Mizzou composition alumnus Trey Makler has been selected as one of the composers for the 2018 season of OperaComp, The Juilliard School’s “incubator of revolutionary opera from the next generation of composers and writers.”

Makler (pictured) graduated from Mizzou in 2016 and now is living in New York City, studying for an MM in composition at Juilliard. He’s one of six composers taking part in this year’s OperaComp program, for which he has written original music for a scene from “Let Them Eat Cake,” a new short play by librettist and Juilliard playwriting program graduate Ted Malawer. Arthur Makaryan, a master’s student at Columbia University and the current opera directing fellow at Juilliard, is directing the scene.

All six of the new OperaComp works were premiered by singers and a pianist in performances on March 17 and 18 at Juilliard, and will be performed again, this time accompanied by a chamber ensemble, on Sunday, April 22 at the NYC venue National Sawdust.

A native of Farmington, MO, Makler in 2015 was the winner of the Sinquefield Composition Prize, Mizzou’s top award for a student composer, and was one of eight resident composers for the 2016 Mizzou International Composers Festival. In addition to his current studies, he also is a teaching artist fellow with Juilliard’s Office of Community Engagement; assists composition faculty with Juilliard’s conservatory-style music advancement program; and teaches an arts integration curriculum focused on composers from diverse backgrounds to fourth and fifth graders at George Jackson Academy in the Lower East Side of Manhattan.

Now in its second season, OperaComp is an American opera theater artist collective involving collaboration among composers, playwrights, directors, singers, actors, instrumentalists, and designers from The Juilliard School, Columbia University, Fordham University, and NYU.