Partnerships

Collaboration with 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 enabled Katie Gardner to visit Nashville in March 2026 to deliver a series of events and seminars in connection with Vanderbilt Opera Theatre’s production of Lauren Bernofsky’s Mooch the Magnificent. In May 2026, Allison Chu and Jennifer Q. McGuire visited L’ORFEO to develop ongoing partnership work, present their research and contribute to teaching.