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MARCH 2022

  • Opera Del West performs Pepito. *Postponed from March 2020 due to COVID19.

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FEBRUARY 2022​

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DECEMBER 2021

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NOVEMBER 2021

  • Marella produces and records Elinor & Marianne, a double song cycle with music by Aferdian, for The Rally Cat. Directed by Timothy Koch, the Jane Austen-inspired concept album was recorded at Sound on Sound Studios and features performances by mezzo-soprano Meagan Martin as Elinor Dashwood, Jana McIntyre as Marianne Dashwood, Douglas Sumi as Piano Elinor, and Chérie Roe as Piano Marianne. 

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OCTOBER 2021

  • Marella directs the AMDA Plus Musical Theater Showcase for graduates from the Class of 2020. Featuring a cast of nine women, the project centers feminine agency and expression through characters spanning the last century, from Nadine in The Wild Party (LaChiusa/Wolfe) and Vincent in Renascence (Dean/Scanlan) to Chess in We Are The Tigers (Allen) and Deb in Ordinary Days (Gwon). Special thanks to music director Micah Young for a delightful collaboration.

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SEPTEMBER 2021

  • Excerpts from 28th Ave, music by Michael Lanci, are presented by The American Opera Project's Scene & Heard in Fort Greene Park. Brilliantly directed by Katie Madison, the staged presentation is captured by filmmaker Deborah Cowell, music directed by Mila Henry, and features the incomparable talents of Mario Diaz-Moresco, Blythe Gaissert, and Nina Riley. 

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AUGUST 2021

  • Dolores is named the winner of the inaugural West Edge Opera Aperture commission. Marella and Nick begin work on the full-length opera ahead of a first look in 2023.

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JULY 2021

  • Marella and Nick conduct research and interviews for their opera Dolores.

 

JUNE 2021

  • Marella and Michael workshop their 90-minute comedic chamber opera 28th Ave with The American Opera Project.

  • Marella directs new short works by Jarrett Murray, Eliana Theologides Rodriguez, and Paulo K Tiról for Gen Speak at Rattlestick Playwrights Theater / Greenwich House.

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MAY 2021

  • Marella and fellow NYU alum Tyler J. Rubin ("TJ") premiere their ten-minute opera Ten Minutes in the Life or Death of... at West Edge Opera's Snapshot 2021. 

  • Emily Misch, Will Meinert, and Audrey Chait of Parea Series record a concert version of For Mom, a new twenty-minute digital opera written with music by composer Michael Lanci performed by Unheard-of//Ensemble.  

  • Marella directs 20-minute sizzle reel presentations of Operation: Fake Meat by Anastasia Johnson and Sinan Usta (aka Sinastasia), Leonardo: Dreams of Flight by Nori Hung and Joe Badore, My Pet Dragon by Maggie Moe and Joshua Vranas, The Whisper by Kerry Kazmierowicztrimm and Zane Bridwell, and Underland by Alstrael Evans, Spencer Grubb, and Kat Cartusciello for the NYU/Tisch Graduate Musical Theatre Writing Program.

  • Selections from Village Song receive an encore presentation at Lincoln Center's Bruno Walter Auditorium as part of John Znidarsic's Broadway's Future Songbook, co-hosted by Mindi Dickstein. 

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APRIL 2021

  • Marella and Nick complete their "Sprint" with West Edge Opera's inaugural Aperture commissioning program.

  • Village Song at Rattlestick Playwrights Theater extends for three additional weeks.

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MARCH 2021

  • New Opera West releases the animated short film of Pepito, co-directed by Marella, Emily Thebaut, and Nick, with animation direction by Esperanza Guevara and animation by Connor Jacobs. Check out the film and the feature on TheBark.com.

  • Village Song at Rattlestick Playwrights Theater extends for three additional weeks. Don't miss this gorgeous love letter to the people, spirit, and history of The Village! 

  • Marella

 

FEBRUARY 2021

  • Village Song, a collaboration between NYU/Tisch and Rattlestick Playwrights Theater, is released. Stream it free here.

  • Nick and Marella interview legendary labor and civil rights activist Dolores Huerta in preparation for their new opera Dolores. 

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JANUARY 2021​

  • The Rally Cat incorporates. After three years, this is an exciting milestone! 

  • Marella completes the libretto for a new one-act opera, For Mom, written with Michael for Emily Misch and Will Meinert, co-founders of the delightful online opera company Parea Series. 

  • Nick and Marella are named Finalists in West Edge Opera's Aperture Program. From January to April, they will participate in a developmental "Sprint" as they work on their proposed full-length opera Dolores. To be part of the process, subscribe for an Aperture membership. 

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NOVEMBER 2020

  • Marella directs Village Song, an original song cycle written by second-year students in the Graduate Musical Theatre Writing Program at NYU/Tisch School of the Arts for Rattlestick Playwrights Theatre. 

