Described by Fanfare Magazine as “one of the most talented and intriguing of living composers,” LORI LAITMAN has composed multiple operas and choral works, and hundreds of songs setting texts by classical and contemporary poets, including those who perished in the Holocaust. Her music is widely performed throughout the world and has generated substantial critical acclaim. The Journal of Singing wrote “It is difficult to think of anyone before the public today who equals her exceptional gifts for embracing a poetic text and giving it new and deeper life through music.”

In May 2016, Opera Colorado presented the World Premiere of Laitman’s opera The Scarlet Letter, with a libretto by David Mason. Of the 2017 Naxos release of the live recording, Gramophone Magazine wrote: “The first thing that leaps into one’s ears is the sheer beauty of the music. Laitman has devoted much of her career to the art song, and her ability to meld words with lyrical, often soaring lines is on abundant display in her…impressive and fervent opera.” It was named a Critic’s Choice by Opera News and one of the top 5 CDs of 2018 by Fanfare Magazine. Laitman and Mason also collaborated on Vedem, a Holocaust-themed oratorio commissioned and premiered by Music of Remembrance, with a new production by Indianapolis Opera now scheduled for the Spring of 2021 (delayed due to the Coronavirus pandemic). Their collaboration continues with Ludlow, an opera-in- progress which explores the U.S. immigrant experience through the lens of the 1914 Colorado mining town disaster.

The Three Feathers, Laitman’s children’s opera with librettist Dana Gioia, is based on a Grimm’s fairy tale and was commissioned by the Center for the Arts at Virginia Tech, where it premiered in October 2014. Seattle Opera commissioned an abridged version of the work, which toured Washington State in 2018. The Hartt School premiered the orchestral abridged version in January 2019, L'arietta Singapore presented the international premiere in November 2019, and Opera Steamboat will mount a full production in August 2022 (also delayed due to the pandemic). Uncovered, Laitman’s opera-in-progress with librettist Leah Lax, based on her memoir, was a finalist for the 2018 Pellicciotti Opera Prize and is being commissioned by a consortium of colleges to premiere at Utah State University in the spring of 2021.

Laitman continues to receive prestigious commissions, including from the BBC, The Royal Philharmonic Society, Opera America, Opera Colorado, Seattle Opera, Grant Park Music Festival, Washington Master Chorale, Music of Remembrance and the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra. Her works have been featured on Thomas Hampson’s Song of America radio series and website and in The Grove Dictionary of American Music.

A magna cum laude Yale College graduate, she received her MM from Yale School of Music, which awarded her the Ian Mininberg Alumni Award for Distinguished Service in May 2018.