About Us
Our mission
We catalyze the creation of culturally resonant and accessible new works that expand the impact of storytelling through music.
Our vision
We imagine a world where artists are empowered to share their diverse perspectives with a wide array of audiences. We transform our communities and ourselves through human creativity and connection.
We create artistic endeavors, rehearsal environments, and performance experiences that are inclusive, diverse, and foster a sense of belonging.
We encourage an open and collaborative process in which all artists feel valued, respected, and free to explore their artistic practice.
We lower the barriers that artists and audiences face and accelerate the path to parity.
We feature voices that have been historically underrepresented and marginalized, and we never assume whiteness, maleness, heteronormativity, or able-bodiedness as the "default" in our storytelling or as we build our teams of collaborators.
We choose projects that connect and inspire our audiences and illuminate perspectives that may not be evident.
We prioritize the human element within the creative process and live performance, while acknowledging how technology can enhance and support our work.
Our values
Catalyst New Music is proud to be an AI-Free Zone. We produce 100% human generated art and refrain from using any AI generated content in our productions or our marketing materials.
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Artistic Leadership
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Omar Najmi
ARTISTIC DIRECTOR
GRAMMY-nominated tenor/composer Omar Najmi has performed principal roles with Boston Lyric Opera (Valcour in The Anonymous Lover, Enoch Snow in Carousel, and more), LA Opera (Simon in Adoration), Spoleto Festival (Prologue/Peter Quint in The Turn of the Screw), Minnesota Opera (Darius Shah in the world-premiere of The Many Deaths of Laila Starr), Chicago Opera Theater (Jack “Earnest” Worthing in The Importance of Being Earnest), Kentucky Opera (Narraboth in Salome), Boston Baroque (tenor soloist in Messiah and Arbace in Idomeneo), Seattle Symphony (tenor soloist in Messiah), Beth Morrison Projects (Simon in Adoration), Portland Opera (Shakur in Thumbprint), Orpheus PDX (Alessandro in Il Re Pastore), Teatro Grattacielo (Ferdinand in the world-premiere of The Tempest), and many more.
As a composer, he has had works commissioned and presented by Washington National Opera, Boston Lyric Opera, Atlanta Opera, White Snake Projects, Juventas New Music Ensemble, Emmanuel Music, and Catalyst New Music. His and librettist Christine Evans’ opera Mud Girl was praised by the Washington Post for its “gorgeous string writing, beguiling winds and (heartbreakingly) Lynchian sound effects carry the story like a river”. The work has gone on to be performed by One Ounce Opera and will be performed by Boston Lyric Opera in a collaboration with Catalyst New Music.
www.omarnajmi.com
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Brendon Shapiro
EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR | MUSIC DIRECTOR
Pianist and conductor, Brendon Shapiro is a champion for the development of new vocal music. Brendon is a sought-after vocal coach and a regular pianist at Boston Lyric Opera, The Huntington, and Odyssey Opera. As a pianist and music director, he's helped to bring major productions to life across the country. Brendon is an alumnus of Los Angeles Opera's Young Artist Program where he worked with such artists as Renée Fleming, Susan Graham, and played a key role in the musical preparation of Matthew Aucoin's Eurydice, and Rhiannon Giddens' and Michael Abels' Omar. Other companies include San Francisco Opera, Opera Omaha, Bard SummerScape Festival, Opera Maine, Opera Steamboat, and many more. He will be the music director for the premiere of Adia & Clora Snatch Joy at The Huntington this fall.
Brendon currently helps bring new works to life at Catalyst New Music, a company he co-founded with his husband, Omar Najmi, in 2022, through which they have workshopped and presented several new full-length pieces and established the popular song development program FUSE: Collaborations in Song, now in its fourth season. He is currently developing Impresario, a board game about running an opera company.
www.brendonshapiro.com
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Katy Early
ASSOCIATE ARTISTIC DIRECTOR
Katy Early is both a director and a performer in New York, New England, and beyond. She makes politically relevant, personally resonant work that endeavors to shift our communities away from violence towards care. Equally at home in opera, musical theater, and theater, her recent credits include directing productions at the cell theatre, City Lyric Opera, Catalyst New Music, MassOpera, as well as several developmental projects.
As an arts leader, she has served as the associate artistic director of Catalyst New Music, a new music incubator in Boston founded by Omar Najmi and Brendon Shapiro, since 2022. She just finished a visiting faculty role at Oberlin, where she taught the raddest young artists. Alongside playwright Annie Rasiel she recently launched the Brooklyn artist collective SCOBY.
Board of Directors
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Elena Ruehr
PRESIDENT
With works described as “sumptuously scored and full of soaring melodies” (The New York Times), and “unspeakably gorgeous” (Gramophone), American composer Elena Ruehr is known for her bold lyricism, which is informed by her ability to combine diverse musical structures spanning the second Viennese School to minimalism. Currently composer in residence with Lincoln’s Symphony Orchestra, she has been a Guggenheim Fellow (2014) and a fellow at the Radcliffe Institute (2008) and composer-in-residence with the Boston Modern Orchestra Project, which recorded her opera Toussaint Before the Spirits (BMOP Sound) and her complete orchestral works (BMOP Sound, O’Keeffe Images). She has written five operas, twelve string quartets, and numerous other chamber, film and dance works that have been recorded on over 20 CDs and performed internationally.
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Courtney Keller
TREASURER
Courtney has spent over a decade fundraising for nonprofit institutions, both on staff and as a volunteer. Currently, she manages the legacy giving program at WBUR. She holds degrees in voice and business from Ithaca College, as well as arts administration in music from Florida State University.
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Jane Papa
CLERK
An avid supporter of opera and vocal music in the Boston area, Jane has served on the Board of Advisors at Boston Lyric Opera for over 10 years. She was an educator in the Quincy Public Schools for over 35 years and holds degrees in Child Study from Bridgewater State and Tufts University.