Composer Gregory Spears Announces 2025-2026 Season Highlights

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Composer Gregory Spears Announces 2025-2026 Season Highlights

The World Premiere of His Newest Opera, Sleepers Awake, at Opera Philadelphia

Multi-Year National Tour Marking the 10th Anniversary of Fellow Travelers, Launching with Guggenheim Works & Process and Performances at Seattle Opera, Portland Opera, San Diego Opera, and The Glimmerglass Festival

World Premiere of Secrets at The Frick Collection for Early and Modern Instruments

World Premiere of Bartleby for Mezzo-Soprano Jennifer Johnson Cano and Pianist Christopher Cano at the Tucson Desert Song Festival

World Premiere of a New Short Work for MasterVoices at Alice Tully Hall

Performances of Spears’ A New Sanctus, Benedictus, and Agnus Dei – His Completion of Mozart’s Requiem – by the Columbus Symphony and Chorus and by the New York Choral Society at Alice Tully Hall

“Astonishingly beautiful” – The New York Times

“A singular compositional voice, unlike any that has been heard in opera before” – The New Yorker

www.gregoryspears.com 

New York, NY (October 8, 2025) – Composer Gregory Spears – acclaimed for works that blend “touches of minimalism with post-Romantic lyricism and hints of Schubertian majesty” (Gramophone Magazine) – announces a milestone 2025-2026 season, including the debut of his newest opera, Sleepers Awake, at Opera Philadelphia, and the launch of a national, multi-year tour celebrating the tenth anniversary of his critically acclaimed opera Fellow Travelers. The season includes three additional premieres, beginning with a presentation by The Frick Collection of Spears’ Secrets, a work for early and modern instruments based on a painting from the museum’s permanent collection. MasterVoices will premiere a short new work as part of a collaborative cycle on the Seven Deadly Sins at Alice Tully Hall, and the Tucson Desert Song Festival will present the world premiere of Bartleby, a song cycle for mezzo-soprano Jennifer Johnson Cano and pianist Christopher Cano. 

Spears’ newest opera, Sleepers Awake, receives its world premiere with Opera Philadelphia at the Academy of Music from April 22 to 26, 2026. Inspired by the writings of modernist Swiss author Robert Walser and other literary sources, this reimagining of Sleeping Beauty creates a singular, dream-like meditation on the classic fairy tale. Praised for writing “exquisitely for vocal ensembles” (The Wall Street Journal), Spears fashions a hypnotic, labyrinthine soundscape in which the Opera Philadelphia Chorus sings itself in and out of slumber. Conceived with and directed by Jenny Koons, this visually dazzling production transforms the stage into a liminal space, blurring the fragile boundary between waking and dreaming.

The story follows The Stranger (Jonghyun Park), who wakes Thorn Rose (Susanne Burgess) and her companions from a century-long sleep. But instead of gratitude, they express annoyance. Thorn Rose and The Court Poet (Brian Major) recount the tale of the curse that doomed them to slumber, yet they remain unable to cross fully into wakefulness, repeatedly slipping back into sleep. Voices and music weave the audience into a fractured, cyclical world where time folds in on itself. Prior to its world premiere in April 2026, Sleepers Awake will be explored in a 10-day workshop through Opera Fusion: New Works, a new works development partnership between Cincinnati Opera and the University of Cincinnati College-Conservatory of Music, concluding with a public presentation on November 8, 2025.

Gregory Spears’ operas have been staged by leading companies in the U.S. and abroad, with his best-known work, Fellow Travelers, featuring a libretto by Greg Pierce, hailed as a modern classic. Based on Thomas Mallon's 2007 novel, Fellow Travelers speaks to the experiences of LGBTQ Americans who were banned from government employment and subject to humiliating investigations in the mid-20th century. The world premiere at Cincinnati Opera in 2016 was praised as "one of the most accomplished new operas I have seen in recent years" (Chicago Tribune) and an opera that "seems assured of lasting appeal" (The New York Times). Since then, Fellow Travelers has been staged by more than a dozen companies. To mark the opera’s tenth anniversary in 2026, Fellow Travelers will be performed in a multi-year national tour with 2026 dates including Seattle Opera (February 21–March 1, 2026), Portland Opera (March 7-15, 2026), San Diego Opera (July 10-12, 2026), and The Glimmerglass Festival (July 18–August 16, 2026). Headed by director Kevin Newbury and producer Jecca Barry, and produced by New York-based artistic collective Up Until Now, the tour will also come to Austin Opera in 2027. The touring production will partner with the American LGBTQ Museum on the Lavender Names Project, a "nationwide grassroots archival research and community outreach initiative," to engage libraries, universities, and LGBTQ organizations in each city. A curated lobby installation for each performance will feature exhibits detailing the history of the Lavender Scare documented in Fellow Travelers. The tour kicks off with a Guggenheim Works & Process event on Sunday, October 19, 2025 in New York City. Opera Parallèle’s production of Fellow Travelers will also be staged this season at Pittsburgh Opera (November 14-16, 2025). 

