WORKS
SCHEDULE.
2o26/27.
ACC Future Prize 2026: YoungEun Kim
To Future Listeners: Migrating Sounds
9/3/26-2/13/27
ACC Creation Space 1
To Future Listeners: Migrating Sounds is an exhibition that explores the histories of movement and migration in Asia through sound, inviting visitors to experience them with the full range of their senses. Employing Wave Field Synthesis (WFS) and an immersive spatial audio system, the exhibition creates a multilayered soundscape in which diverse voices move, overlap, and resonate throughout the space. These voices originate in poems from the past that give expression to the experiences and emotions of movement and migration shaped by Asia's complex histories, including colonial violence and war.
YoungEun Kim, To Future Listeners: Migrating Sounds, 2026, 115.4-channel sound, 3-channel video, lighting, 60 min. Commissioned by National Asian Culture Center.
Bombay rickey at QUIP Festival
9/19 @ 7pm
Sunnyside Gardens Park,
The Queens United International Party [QUIP] is an annual, day-long celebration of the cultures and music of the New York City borough of Queens. As one of the nation's most diverse places (with over 120 countries represented and 135 official languages spoken) Queens is “the world’s borough”. Nowhere is this more evident than in its music, art and culture.
Established in 2017 at Sunnyside Gardens Park by a coalition of neighborhood residents, QUIP has grown each year to feature more incredible music from around the world and around the corner.
the killingsworth catalogue
9/29
Streaming on all platforms
At first, sound artist Lisa and former academic David think the strange chant crackling out of a pirate radio station might just be experimental music gone wrong or an off-key choir.
But in seeking the secret source of the broadcast, Lisa David are drawn deep into a sonic mystery. Deciphering aural clues with acoustic archeology, they uncover a secret history spanning Ancient Mesopotamia, Cold War Germany, and contemporary New York.
A slow-burn thriller featuring original music by renowned composers Kamala Sankaram and Drew Fleming, the story is driven by the exploration of recording technologies, musical tunings, and mystical roots. What strange forces will these occult tunings unlock?
Works and Process at the Guggenheim
10/12 @ 7pm
Guggenheim, NY
A sneak peek at the world premiere opera before it opens in Minnesota.
The Many Deaths of Laila Starr (World Premiere)
10/31 @ 7:30
11/5 @ 7:30pm
11/7 @ 7:30pm
11/8 @ 2pm
The Ordway Theater
When the goddess of Death is cast down to Earth to live as a mortal named Laila Starr, the boundaries between the divine and the human begin to blur in this vivid, transporting world premiere from Kamala Sankaram and Minita Gandhi. The Many Deaths of Laila Starr was commissioned and developed through Minnesota Opera’s New Works Initiative, adapted from the acclaimed graphic novel by Ram V and Filipe Andrade. Infused with elements of Konnakol, Raga, and EDM, this fantasy on purpose and impermanence unfolds with both kinetic energy and striking clarity, as a god made mortal begins to see the world—and life itself—through fresh eyes.
Monkey and Francine in the City of Tigers
12/8 and 12/9 @ 2pm and 7:30
Manhattan School of Music
In this children’s opera (with libretto by David Johnston), Monkey and his brainy sister Francine must defeat Lord and Lady Tiger to save the Monkey Kingdom.
Polar steam fellowship
1/15-2/15/27
McMurdo Station, Antarctica
I will be joining glacial researchers at McMurdo Station to make a piece inspired by their work.
looking at you
1/15-23/27
HERE Arts Center
The "absorbing frightening whole" (Wall Street Journal) hasn't lost any of its relevance in the years since its premiere. This techno-noir explores the issues of privacy and algorithmic weaponization with live data-mining of the audience and a chorus of singing tablet computers.
apsara (world premiere)
4/6/27
Sinfoniekonzert Schleswig, A.P. Möller Skolen
4/7/27
Sinfoniekonzert Flensburg, Deutsches Haus
4/8/27
Sinfoniekonzert Husum, NordseeCongressCentrum
4/9/27
Sinfoniekonzert Rendsburg, Theater
4/13/27
Sinfoniekonzert Itzehoe, theater itzehoe
An orchestral fantasia on the celestial dancer, Apsara.
you are poetry (world premiere)
4/17-18/27
National Sawdust, NY
An original song cycle based on poetry by Andre de Quadros. At its heart, You Are Poetry is a testimony to love's remarkable capacity to sustain us, to heal in ways both seen and unseen, and to reveal beauty even in our most vulnerable moments.
