Penny Media Kit

His music has been heralded as “stunning…magical” (Washington Times) and “sensual, other-worldly, expressive and showcasing a rich harmonic pallet, sure to connect with audiences, while saying something fresh, profound and meaningful” (The Pianist’s Craft Vol. 2).

His 1-hour chamber opera ‘Penny’ premiered by Washington National Opera at the John F. Kennedy Center to wide acclaim. “Penny simply works, not because we should like it, but because it has a story to tell. The different levels of musical characterization were far more than merely evocative, and they succeeded on a dramatic as well as a musical level” (Washington Post).

Douglas has received multiple awards including a Barlow Endowment commission, 1st prize in the 2009 SCI/ASCAP Student Composers Commission Competition, Musica Sacra International Choral Composition Competition in Poland, ASCAP Morton Gould Young Composers Award, Susan and For Schumann Fellowship at the Aspen Music Festival, and the Tangeman Sacred Music Center.

Douglas holds Masters and Doctoral degrees from the University of Cincinnati, College-Conservatory of music as well as a post-graduate certificate from the Fryderyk Chopin University of Music in Warsaw, Poland where he studied with internationally revered composer Paweł Łukaszewski under the auspices of a Fulbright Grant. Douglas currently serves as composer-in-residence at St. Thomas Episcopal Church, Cincinnati, OH and is active as a conductor, vocalist, author, and entrepreneur. His music is published by Boosey & Haweks, Schott Music, Santa Barbara Music Publishing, Jackman Music Corporation, and his own publishing house, Blue Shore Music.

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With composer Faye Chiao, she wrote the lyrics for the song cycle “To See the Stars,” for the Lunar Ensemble at the Maryland Science Center Davis Planetarium, to commemorate the 25th anniversary of the launch of the Hubble Space Telescope. She is one of the co-founders of two experimental American theatre collectives: the Indy Convergence, in Indianapolis, and the Parallel Octave Chorus, in Baltimore. Her plays include “W Tym Mieście//In This City,” a documentary theatre piece written by, for, and about the Jews living in Poland today (JCC Kraków), “Pętla//The End of the Line,” and “Umrzeć w Atenach//To Die in Athens.” She has received two Fulbright grants to study Polish theatre. She holds a PhD from Bath Spa University in creative writing; her dissertation was a memoir about her experiences living in Poland and investigating the tradition of Polish choral theatre. As a singer, with Teatr Chorea, in Łódź, she has performed in the choir for the touring productions of Gilgamesz and Bachantki (The Bacchae), with music by Tomasz Krzyżanowski. She was born in Los Angeles, teaches high school English, and is an associate member of Theatre of NOTE.

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