestral commission for the New York Philharmonic; Drink the Wild Ayre, the final commission by the Emerson String Quartet; and Mass for the Endangered, performed by dozens of choirs the world over. Her four full-length LPs – The Blue Hour, Mass for the Endangered, Unremembered, and Penelope – have garnered acclaim from The New York Times, NPR, The Boston Globe, The Washington Post, The Los Angeles Times, Gramophone Magazine, BBC Music Magazine, Pitchfork, and many others. A founding Co-Artistic Director of New Amsterdam Records, Snider has an M.M.and Artist’s Diploma from the Yale School of Music, and a B.A. from Wesleyan University. Her music is published by G. Schirmer.

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.

Dianne Berkun-Menakeris the founder and artistic director of the Brooklyn Youth Chorus Academy (BYCA). Under her visionary leadership, BYC has become one of the most highly regarded ensembles in the country and has stretched the artistic boundaries for the youth chorus. Berkun-Menaker has prepared choruses for performances with acclaimed conductors, including Alan Gilbert, Lorin Maazel, Marin Alsop, James Levine, Charles Dutoit, and Robert Spano. Most notably, she prepared BYC for its 2002 debut with the New York Philharmonic in John Adams' On the Transmigration of Souls, the cording for which the Chorus won a GRAMMY® Award in 2005.

Ms. Berkun-Menaker has also prepared the Chorus for appearances and recordings with artists such as Barbra Streisand, Elton John, Lou Reed, Philip Glass, Grizzly Bear, John Legend, Natasha Beding field, and Alicia Keys. She has developed an active commissioning program, born out of a desire to showcase the Chorus's versatility and uniquely beautiful sound and has collaborated with some of the most important composers of our time, including Bryce Dessner, Nico Muhly, Aleksandra Vrebalov, Julia Wolfe, Richard Reed Parry and Shara Worden. Ms. Berkun-Menaker is a regular choral clinician and teaching artist for such organizations as the New York Philharmonic and The Weill Music Institute at Carnegie Hall, and has also presented workshops and master classes for New York University, NYSSMA, the American Choral Directors Association, and the New York City Department of Education. She is the creator of the Chorus's Cross-Choral Training program, a proven holistic and experiential approach to developing singers in a group setting encompassing both voice and musicianship pedagogy.

Ms. Berkun-Menaker earned her B.S. degree in Music Education and Piano magna cum laude from New York University. She studied at Mannes College of Music, holds a diploma in the Kodály Concept from the University of Calgary, and the Artist-Teacher diploma from the CME Institute.

Laurie Olinder is a multi media designer, painter textile designer and photographer.She is a founding member of New York's Ridge Theater and has been recognized with an OBIE Award, a New York Dance and Performance "Bessie" Award and an Eliot Norton Award for Outstanding Design in the Theater.
Ms. Olinder has designed projections for numerous contemporary composers and performers, including John Adams,The Brooklyn Youth Chorus, The Brooklyn Philharmonic, Gavin Bryars, Bryce Dressner, Philip Glass, Michael Gordon, Henryk Gorecki, The Kronos Quartet, David Lang and Julia Wolfe. Her work has been shown at noted performance venues such as ART, BAM, Carnegie Hall, Lincoln Center, and MASS MoCA.