Composer Tina Tallon Awarded 2021-2022 Rome Prize

BOSTON, MA (May 1, 2021) — Guerilla Opera composer Tina Tallon was recently awarded the 2021-2022 Rome Prize and Italian Fellowships from the American Academy in Rome. These highly ambitious and competitive fellowships support advanced independent work and research in the arts and humanities. This year, the gift of “time and space to think and work” was awarded to thirty-five American and five Italian artists and scholars. Each winner will receive a stipend, workspace, and room and board at the Academy’s eleven-acre campus in Rome, starting in September 2021.

“We are all over the moon for her, and so thrilled we can support her on this journey and the important work she will be doing with her commissioned opera ‘SHRILL’” notes Artistic Director, Aliana de la Guardia. “I approached Tina in the winter of 2019 about writing an opera for us. After exploring a couple ideas, we all agreed that ‘SHRILL’, really had guts. It's the kind of story I love to take on and needs the kind of ferocity we can bring to the table.”

“SHRILL” is being developed for Guerilla Opera and is an interactive electroacoustic chamber opera which will examine how bias in the development and regulation of voice technology has shaped society. Everything from microphones to modes of transmission have been optimized for specific voices, and the gendered and racialized invective surrounding people from underrepresented demographics in the media has changed very little since the dawn of the broadcast era. This project is presented from the perspective of four minoritized vocal laborers, it will tackle questions of virtuality, embodiment, identity construction, and power. The set will include novel sculptural electronic instruments that engage performers and audience alike in embodied explorations of the resistance that different media and forms of representation pose to equity and advancement. “SHRILL” will allow listeners to examine their own internalized biases and advocate for voices that are silenced in our society by structural inequity.

Tallon is a Boston-based composer, computer musician, improviser, and arts documentarian completing her doctoral studies in composition at the University of California, San Diego. Her music has been performed around the world by ensembles and musicians such as the LA Philharmonic, Ensemble Intercontemporain, wild Up, Talea, and Transient Canvas, and her work has received awards and grants from ASCAP, NewMusicUSA, the Barlow Endowment, and PARMA music, among others.

Over the past few years, Tallon has completed extensive research on the topic of technology bias, and received notable attention after her first published article in the New Yorker. Also listen to NPR’s On The Media interview between Brooke Gladstone and Tina Tallon about her research on bias in voice technology.

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In daring performances Guerilla Opera has garnered a national reputation for innovative contemporary opera with The Boston Globe raving that “radical exploration remains the cornerstone of everything it does.” One of Boston’s most exciting young companies producing brave work, this artist-led ensemble’s mission is to commission and reenvision new and experimental works custom-tailored to our unique ensemble of artists. We champion cutting-edge music and immerse audiences in profound experiences. We provide a vehicle for creative authenticity, diversity, equity, and inclusion in order to inspire, influence and amplify emerging generations of artists and arts-lovers. Their vision is to generate a unique body of work that ferociously confronts the status quo, eschews antiquated and stereotypical traditions of the art form, examines stories through culturally focused and contemporary lenses, and brings new music to new audiences. (guerillaopera.org)