About the Composer & Librettist
Canadian composer, conductor and pianist Leslie Uyeda was born in Montréal, Québec, and lives in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada. Leslie has been conductor/chorus director/pianist/coach with opera companies across Canada, and in addition to conducting mainstage productions of traditional répertoire, has conducted her own operas Game Misconduct and When the Sun Comes Out. A lifelong lover of the voice, Leslie has composed four song cycles to the exquisite and poignant poetry of Japanese-Canadian poet Joy Kogawa, and over sixty songs to the gorgeous poetry of Canadian poet Lorna Crozier, including cycles The First Woman, White Cat Blues, and The Sex Lives of Vegetables as well as a dramatic scene for soprano and mezzo soprano – Your Breath, My Breath: Dialogue for a Mother and Daughter. Her most recent composition is a scene for soprano, piano and dancer – The Origin of Pen’s Black Arts, commissioned by Ne.Sans opera in Vancouver, B.C. Uyeda has also composed extensively for choirs and instrumental ensembles. Her music is performed throughout Canada, in the U.S. and Europe. She is an Associate Composer of the Canadian Music Centre, www.cmccanada.org, a member of the Canadian League of Composers, www.composition.org, the Association of Canadian Women Composers, www.acwc.ca, and Socan (Society of Composers, Authors, and Music Publishers of Canada) www.socan.com. Leslie would like to thank Daniel Biaggi, Sue Dixon, and Laura Hassell for bringing When the Sun Comes Out to Portland Opera. It is a privilege to work with your company. For more information about Leslie Uyeda, please go to her website: www.leslieuyeda.com
Rachel Rose is the author of four collections of poetry, including Marry & Burn, which received a 2016 Pushcart Prize, and was a finalist for a Governor General’s Award. Her memoir, The Dog Lover Unit: Lessons in Courage from the World’s K9 Cops, was shortlisted for the 2018 Arthur Ellis award for best non-fiction crime book. A former fellow at The University of Iowa’s International Writing Program, she is the Poet Laureate Emerita of Vancouver. Recent fiction has appeared or is forthcoming in The Bellevue Literary Review, The Antioch Review, The New Quarterly, The Alaska Quarterly Review and Joyland.