Residencies
Shelley Washington
Composer in Residence
Martha Graham Dance Company
Artistic Partner
Residencies at LBO
Shelley Washington, whose work with LBO includes composing an episode of the 2021 operatic miniseries desert in and creating new orchestrations for Handel’s Giustino in 2022, becomes the company’s new composer in residence for two years. During her residency, she will write her first full-length operatic work, NELL, based on the shocking true story of Nell Theobald and her obsession with opera singer Birgit Nilsson. The opera will have its world premiere at LBO in 2024 in a production directed by James Darrah.
Utilizing Martha Graham’s own body of choreography, fragments of unfinished pieces from their archives, and the Martha Graham Dance Company’s ongoing foray into diverse, new choreography, this partnership will explore new work and create new productions for LBO, both in the LA area and for venues on tour. James Darrah and Christopher Rountree will work with Janet Eilber, the Graham Company’s artistic director, and their superb roster of dancers and guest choreographers to craft a three-year partnership between LBO and the Graham Company that explores a deeper connection between dance and opera.
2022-2024 Composer in Residence
Shelley Washington
SOUTHERN-BORN AND MIDWEST-RAISED SHELLEY WASHINGTON WRITES MUSIC TO FULFILL ONE CALLING- - - - - - - - - - TO MOVE.
With an eclectic palette that draws elements from jazz, rock, American folk and other contemporary musical spaces, Washington (b. 1991) seeks to tell memorable sonic stories that comment on current and past social narratives, both personal and observed. Her music has been described as "slightly wild, slightly mysterious” while having the ability to "powerfully [tell] stories" (Peter Alexander).
Shelley is a 2018 recipient of the Jerome Fund for New Music Award and will write a new work for the trio Bearthoven for their upcoming season. In the early fall of 2017, she embarked on her first tour with the Schiele String Quartet to Savannah, Georgia, where her string quartets MIDDLEGROUND and SAY were performed throughout the city. She was also able to work with the students of the Kaufman Music Center’s Face the Music program on her string quartet, MIDDLEGROUND, in 2017. Her relentless baritone saxophone duo, BIG Talk, recorded by herself and saxophonist Dr. José Cabán, was recently released by Brooklyn-based label, People | Places | Records. This was her first widely distributed work available on multiple streaming platforms. Her piece, The Farthest, for choir and chamber ensemble was commissioned by the Brooklyn Youth Chorus for their “Silent Voices” series and premiered in April of 2018. Shelley is also an active performer, and performs regularly as a vocalist and solo saxophonist, primarily wielding the baritone saxophone. She has performed and recorded with ensembles throughout Kansas City, Des Moines, Brooklyn and New York City- anything from Baroque to Screamo. She is also a founding member of the composer collective, Kinds of Kings, which celebrated their debut concert in Tampa, Florida in partnership with Terroir New Music and the Bake n' Babes in March of 2018.
Washington holds degrees from Truman State University; a Bachelor of Arts in Music focusing on saxophone, and a Master of Arts in Education. She completed the Master of Music in Theory and Composition from NYU Steinhardt in 2017, where she studied with Dr. Joseph Church, Julia Wolfe, and Caroline Shaw. As an educator, she has taught with the New York Philharmonic Very Young Composers program, and also taught budding composers in the Young Composers and Improvisers Workshop. Shelley was the Artistic Director for the Noel Pointer Foundation, located in Brooklyn, NY. Washington now resides in Princeton, New Jersey, and began studies towards the PhD in Music Composition at Princeton University in the Fall of 2018. Shelley is a founding member of the composer collective, Kinds of Kings.
2022-2025 Artistic Partner
Martha Graham Dance Company
Martha Graham and her Company have expanded contemporary dance’s vocabulary of movement and forever altered the scope of the art form by rooting works in contemporary social, political, psychological, and sexual contexts, deepening their impact and resonance.
Always a fertile ground for experimentation, Martha Graham Dance Company has been an unparalleled resource in nurturing many of the leading choreographers and dancers of the 20th and 21st centuries, including Merce Cunningham, Anna Sokolow, Erick Hawkins, Pearl Lang, Sir Robert Cohan, Donald McKayle, Elisa Monte, Jacquelyn Buglisi, Paul Taylor and many others.
Graham’s repertoire of 181 works has also engaged noted performers such as Mikhail Baryshnikov, Claire Bloom, Margot Fonteyn, Liza Minnelli, Rudolf Nureyev, Maya Plisetskaya, and Kathleen Turner. Her groundbreaking techniques and unmistakable style have earned the Company acclaim from audiences in more than 50 countries throughout North and South America, Europe, Africa, Asia, and the Middle East.
Today, the Company continues to foster Graham’s spirit of ingenuity.
It is embracing a new programming vision that showcases masterpieces by Graham alongside newly commissioned works by contemporary artists inspired by Graham’s legacy. With programs that unite the work of choreographers across time within a rich historical and thematic narrative, the Company is actively working to create new platforms for contemporary dance and multiple points of access for audiences.
Martha Graham Dance Company’s 2022-23 repertory includes new works by Hofesh Shechter and Sonya Tayeh with Alleyne Dance, Sir Robert Cohan, Jenn Freeman, Juliano Nunes, Micaela Taylor, and Yin Yue alongside iconic Graham masterpieces Appalachian Spring, Lamentation, and Chronicle. The Company continues to expand its mission to present the work of its founder and her contemporaries, and remains a leader by catalyzing new works with commissions that bring fresh perspectives to dance classics.
The Martha Graham Dance Company has performed at the Metropolitan Opera, Carnegie Hall, the Paris Opera House, Covent Garden, and the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts, as well as at the base of the Great Pyramids in Egypt and in the ancient Odeon of Herodes Atticus theatre on the Acropolis in Athens.