Composer Kurt Rohde recently received a fellowship from the Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study (2012–13) to work on two new chamber opera projects: an opera with poet Paul Mann, and an opera with writer Dana Spiotta and artist David Humphrey.

Rohde’s also received a Meet the Composer/Commissioning Music USA Award to compose a new work—for Eighth Blackbird, Southwest Chamber Music, Firebird Ensemble, Left Coast Chamber Ensemble, and Sequitur—to be premiered in fall of 2012 and winter of 2013. He will work with with writer Sue Moon and artist Frances McCormack to create a work for narrator, projected images, and small ensemble. 

Rohde’s new work for the ensemble Eighth Blackbird, This Bag is Not a Toy—A Very Short Concerto for Small Ensemble Without Orchestra, was premiered in Chicago by eighth blackbird in December, 2011, and will receive additional performances throughout spring of 2012.