THE 2025 MINNESOTA
COMPOSER-LIBRETTIST STUDIO
FOR MUSICAL STORYTELLING
NOVEMBER 8 to November 23, 2025
Description:
The Nautilus Composer–Librettist Studio is a rare, hands-on opportunity for five writers and five composers to work side-by-side with five professional performers in an inspiring, intensive exploration of the possibilities of music-theater. Over the course of two-plus weeks, you’ll dive into a series of short creative assignments, exercises, fragments, and sketches designed not to produce finished pieces, but to stretch your skills, spark new ideas, and open artistic doors you may not have even known were there. Each time you create something new, it will be sight-read immediately by performers, allowing you to hear your work come alive and respond to it in real time.
Participants rotate collaborators frequently, so by the end of the Studio, every composer will have worked with every writer and every performer. The emphasis is on the developmental process, and on how artists work together and communicate creatively, rather than on developing existing projects. The program culminates in an informal reading of all the work generated, followed by public Rough Cuts presentations of selected pieces.
The Studio is co-directed by Ben Krywosz (Artistic Director of Nautilus Music-Theater) and Jill Dawe (music director), and all sessions take place in the Nautilus Studio in Lowertown Saint Paul. Free from the commercial pressures of opera or musical theater, this environment nurtures artistic risk-taking, creative trust, and genuine collaborative relationships. Since its founding in 1984, the program has been offered more than 70 times in cities including New York, San Francisco, Washington, Chicago, Portland, Los Angeles, and Miami, consistently fostering partnerships that have gone on to create and produce extraordinary new works.
This Minnesota-based Studio is open only to residents of the state. While no previous experience in opera or music-theater is required, it is intended primarily for writers and composers with some professional standing, and composers must have at least a basic ability to read and write musical notation. Graduate students may occasionally be considered, but undergraduates are unlikely to be accepted. If you are unsure about your eligibility, you are encouraged to email us at staff@nautilusmusictheater.org.
Time Commitment and Compensation:
The program runs from Saturday, November 8 through Sunday, November 23, 2025, with sessions primarily in the afternoons, plus a few mornings and evenings. The Rough Cuts presentations will take place on the evenings of Monday, November 24 and Tuesday, November 25. This is an intensive program that demands your full creative focus; past participants strongly recommend setting aside all other projects during this time, as most “off” hours will be spent writing and composing.
Because we view the Studio as an investment in the long-term growth of creative and performing artists, each composer, writer, and performer receives a $900 honorarium. Additional travel stipends may be available for those living outside the Twin Cities. Participants are selected through a competitive application process by a panel of program directors and past Studio participants. This activity is made possible in part by a generous grant from the Metropolitan Regional Arts Council, along with support from individual donors.
Application:
Applications are welcome from artists in all genres and styles of musical storytelling, including opera, musicals, alternative forms, song cycles, popular music, and hybrid approaches yet to be invented. No prior music-theater experience is necessary. Online applications are available at:
In order to fill out this form and submit your application online, you must have a Gmail account (which is free and easy to set up). Alternatively, you can send us an email us at:
to request a PDF version to complete by hand and return via mail or in person to our Lowertown Saint Paul studio. All application materials (including the form, résumé, scripts, scores, and recordings) must be received by Monday, September 15, 2025. If you are close to finishing but need an extra day or two, email us in advance to request an extension. Questions may be sent to the same email address; no phone calls, please.
Testimonials:
Past participants have described the experience in no uncertain terms:
“Do it! / I offer an unhesitating, enthusiastic, urgent recommendation / This Studio cultivates strong, mindful, ambitious, brave artists; it trains us in risk-taking and fidelity to our own voices, and turns us loose on the world wilder, stronger, more passionate, more open, more daring and more alive / It will change your life, not just as a writer or composer, but as a human being dealing with others in this vast, unruly world / Nautilus takes participants into their orb, shakes them to their cores, and sends them back into the world empowered to contribute their work / The potential for artistic and personal growth is formidable / The design and implementation of this studio is world-class; the quality of the instruction and facilitation (and the quality of the work created) is extraordinary / It's one of the few experiences in my life where the considerable hype still didn’t accurately describe the brilliance of the program / The scope of Nautilus’ contribution to the Twin Cities is often missed or unnoticed, yet virtually every significant artist working in the area has passed thru some experience here to positive effect; Nautilus’s presence and role are crucial to our thriving MN arts scene / prepare to be amazed by all you can learn and do; it’s a transformative, singular experience.”
About Nautilus:
Since 1986, Nautilus Music-Theater has provided opportunities for the artistic growth of writers, composers, and performers who create, develop, and produce new operas and other forms of music-theater that are emotionally expansive, dramatically engaging, and spiritually stimulating. Nautilus also hosts Rough Cuts (a series of works-in-progress presentations) and conducts the annual Wesley Balk Opera/Music-Theater Institute for singer-actors. Original productions by Nautilus artists include Moonlit Walk Home, Stations of the Heart, Twisted Apples: Stories from Winesburg, Ohio, and Ivey-award winning productions of I am Anne Frank, Sister Stories, and Ordinary Days.
Application deadline:
September 15, 2025
