Sensorium Ex: Exploring the Fundamental Question of What It Means to Have a Voice

Sensorium Ex is a groundbreaking new opera by Paola Prestini that explores the intersection of AI, disability, and the arts, redefining what it means to have a voice. Premiering at the Common Senses Festival in Omaha in May 2025, the work features a predominantly disabled cast, including a nonverbal, non-ambulatory lead, and integrates cutting-edge AI tools developed in collaboration with NYU’s Ability Lab to enhance creative expression for nonverbal individuals. With a libretto by Brenda Shaughnessy and direction by Jerron Herman & Jay Scheib, Sensorium Ex is more than a performance—it’s a revolution in accessibility and artistic innovation, offering a blueprint for the future of inclusive storytelling in opera. I got to sit down with Paola Prestini, the composer, and Ju Hyeon Han, the blind soprano premiering the role of Sophia to learn a bit more about this ground-breaking production.

Manhattan Artists Crossing: A Community for Singers

A new recording studio in New York City shares their approach to recording with CS readers.

Home Series: “My Energy Color is Red!”

Soprano and voice teacher Andrea DelGuidice has extensive performing experience in opera, opera directing, plus a robust voice studio, and leadership roles in programs of study and opera companies. It’s no wonder that she lends her creative flair and attention to detail to her home as well. 

The Singer’s Library: Keep Your Singing Voice Healthy

Two laryngologists collaborate to provide reliable recommendations related to vocal health.

Mobile Opera: From Traditional to Innovative

I recently had the pleasure of performing with Mobile Opera in their production of Ghosts of Gatsby. Scott Wright, Mobile Opera’s General & Artistic Director, took some time to share with me some of the amazing things this company is doing for our industry, as well as tips for singers with the precariousness of work. 

How Important is Water for a Healthy, Working Voice?

Dear Doctor Jahn,

Would you say that water is the closest thing we have to a “cure-all” when it comes to singing? I mean, I do a lot of singing in bars and clubs and I drink a LOT of water and I really haven’t had issues that other questioners have (hoarseness, sore-throats etc.)

-Gus

An Interview with Jocelyn Hagen – Composer and Co-Founder of Graphite Publishing

When I spoke with Jocelyn Hagen earlier this month, she was putting the final touches on an exciting new project.

Tell us about your newest project. 

It’s a Christmas oratorio called Rose Ever Blooming, which I’m writing with my husband, Tim Takach, for Voces8. Years ago, Tim found this amazing book of poetry by Patricia Monaghan that’s all about Mary. It really humanizes her in a very beautiful way, and we had this idea for a large work based on this poetry. We had been commissioned by Voces8 in the past and had a good working relationship with them, so we approached them, pitched the idea, and they said, “Yes! And if we do it, let’s record it right away!” So, it just sort of snowballed into this huge project. 

Diva Diaries | Entry 6: Lights on the Runway

We have all been there. Mindlessly scrolling Instagram, when BAM, snuck between a restaurant review and a friend of a friend’s photo dump, there it is. An announcement. The kind that makes you squint at the screen and think, wait… them? The moment when a colleague lands a role, wins a competition, or hits a milestone you’ve been chasing— and before you can fully process it, that insidious little voice slithers in whispering “that should have been me.”

And if you are anything like me, that thought curdles almost instantly into guilt. Because you are a good person. You love your friends! You want to watch your colleagues succeed. But somewhere, deep down in the shadowy depths of your most insecure self, the stinging pit isn’t about them, it’s about you. A spotlight has just been cast on what you feel you’re lacking and most importantly, what you’re terrified might never come your way.

Magic to Do

Who doesn't love the magic of theatre? The world of the imagination, the suspension of disbelief, the communication of triumph and tragedy through words, music, lights, costumes, and sets. Anyone who has had a transformative experience through theatre will likely have a difficult time expressing the power of that experience through words. There are some words, however, that may be particularly inadequate or—in the opinion of at least one music professional—inaccurate. 

Crossover Corner: Sunset Boulevard—the ALMOST opera

“I am big. It’s the pictures that got small” “And now, Mr. DeMille, I’m ready for my close-up” and “I hate that word. It’s a return” are some of Norma’s most iconic declarations. And by Norma, I’m talking Desmond not Druid.

Norma Desmond, the beautifully delusional heroine of Sunset Boulevard, isn’t terribly unlike her druid priestess counterpart and namesake in so far as her infrequent, yet highly anticipated returns to the stage. Full-scale stagings of Bellini’s masterpiece Norma occur less frequently than Bohèmes and Magic Flutes, and they usually herald a new or returning torch bearer of the demanding role—for better or worse as history and critics sometimes snark.