  • Steve Aiken and Shreveport Opera produce a beautiful, socially-distanced production of Pepito at the Riverview Theater.

  • Marella and Aferdian teach a songwriting workshop for high school students with The Rally Cat.

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OCTOBER 2020

  • Nick and Marella are selected for the inaugural West Edge Opera Aperture Portfolio, an online new opera development portal that lets subscribers in on the action behind the scenes. Check it out! 

  • Marella completes the libretto for The Dashwood Sisters, a new chamber opera with music by Aferdian, which will premiere in NYC in Fall 2021 under the direction of Timothy Koch. 

  • Marella completes the libretto for Tres Minutos, a new opera with music by Nicolas Lell Benavides, commissioned by Music of Remembrance for a Fall 2022 premiere. 

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JUNE 2020

  • Marella completes the libretto for 28th Ave, a new comedic chamber opera written with composer Michael Lanci. The opera will be featured in Fall 2021in The American Opera Project's Composers & The Voice program.

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MAY 2020

  • The Pepito album drops on Bandcamp, iTunes, Apple Music, TikTok, and the rest! Thanks to Chris Ruel for his beautiful and insightful review in Operawire of Nick and my first album. Samuel J. Weiser, Alexandra Nowakowski, Alexandra Christoforakis Dixon, and Joshua Blue are pure magic on this recording (and always). 

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APRIL 2020

  • Pepito receives its online premiere via livestream and is enjoyed by over 2.7K people! Opera America and David Salazar at Operawire helped us get the word out - thanks to both.

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FEBRUARY 2020

  • Marella and Nick conduct research and interviews for their upcoming commission, Tres Minutos, for Music of Remembrance. 

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JANUARY 2020

  • Marella and Nick head to Berkeley, CA to workshop scenes from Gilberto at West Edge Opera for Snapshot 2020. 

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DECEMBER 2019

  • Marella and Nick's little dog opera Pepito debuts in Nashville, Tennessee at Nashville Opera on a double bill with Giano Carlo Menotti's Amahl and the Night Visitors. Check out the rave review here! 

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OCTOBER 2019

  • Marella, John, and Jonathan's one-act musical makes its West Coast premiere at La Jolla Playhouse in Hall Pass. Tickets! 

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SEPTEMBER 2019

  • Marella and Nick's little dog opera Pepito receives a professional original cast recording  thanks to the Presser Foundation and the support of many incredible family, friends, and colleagues. 

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AUGUST 2019

  • Marella and Nick's work is featured in a concert at the Glimmerglass Festival. The extremely talented Young Artists perform their dog opera Pepito along with selections from their forthcoming full-length opera Gilberto, inspired by 1950s Oakland and Nick's grandfather's service overseas in the Korean War. Ellen Jackson directs the evening, and Kamna Gupta conducts.

  • Marella completes revisions for a new production of Make Your Mark (written with lyricist John Blaylock and composer Jonathan Fadner) in collaboration with Blindspot Collective at the La Jolla Playhouse Without Walls Festival this fall.

 

JULY 2019

  • Friends gather for an informal table read of Marella's new full-length play Friend Animals. 

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MAY 2019

  • Glimmerglass Festival hosts Nick as the first-ever Young Artist Composer and presents a selection from his and Marella's upcoming opera Gilberto, sung by Ben Schaefer, at New York Botanical Garden. 

  • Marella directs a workshop of Laura Barati and Aleksandra Weil's one-act opera Uprising at The Tank NYC. 

  • Just-launched New Opera West presents a selection of Nick and Marella's short opera Pepito as well as the first fifteen minutes of Gilberto at Art Share L.A.

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APRIL 2019

  • Marella directs a workshop of Sarah Fiete's Edgar Allan Poe adapted musical Pym at Dixon Place. 

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MARCH 2019

  • Marella guest lectures on libretto-writing at UCLA Herb Alpert School of Music in graduate level Opera Independent Study course led by Peter Kazaras and Richard Danielpour.   

  • Marella and Nick develop the first fifteen minutes of their upcoming full-length opera Gilberto, based on Nick's grandfather's service overseas in the Korean War, at USC's New Opera Works. 

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JANUARY 2019

  • Under the baton of Maestro Steven Osgood and the mentorship of Gene Scheer and Jake Heggie, Marella and composer Nicolas Lell Benavides premiere "Pepito," their new 20-minute opera, at Washington National Opera at the Kennedy Center as part of the American Opera Initiative Festival. Read more about their opera and the festival from Anne Midgette in The Washington Post, Susan Galbraith in DC Theatre Scene, and Charles T. Downey in Washington Classical Review.

