LIBRETTIST

Caitlin Vincent is an award-winning opera librettist and lyricist whose writing has been praised as “nuanced and honest” (DC Theatre Scene), “intriguing” (The Baltimore Sun), and “luminous” (The Huffington Post). 

 

Vincent’s works have been performed by Washington National Opera, Pittsburgh New Music Ensemble, the University of Connecticut, the Schubert Club of Minnesota, On Site Opera, Semperoper Dresden, the Oxford Lieder Festival, the Melbourne Fringe Festival, the Crane School of Music, and Wigmore Hall, among others. 

 

In 2017, Vincent and composer Douglas Buchanan won the 2017-19 Sackler Music Composition Prize for the opera Bessie and Ma, which subsequently won the 2024/25 Dominick Argento Chamber Opera Competition. In 2022, Vincent and composer Timothy C. Takach won the Domenic J. Pellicciotti Opera Composition Prize for Computing Venus, an opera based on the life of astronomer Maria Mitchell.  

 

Other works for the stage include Beyond (2024) with composer Lisa Neher; Leaving Gatsby (2024) with composer Juliana Hall; The Blood Vote (2023) with composer Jenny Game; Tienda (2019) with composer Reinaldo Moya; Nullipara (2018) with composer D. J. Sparr; Prix Fixe (2015) with composer Kevin Wilt; and Camelot Requiem (2013) and Uncle Alex (2013) with composer Joshua Bornfield.   Vincent has also written two highly-acclaimed comic adaptations of Mozart operas: The Figaro Project, based on Mozart's Le Nozze di Figaro; and Who Killed Don Giovanni?, based on Mozart's Don Giovanni.

 

Vincent is particularly noted for her work in song repertoire.  Recent commissions include Sentiment (2017), Godiva (2019), AHAB (2020), and Paw and Tail (2025) with composer Juliana Hall;  Love Songs from a Third-Floor Walk-Up (2024) with composer Raphael Fusco; Little Black Book (2019) with composer Susan LaBarr; Honeyed Voices (2024) with composer Lisa Neher; and Night-Time in the Fourth Trimester (2024) with composer Jodie Goble.   In 2022, Vincent and composer Lori Laitman were commissioned to write Thanks a Latte for soprano Laura Strickling’s 40@40 project.  The song was featured on Strickling’s 40@40 vocal album with pianist Daniel Schlosberg, which was nominated for a GRAMMY Award in 2024.  

 

A classically-trained ballet dancer and former professional opera singer, Vincent is on faculty at the University of Melbourne.