On February 1, 2026, The Frick Collection in New York City presents the world premiere of Secrets, inspired by Giovanni Battista Moroni’s Portrait of a Woman (1575) from the museum’s permanent collection. The work will be performed by New York-based viol consort Sonnambula – The Frick’s ensemble-in-residence – and vocal trio ModernMedieval Voices, utilizing a blend of modern instruments and period instruments, including Renaissance viols. Fusing the past and the present into a singular look is a specialty of the Italian Renaissance painter Giovanni Battista Moroni (ca. 1520-78). In his work, particularly in his portraits, the sitter’s cryptic gaze confronts our own and draws us into a relationship that transcends the frame and extends across time. Secrets will do the same by fusing musical styles from the Renaissance to the 21st century in a new composition performed live. By presenting this work in art museums, performers will bring the “now” of live performance to a place where viewers routinely confront the past through the medium of visual art, aiming to bring sound to the gallery space in a way that amplifies the quiet communion between modern viewers and the historical figures who gaze back at them. 

The Tucson Desert Song Festival unveils Bartleby, a song cycle based on Herman Melville’s enigmatic short story, on Tuesday, April 7, 2026 at the University of Arizona. Written for mezzo-soprano Jennifer Johnson Cano and pianist Christopher Cano, the work will be performed by the duo in its world premiere. Part monodrama, part song cycle, this major new work tells the story of Melville’s famous “scrivener” (scribe) who has intrigued philosophers and literature fans alike with his inscrutable refrain: “I would prefer not to.” Bartleby is being composed as a companion work to Spears’ earlier song cycle Walden (based on Thoreau). Both monodramas explore the minds of isolated figures who, in their iconoclastic manner, embody the paradoxes of 19th-century American Romanticism. 

On March 23 and 24, 2026 in Alice Tully Hall at Lincoln Center, MasterVoices will premiere a short new work by Spears as part of a larger song cycle on the Seven Deadly Sins. Spears is featured as one of seven powerhouse composers spanning the worlds of Broadway and classical music assembled by Artistic Director Ted Sperling to create SEVEN: A Cycle of Sins. Filled with fire, drama, and humor, SEVEN will be presented alongside Fauré’s Requiem in D Minor, showcasing soprano and baritone soloists along with the MasterVoices Chorus and a chamber orchestra incorporating Alice Tully Hall’s majestic pipe organ.

A New Sanctus, Benedictus, and Agnus Dei, Spears’ completion of the Mozart Requiem, will be performed by the Columbus Symphony and Chorus at the Ohio Theatre on January 23 and 24, 2026, as well as by the New York Choral Society at Lincoln Center’s Alice Tully Hall on May 9, 2026. In his reimagining of the Requiem, Spears combines his interest in musicology with a lifelong respect for liturgical traditions. His three movements replace the commonly performed versions of the Sanctus, Benedictus, and Agnus Dei written by Franz Xaver Süssmayr, who completed the unfinished Requiem shortly after Mozart’s death. In his alternate completion of these movements, Spears pays homage to the juxtaposition of old and new styles apparent in Mozart’s late work and much of the liturgical music of the period. The piece was commissioned and premiered by Seraphic Fire and has since been performed throughout the U.S. and in Europe.

2025-2026 Season Calendar

Sunday, October 19, 2025 at 7:30 PM
Works & Process: Fellow Travelers 10th Anniversary Conversation and Live Excerpts
The Guggenheim Museum | New York, NY
Link: www.guggenheim.org/event/works-process-10th-anniversary-tour-kickoff-fellow-travelers-by-gregory-spears-and-greg-pierce 

Saturday, November 8, 2025 at 2:00 PM
Open Workshop: Sleepers Awake
Opera Fusion - New Works, Cincinnati Opera | Cincinnati, OH
Link: https://my.cincinnatiopera.org/ofnw2026/11082025 