Taking Up serpents
Saturday, May 8, 2027 at 7:30 p.m.
Sunday, May 9, 2027 at 2 p.m.
Wednesday, May 12, 2027 at 7:30 p.m.
Thursday, May 13, 2027 at 7:30 p.m.
Saturday, May 15, 2027 at 7:30 p.m.
Sunday, May 16, 2027 at 2 p.m.
Z Space
Making its West Coast debut, Taking Up Serpents is a gripping chamber opera that explores faith, family, morality, and the pull of destiny through an electrifying, folk-inspired score by acclaimed Indian American composer Kamala Sankaram—hailed by The Washington Post as "one of the most exciting composers in the country"—and an original libretto by Jerre Dye, inspired by his family's roots in the American South.
When an unexpected call forces 25-year-old Kayla to return to the world she thought she had left behind, she finds her estranged father — a fire-and-brimstone preacher — dangerously bitten by one of his own snakes. As buried wounds resurface and long-held convictions collide, Taking Up Serpents becomes a deeply felt story of reconciliation, identity, and the enduring power of belief.
complications in sue (world premiere)
2/4-8
Opera Philadelphia
One librettist, one actor, four singers, and ten composers join forces to make opera in a brand-new way. In his first opera libretto, Pulitzer and Tony Award-winning playwright Michael R. Jackson (A Strange Loop) traces the life of a woman named Sue (played by Justin Vivian Bond). Sue’s life, from the mundane to the extraordinary, unfolds before us, with each decade scored by a different musical luminary. Kamala Sankaram is one of ten composers behind this world premiere.
THE SONG BLANKET
2/20
SparksLive
As part of SparksLive, Kamala Sankaram joins creator Rebecca Hass and vocalists Lucy Shelton and Kate Morton for a night weaving song and community.
Guy Klucevsek Memorial Concert
2/25, 8pm
Roulette
Guy Klucevsek, a master accordionist, composer, collaborator, and fearless punster, passed away on May 22, 2025. To honor Guy’s legacy, a group of close friends—led by his wife, Jan Klucevsek—have organized a concert to celebrate his life and music, featuring works for ensembles, solo accordion, dance, and theater, performed by artists who knew him well, often as collaborators. Kamala Sankaram is a vocalist on the concert.
HOUSE OF YES (wORKSHOP PERFORMANCE)
4/3
Mannes Opera
A workshop of “HOUSE OF YES” by Kamala Sankaram, Kathleen Kelly, and Michael Kelly closes the Mannes Opera season. This production is presented in partnership with Wolf Trap Opera.
A. E. REVERIE/RISE
7/4-5
Hawaii Performing Arts Festival
Kamala Sankaram's double bill enjoys its second performance of the season, this time at Hawaii Performing Arts Festival.
The Many Deaths of Laila Starr (World Premiere)
10/31
Minnesota Opera
The Many Deaths of Laila Starr, composer Kamala Sankaram and librettist Minita Gandhi’s operatic adaptation of the graphic novel of the same name, is slated to premiere at the Ordway Center for the Performing Arts and is the first-ever operatic adaption of a comic book or graphic novel.
“Sankaram’s music is an enchanting blend of Indian styles, especially from the Carnatic tradition, with Western harmonies, cyclic rhythms, inventive instrumental colors and tender, snappy vocal writing.”
The New York Times
Praise for Jungle Book