 

NOVEMBER 2018

  • Marella launches The Rally Cat Creative Lab, a healthy collaborative environment that fosters connection, innovation, courage, and love to support an intentional collaborative community of artists across disciplines generating new work together and individually. 

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OCTOBER 2018

  • Marella and composer Minhui Lee are artists in residence with Catwalk Institute and collaborate with director Timothy Koch on Adam & Eve, an everyman musical revue. 

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SEPTEMBER 2018

  • Marella heads to Washington, DC with composer Nick Benavides for the piano-vocal workshop of their new opera Pepito at Washington National Opera under the mentorship of Jake Heggie, Gene Scheer, Steven Osgood, and Rob Ainsley. 

  • Marella directs a remount of 2018: A Musical Revue for Two River Theater. 

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MAY 2018

  • Under the mentorship of Richard Maltby, Jr., Marella directs the first workshop of 2018: A Musical Revue, a new full-length work written by students in the NYU/Tisch School of the Arts Graduate Musical Theatre Writing Program and featuring actors from the NYU/Tisch New Studio on Broadway. 

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APRIL 2018

  • Marella directs the first reading of Pym, a new musical adaptation of Edgar Allan Poe's only novel, The Narrative of Arthur Gordon Pym, with book, music, and lyrics by Sarah Fiete. 

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MARCH 2018

  • Historian Robert Darnton, author of The Great Cat Massacre: And Other Episodes in French Cultural History attends the closing performance of The Great Cat Massacre. 

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FEBRUARY 2018

  • Prospect Theater Company premieres Marella and Min's new short musical 5th Grade Prison Ship at TheTimesCenter directed by Dev Bondarin.

  • The Great Cat Massacre, written by Greg Moss and Casey O'Neil and directed by Marella Martin Koch, opens at the Kraine Theater in the 12th Annual Frigid Festival to rave reviews. Hi! Drama calls the show "one of the funniest, cleverly staged, brilliantly acted fringiest musicals with rousing music and roasting lyrics." France-Amérique runs a profile on the show and the true history that inspired it. Marella and Min discuss the project with Sarah Brown on the podcast She's An Artist.

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JANUARY 2018

  • Marella directs a 29-hour reading of MandaLeigh Blunt's Captain X for Artemis Theatrical.

  • Marella begins rehearsals for The Great Cat Massacre by Greg Moss and Casey O'Neil.

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DECEMBER 2017

  • Marella directs a 29-hour reading of Hyena in Petticoats by Lily Dwoskin and Austin Nuckols at The Dramatists Guild.

  • Marella and Min's newest song, "A Message from Shannon," debuts at the Bruno Walter Auditorium at Lincoln Center. It is performed by frequent collaborator Shannon Tyo.

  • Marella and Aferdian complete Elinor Dashwood, a second song cycle commissioned by Meagan Martin, mezzo-soprano.

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NOVEMBER 2017

  • Marella directs an evening-length presentation of selections from her work over the past ten years for Jamaica Center for Arts & Learning's First Friday Series.

  • Marella is named Director-in-Residence for Artemis Theatrical.

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OCTOBER 2017

  • Marella and TJ Rubin complete and record a new short opera, Ten Minutes in the Life or Death Of...

  • Marella directs selections from Captain X, a Celtic rock female pirate musical with book, music, and lyrics by MandaLeigh Blunt.

  • Marella directs The Grinding Woman, a one-act horror play by Sarah Fiete, at The Players Theatre.

  • Marella directs a cabaret version of The Great Cat Massacre by Casey O'Neil and Greg Moss at The Kraine Theatre. The project is music directed by Mark T Evans.

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AUGUST 2017

  • The Pocono Mountains Music Festival presents Marella and Casey's musical Danny & The Rocket directed by Jessica Holt, music directed by Meg Zervoulis, and starring Daniel Plimpton as Danny and Stephanie Martignetti as Gloria.

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JUNE 2017

  • Marella and frequent collaborator Jonathan Fadner of Common Man Musicals debut a new song for the launch of "You Can Always Come Home Again," an original CMM cabaret series at Main Street Theatre and Dance Alliance on Roosevelt Island.

  • Marella is engaged to direct Captain X, a new musical written by MandaLeigh Blunt. A reading is planned for late summer 2017.

  • Marella directs a 29-hour reading of The Elephant in the Room, a new song cycle by Casey O'Neil.

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APRIL - MAY 2017

  • A workshop production of Danny & The Rocket, directed by Kent Nicholson, is presented by Tisch New Musical Theatre Workshop. New York, NY.

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                                                                                  Photo by Mehmet Salih Yildirim

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  • Marella and Aferdian's Jane Austen song cycle "Marianne Dashwood, Songs of Love and Misery" is performed by Sarah Saturnino at Yale School of music. New Haven, CT.

