Marella Martin Koch
Marella Martin Koch is a librettist and director noted for her “cleverness in constructing humor for opera” (DC Theatre Scene) and ability to “sketch complete characters in swift, sure lines” (The Washington Post).
Her one-act opera Pepito (music by Nicolas Lell Benavides) was commissioned by Washington National Opera's American Opera Initiative. Since its Kennedy Center premiere, Pepito has been presented across the country (Nashville Opera, Shreveport Opera, Opera USC, Texas Christian University), recorded as a cast album “full of nuance and emotional pull” (Operawire), and released as an “entrancing” animated short film (The Bark).
Other notable work includes the “quizzical and wonderstruck” (San Francisco Classical Review) Ten Minutes in the Life or Death of… (music by Tyler J. Rubin), which premiered at West Edge Opera’s Snapshot 2021 at the Bruns Amphitheater; Gilberto (with Benavides), developed at The Glimmerglass Festival, New Opera West, and West Edge Opera; and The Dashwood Sister Song Cycles (UCLA School of Music, Opera America, SUNY Plattsburgh Jane Austen and the Arts Conference, Yale School of Music, 2020 Lower Manhattan Creative Engagement Award Recipient).
Her comedic musicals Adam & Eve (music by Minhui Lee), How Love Feels (music by Jonathan Fadner), and Danny & The Rocket (music by Casey O’Neil) have been developed in readings (National Asian Artists Project: Discover New Musicals, Barrington Stage Company), residencies (Access Theater, Catwalk Institute, TheatreWorks Silicon Valley Writer’s Retreat), and workshops (Tisch New Musical Theatre Workshop, Pocono Mountains Music Festival Developmental Lab), and productions (The Duplex, The Kraine Theater, Common Man Musicals at Main Street Theatre and Dance Alliance). She has been a guest director for the NYU/Tisch School of the Arts Graduate Musical Theatre Writing Program since 2018 and was previously the guest instructor in libretto-writing at UCLA School of Music.
Upcoming: Dolores (with Benavides), Finalist in the West Edge Opera Aperture Program, and Tres Minutos (with Benavides), commissioned by Music of Remembrance; 28th Ave (music by Michael Lanci) for The American Opera Project’s Composers & The Voice; and The Dashwood Sisters (music by Aferdian) for The Rally Cat. MFA, NYU/Tisch. BA, UC Berkeley.