Friday, November 14, 2025 at 7:00 PM
Saturday, November 15, 2025 at 7:00 PM
Sunday, November 16, 2025 at 2:00 PM
Pittsburgh Opera Presents Fellow Travelers 
Byham Theater | Pittsburgh, PA
Link: https://pittsburghopera.org/season/fellow-travelers 

Friday, January 23, 2026 at 7:30 PM
Saturday, January 24, 2026 at 7:30 PM
Columbus Symphony and Chorus Presents Spears’s A New Sanctus, Benedictus, Agnus Dei
Ohio Theater | Columbus, OH
Link: https://columbussymphony.com/event/mozarts-requiem/2026-01-24/ 

Sunday, February 1, 2026 at 5:00 PM
The Frick Collection Presents Sonnambula in Secrets [World Premiere]
The Frick Collection | New York, NY
Link: www.frick.org/calendar?eventid=186441648&trumbaEmbed=view=event&eventid=186441648 

Saturday, February 21, 2026 at 7:30 PM
Sunday, February 22, 2026 at 2:00 PM
Wednesday, February 25, 2026 at 7:30 PM
Friday, February 27, 2026 at 7:30 PM
Saturday, February 28, 2026 at 7:30 PM
Sunday, March 1, 2026 at 2:00 PM
Seattle Opera Presents Fellow Travelers
McCaw Hall | Seattle, WA
Link: www.seattleopera.org/performances-events/fellow-travelers/  

Saturday, March 7, 2026 at 7:30 PM
Wednesday, March 11, 2026 at 7:30 PM
Friday, March 13, 2026 at 7:30 PM
Sunday, March 15, 2026 at 2:00 PM
Portland Opera Presents Fellow Travelers 
Newmark Theatre | Portland, OR
Link: www.portlandopera.org/performances-tickets/25-26-season/fellow-travelers/ 

Tuesday, March 17, 2026 at 7:00 PM
Cincinnati Song Initiative Presents Walden (arr. Ethan Neal) for Baritone and String Quartet
All Saints Episcopal Church | Cincinnati, OH
Link: www.cincinnatisonginitiative.org/events/where-we-abide 

Monday, March 23, 2026 at 7:30 PM
Tuesday, March 24, 2026 at 7:30 PM
MasterVoices Presents Seven: A Cycle of Sins [World Premiere, Collective Work]
Alice Tully Hall, Lincoln Center | New York, NY
Link: www.mastervoices.org/events/sins-and-grace/  

Tuesday, April 7, 2026 at 7:00 PM
Tucson Desert Song Festival Presents Bartleby feat. Jennifer Johnson Cano & Christopher Cano [World Premiere]
UA School of Music, Holsclaw Hall | Tucson, AZ
Link: https://tucsondesertsongfestival.org/event/recital-jennifer-johnson-cano-mezzo-soprano-with-pianist-christopher-cano-featuring-the-world-premiere-of-a-new-festival-commissioned-song-cycle-by-gregory-spears/ 

Wednesday, April 22, 2026 at 7:00 PM
Friday, April 24, 2026 at 8:00 PM
Sunday, April 26, 2026 at 2:00 PM
Opera Philadelphia Presents Sleepers Awake [World Premiere]
Academy of Music | Philadelphia, PA
Link: www.operaphila.org/whats-on/2526-season/sleepers-awake/  

Saturday, May 9, 2026 at 7:30 PM
The New York Choral Society Presents Spears’s A New Sanctus, Benedictus, Agnus Dei
Alice Tully Hall | Lincoln Center, New York, NY
Link: https://nychoral.org/requiem-25/ 

Friday, July 10, 2026 at 7:30 PM
Saturday, July 11, 2026 at 7:30 PM
Sunday, July 12, 2026 at 2:00 PM
San Diego Opera Presents Fellow Travelers
Balboa Theater | San Diego, CA
Link: www.sdopera.org/shows/fellow-travelers/  

Saturday, July 18, 2026
Saturday, August 1, 2026
Tuesday, August 4, 2026
Friday, August 7, 2026
Monday, August 10, 2026
Sunday, August 16, 2026
The Glimmerglass Festival Presents Fellow Travelers
Alice Busch Opera Theater | Cooperstown, NY
Link: https://glimmerglass.org/2025/07/the-glimmerglass-festival-unveils-2026-season/ 

More About Gregory Spears
Praised for “astonishingly beautiful” (The New York Times) music and a “singular compositional voice, unlike any that has been heard in opera before” (The New Yorker), composer Gregory Spears is acclaimed for his distinctive blend of romanticism, minimalism, and early music influences, which seeks to collapse layers of history into one moment, our own.  His works – spanning opera, orchestral, chamber, and vocal music – are celebrated for their melodic richness, emotional clarity, and sensitivity to text. 