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MARCH 2017

  • Marella and Aferdian's Jane Austen song cycle Marianne Dashwood, Songs of Love and Misery is performed by Meagan Martin, mezzo-soprano, and Douglas Sumi, pianist, at the SUNY Plattsburgh Jane Austen & the Arts Conference. East Coast Premiere. Plattsburgh, NY. In the May 2017 issue of Northern Home, Garden & Leisure, Kathleen Recchia calls the presentation a "featured talent treat" of the conference. 

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Photo by Kathleen Recchia

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FEBRUARY 2017

  • Marella is invited to participate in Broadway's Future Songbook at Lincoln Center. "Be the Dust" from Adam & Eve (composed by Minhui Lee) and "The Universe" from Danny & The Rocket (music by Casey O'Neil) will be performed in the free concert, A Call for Hope: New Songs of Inspiration. New York, NY. Playbill.com

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JANUARY 2017

  • Marella and Casey participate in the TheatreWorks Writer's Retreat. Silicon Valley, CA.

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DECEMBER 2016

  • Marella directs 29-hr reading of The Great Cat Massacre, a new musical by Greg Moss and Casey O'Neil. New York, NY.

  • Marella and Casey are selected for the 2017 January Writer's Retreat at TheatreWorks. Silicon Valley, CA.

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OCTOBER 2016

  • "Carry Us/Till Forever," the finale of Marella and Casey's full-length musical Danny & The Rocket, is performed by Tisch undergraduates as part of the Tisch Parents' Council Meeting. New York, NY.

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SEPTEMBER 2016

  • Marella and Casey speak to first-years in the Graduate Musical Theatre Writing Program about collaboration.

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AUGUST 2016

  • Marella and Jonathan's one-act How Love Feels receives a cabaret production at Mr. Finn's Cabaret at Barrington Stage Company. Pittsfield, MA.

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JULY 2016

  • Timothy Koch directs the world premiere of Marella and Minhui's one-act Adam and Eve, with Shannon Tyo and David Mahokey. The production is designed by Yu-Ting Lin (Set) and Catherine Clark (Lighting) and music directed by Minhui Lee. New York, NY.

  • Marella begins work on Bed, a new musical written with Faye Greenberg and David Evans.

  • Marella completes the screenplay for the short film #9, for Paul Turbiak's Dogme 95-influenced Ten Commandments.

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JUNE 2016

 

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MAY 2016

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  • Marella collaborates with director Makiko Shibuya to write the screenplay for the musical dance film Luv, Connected?!

 

JANUARY 2016

  • Marella and Aferdian complete "Marianne Dashwood, Songs of Love and Misery," a song cycle inspired by Jane Austen's Sense and Sensibility commissioned by mezzo-soprano Meagan Martin. Los Angeles, CA.

  • Marella completes Trio of Monologues commissioned by Jeff Meyer. Chicago, IL.

 

DECEMBER 2015

  • Marella and Jonathan's one-act musical How Love Feels receives showcase production directed by Steven Eng and music directed by Mark Evans, starring Lisa Helmi Johanson, Kennedy Kanagawa and Sam Simahk in National Asian Artists' Project's annual Discover: New Musicals series. New York, NY. Playbill.com

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  • Marella and Casey's musical Danny & The Rocket receives funded developmental reading, directed by May Adrales, from Tisch New Musical Theatre Workshop. New York, NY.

 

OCTOBER - NOVEMBER 2015

  • Marella acts as the associate producer on the 29-hour reading of The Connector, a new play by Tim Murray, directed by Timothy Koch. New York, NY.

 

JULY - AUGUST 2015

  • Marella assists on the production of the new youth opera, Then I Stood Up: A Civil Rights Song Cycle, by Eli Villanueva and Leslie Stevens. The cycle focuses on the fight for social justice over the past century, and includes selections from Brundibar by Hans Krása and Adolf Hoffmeister. She works with her friends Haskell Wexler, Joan Churchill, Alan Barker, and Paul Ferrazzi to document the process. Los Angeles, CA. 

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MAY 2015

  • Marella produces "24@54," the NYU Tisch Graduate Musical Theatre Writing Program Showcase at 54 Below. BroadwayWorld.com 

  • John Dumpty, libretto by Marella Martin Koch and music by Aferdian Stephens, receives its first 29-hour reading at NYU Tisch's Department of Graduate Musical Theatre Writing, directed by Kent Nicholson. Sybille Pearson acts as an advisor to the project. New York, NY.

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APRIL 2015

  • Marella receives the NYU President's Service Award. New York, NY.

  • Danny & The Rocket, book and lyrics by Marella Martin Koch and music by Casey O'Neil, receives its first 29-hour reading at NYU Tisch's Department of Graduate Musical Theatre Writing, directed by May Adrales. Sarah Schlesinger acts as an advisor to the project. New York, NY.

 

JANUARY 2015

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