About Lori
Described by Fanfare Magazine as “one of the most talented and intriguing of living composers,” Lori Laitman has composed multiple operas and choral works, and hundreds of songs setting texts by classical and contemporary poets, including those who perished in the Holocaust. Her music is widely performed throughout the world and has generated substantial critical acclaim. The Journal of Singing wrote “It is difficult to think of anyone before the public today who equals her exceptional gifts for embracing a poetic text and giving it new and deeper life through music.”
In May 2016, Opera Colorado presented the World Premiere of Laitman’s opera The Scarlet Letter, with a libretto by David Mason. Of the subsequent Naxos release, Gramophone Magazine wrote: “The first thing that leaps into one’s ears is the sheer beauty of the music…and [Laitman's] ability to meld words with lyrical, often soaring lines is on abundant display in her…impressive and fervent opera.” It was named a Critic’s Choice by Opera News and one of the top 5 CDs of 2018 by Fanfare Magazine. Other Laitman and Mason collaborations include Vedem (commissioned, premiered and recorded by Music of Remembrance, and set for an Indianapolis Opera production in February 2021) and Ludlow, their opera-in-progress which explores the U.S. immigrant experience through the lens of the 1914 Colorado mining town disaster.
The Three Feathers, Laitman’s children's opera with librettist Dana Gioia, is based on a Grimm’s fairy tale, and was commissioned by the Center for the Arts at Virginia Tech, where it premiered in October 2014. Seattle Opera commissioned an abridged version which toured schools in Washington state in 2018. L'arietta Productions presented the international premiere in Singapore in November 2019, and a full production is being mounted by Opera Steamboat in August 2022. Laitman is currently finishing a chamber opera, Uncovered, based on Leah Lax's memoir. A finalist for the 2018 Pellicciotti Opera Prize, the work is due to premiere at Utah State University in April 2021.
Laitman continues to receive prestigious commissions, including from the BBC and The Royal Philharmonic Society, Opera America, Opera Colorado, Seattle Opera, Grant Park Music Festival, Washington Master Chorale, Music of Remembrance, and the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra. Her works have been featured on Thomas Hampson’s Song of America radio series and website and in The Grove Dictionary of American Music.
She is a magna cum laude Yale graduate and received her MM from The Yale School of Music. In May 2018, Laitman was the recipient of The Yale School of Music’s Ian Mininberg Alumni Award for Distinguished Service.