L’ORFEO begins a collaboration with Vanderbilt university

24 February 2026

L’ORFEO is pleased to announce a new research collaboration with colleagues from the Blair School of Music, Vanderbilt University (USA). L’ORFEO directors Edward Venn and Katie Gardner have been awarded funds from the Leeds - Vanderbilt Pump Priming and Faculty Mobility Programme to work with Allison Chu and Jennifer Q. McGuire at Vanderbilt on a project ‘Opera in Practice: Cultural Engagement, Meaning-Making, and Social Issues Across Contemporary Stages’.

The project will see Katie Gardner visiting Nashville in March 2026 to deliver a series of events and seminars in connection with Vanderbilt Opera Theatre’s upcoming production of Lauren Bernofsky’s Mooch the Magnificent. In May 2026, Allison Chu and Jennifer Q. McGuire will be visiting L’ORFEO to develop ongoing partnership work, deliver research presentations and contribute to teaching.

Edward Venn, Director of L’ORFEO, said: ‘The collaboration with Vanderbilt provides a wonderful opportunity to share research and practice from both sides of the Atlantic; develop exciting, future-facing projects; and, by bringing into our conversations collaborators from the opera industry, work towards models of co-creation of research that speaks to the concerns of both academic and industry interests. I’m hugely looking forward to engaging with Katie, Allison and Jenn over the coming months’.