Consortium Info
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Consortium Closes: August 15, 2025 Delivery Date: September 1, 2025
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Composer
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Whitney George’s music traverses the affective terrain between tragedy and ecstasy, fragility and strength, bringing together romantically delicate intimacy and the spectacular darkness of the macabre. Haunted by ghosts and/of love, George’s operas, staged multimedia works, and chamber music coloristically explore the mysteries of irrationality, nightmare, and memory, sonically seeking lost objects and hidden subjects. Given George’s theatrical inclinations and preoccupation with the tragic, she has turned again and again to opera as both a composer and conductor.
Recently, George has been awarded a number of operatic commissions, premieres, and recognition: in 2017; the Elebash Award for her orchestration of Miriam Gideon’s opera Fortunato, which premiered under George’s baton in May 2019. In the same year; the commission of the two-act opera Princess Maleine by dell'Arte Opera and the video opera Julie by New Camerata Opera which was publicly released in 2020. In 2022, the commission of Fizz & Ginger by Fresh Squeezed Opera which premiered in 2023 with the Curiosity Cabinet, and was performed by the Chicago Fringe Opera in 2024. In 2024 George was awarded the Discovery Grant for her final operatic endeavor with Bea Goodwin: NO MAN'S LAND, which will premiere in June 2025 at Irondale. George is the artistic director and conductor of The Curiosity Cabinet, a chamber orchestra formed in 2009. She holds an undergraduate degree from the California Institute of the Arts (2008), a master’s degree from Brooklyn College (2010), and DMA from the CUNY Graduate Center (2021). In addition to her composing and conducting, George teaches privately and is on the faculty for Luna Lab. She is an recording artist with Pinch Records and has released FOR YOU (2021), SOLITUDE & SECRECY (2021), CHASING LIGHT (2023), CHASING LIGHT: LIVE (2024), LOCATIONS (2024), and THE LIBRARY SERIES EP (2025) with the label. Her recent works for film include scores for TRASH DAY (2023), HANDS LIKE A BRICK WALL (2023), CAROLYN &— (2025), and THE LUNCH (2025). |
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Consortium Directors
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Dr. Kristin Leitterman, as a solo artist of oboe and voice, defies modern convention, bringing exciting and unusual programs to audiences. She has performed compositions employing both oboe and voice that she commissioned from Michael-Thomas Foumai, Jason Coleman, Whitney George, and Lyle Davidson in major concert venues around the world and throughout the United States. As Assistant Professor of Oboe at Arkansas State University, Dr. Leitterman teaches oboe and bassoon and double reed techniques and coaches chamber ensembles. For many years she has served as director of the Lucarelli Oboe Master Class, a weeklong immersive oboe workshop founded by Humbert Lucarelli. She has presented her research on several composers at numerous conferences and schools both nationally and internationally. She holds degrees from the City University of New York’s Graduate Center, the Hartt School, New England Conservatory, and the University of Missouri–Kansas City Conservatory of Music. Her teachers include Humbert Lucarelli, Mark McEwen, Barbara Bishop, and Amy Burton.
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Originally from Brazil, Nairam Simoes is an award-winning trumpet artist and Assistant Professor of Trumpet at Arkansas State University. His career spans international performance, education, and leadership. A member of NordesTrio, Simoes earned a silver medal from the Global Music Awards. He also won the Championship Section of the 2022 North American Brass Band Association (NABBA) Championship with the Fountain City Brass Band and secured 3rd place at the 2017 National Trumpet Competition. Praised by the International Trumpet Guild (ITG) Journal for his “virtuosity and musicality,” Simoes has performed across the United States, Germany, Austria, and Brazil. He has appeared with many orchestras, including the Arkansas Symphony, Memphis Symphony, Lexington Philharmonic and performed for the Cincinnati Symphony.
He serves as editor in the ITG Journal and contributes to ITG leadership, coordinating the Festival of Trumpets since 2023 and serving as a judge for the National Trumpet Competition. He holds a Doctor of Musical Arts from the University of Cincinnati College-Conservatory of Music, a Master of Music from the University of Massachusetts-Amherst, and a Bachelor of Music from the University of Memphis. Simoes proudly endorses S.E. Shires Trumpets and is a recording artist for Fundamental Sounds. |
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