Spears has been commissioned by the New York Philharmonic, Lyric Opera of Chicago, Santa Fe Opera, Cincinnati Opera, Houston Grand Opera, Opera Philadelphia, Seraphic Fire, The Crossing, Bang on a Can, Volti, BMI/Concert Artists Guild, Vocal Arts DC, New York Polyphony, The New York International Piano Competition, JACK Quartet, and the New York Youth Symphony, among many others. 

Gregory Spears’ operas have been staged by leading companies in the U.S. and abroad, with his best-known work, Fellow Travelers (libretto by Greg Pierce), celebrated as a modern classic. The world premiere at Cincinnati Opera in 2016 was praised as "one of the most accomplished new operas I have seen in recent years" (Chicago Tribune) and an opera that "seems assured of lasting appeal" (The New York Times), and a commercial recording was released in 2017. Since then, Fellow Travelers has been staged by more than a dozen opera companies, including at the Prototype Festival in New York, Lyric Opera of Chicago, Minnesota Opera, Arizona Opera, Boston Lyric Opera, Opera Parallèle, and London’s University College Opera.

He has continued to shape the landscape of contemporary opera with works that marry innovative musical language with compelling storytelling. His opera The Righteous, with a libretto by former U.S. Poet Laureate Tracy K. Smith, was commissioned by Santa Fe Opera and premiered in 2024 to critical acclaim, earning a “Critic’s Pick” in The New York Times and was shortlisted for an International Opera Award. Earlier collaborations with Smith include Castor and Patience, commissioned for Cincinnati Opera’s centennial season and premiered in 2022, a work praised as “warm, steady, restrained” with “outpourings so fervent, the melodies so sweet, that you can find yourself moved nearly to tears” by The New York Times. In the 2021-2022 season, the New York Philharmonic commissioned and premiered Love Story, an orchestral song cycle for countertenor and orchestra, featuring another text by Smith. 

Spears’ first opera, Paul’s Case, based on the Willa Cather short story and written in collaboration with librettist Kathryn Walat, was called “a masterpiece” by The New York Observer and “a compact, alluring, and attractively obsessive work” by New York Magazine. Developed by American Opera Projects, it was premiered by Urban Arias in 2013, was restaged at the Prototype Festival in New York, and received a new production at Pittsburgh Opera in 2014. The original cast recording of Paul's Case was released on National Sawdust's record label in 2019. Spears and Walat also wrote the children’s opera Jason and the Argonauts, which premiered at Lyric Opera of Chicago in 2016 and has since been performed for more than 20,000 schoolchildren. His opera O Columbia, about space exploration, with a libretto by Royce Vavrek, premiered at Houston Grand Opera in 2015.

Beyond opera, Spears has developed a wide-ranging catalog of orchestral, choral, and chamber works. His Requiem, released by New Amsterdam Records, and Seven Days showcase his gift for balancing intimacy with dramatic scale. Seven Days was first introduced as a custom-designed app produced by 92nd Street Y in 2021 before its album release in 2025, both featuring pianist Pedja Mužijevic. Other notable commissions include The Bitter Good, written for New York Polyphony with support from Chamber Music America’s Classical Commissioning Program in 2016; The Tower and the Garden, a work for choir and string quartet underwritten by the Ann Stookey Fund for New Music and released on Parma Recordings by The Crossing in 2021; and his Double Trumpet Concerto in 2019, commissioned by Concert Artists Guild. He composed the soundtrack for Kit Monkman’s feature film Macbeth (2018), scored for mostly 18th-century instruments.

Spears is the recipient of numerous honors, including residencies from Yaddo, MacDowell, and the Copland House, and awards from BMI and ASCAP. He was a participant and later a composer mentor for The American Opera Project's Composers & the Voice Program, as well as a recent mentor composer for Washington National Opera's American Opera Initiative.

He is a graduate of the Eastman School of Music and Yale School of Music and earned a PhD in composition from Princeton University. He also studied as a Fulbright Scholar at the Royal Danish Academy in Copenhagen with composer Hans Abrahamsen.

Spears teaches at New York University, and his music is published by Schott Music and Schott PSNY. Learn more at www.gregoryspears.com. 

*Photo Credit: Dario Acosta

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