elliot menard
Elliot Menard is an opera-maker—a vocal performer, composer, and producer—working at the nexus of opera-theater, new music, and experimental performance.
As a composer, Elliot explores how text allows music to emerge and the expressive range of the voice. A recent composer in residence at Millay Arts and the Kimmel Harding Nelson Center for the Arts, her work has been programmed at Highways Performance Space (“Southern California’s boldest center for new performance”), the Hear Now Music Festival, CalArts, the N.E.O. Voice Festival, Open Gate Theatre, and Renegade Opera.
As a versatile mezzo-soprano, Elliot brings her sincere and sensitive artistry to interdisciplinary and polystylistic music-theater projects. Recent performance highlights include Metabolic Studio’s Bending the River: An Oratorio (Soprano Soloist), Overtone Industries’ production of Songs and Dances of Imaginary Lands as part of Opera Fest LA, CalArts’ production of Here Be Sirens (Kate Soper) as Polyxo, and New Opera Days Ostrava’s premiere of Partial Memories (Judith Berkson).
As a producer, she promotes the work of emerging artists and living composers. She is Overtone Industries’ Director of Operations and the Resonance Collective’s Touring Manager.
She holds an M.F.A. in Voice Arts from CalArts and a B.A. in Classics from Reed College.