Composer Alyssa Weinberg (b. 1988) uses color, texture and gesture to channel big emotions, creating music that is “quite literally stunning” (Chicago Tribune). She is fascinated with perception and loves to play with form, subverting expectations to create surreal scenarios, often in dreamy, multidisciplinary productions.
Highlights of the 2024/25 season include the premiere of Bioluminescence, commissioned by the Juilliard School in collaboration with ARCO Collaborative, artistic director Jennifer Koh, for the Sounds of US Festival presented by the Kennedy Center, and the premiere of The water-clock bleeds, commissioned by an international consortium of over 50 saxophonists, in collaboration with consortium leaders Aporii (Doug O’Connor and Jeff Siegfried). This season also celebrates the announcement of two new operas: Claude & Marcel, written with librettist Stephanie Fleischmann and director Elkhanah Pulitzer, commissioned by West Edge Opera and premiering in August 2027; and DRIFT, written with librettist J. Mae Barizo and director Mary Birnbaum, commissioned by Opera Saratoga, and made possible by a commissioning grant from Opera America’s 2024 Opera Grants for Women Composers, supported by the Virginia B. Toulmin Foundation.
Weinberg’s music has been performed by celebrated artists and ensembles around the world, including the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, Minnesota Orchestra, San Diego Symphony, Louisville Orchestra, and the New Jersey Symphony Orchestra, as well as So Percussion, yMusic, PUBLIQuartet, and the Aizuri Quartet. She has received commissions and awards from organizations including Chamber Music America, Copland House, New Music USA, FringeArts and the Pennsylvania Ballet, Paris Dance Project, the Barnes Foundation, and the Curtis Institute of Music. Alyssa’s percussion music has been celebrated for its inventive use of color and innovative performance techniques, most notably for her prepared vibraphone duo Table Talk which has received hundreds of performances across the globe.
Weinberg’s poetic monodrama ISOLA, a prismatic meditation on time, mental health, and isolation written in collaboration with librettist J. Mae Barizo, was premiered by Long Beach Opera in February 2024 to critical acclaim, and she was awarded a 2022 Opera America Discovery Grant to facilitate the development of DRIFT, an opera with collaborator Barizo centering themes of migration, motherhood and climate change.
A dedicated educator, Weinberg currently teaches at Peabody Conservatory, Mannes School of Music, and Juilliard Pre-college. She is the Founding Director of the Composers Institute at the Lake George Music Festival, a summer program that centers mentorship and community alongside the craft of composition.
Alyssa Weinberg holds a PhD in composition from Princeton University, as well as degrees from Vanderbilt University, Manhattan School of Music, and the Curtis Institute of Music.