Creation Lab Performances

Mateo Acuña (he/him) is a writer, musician, composer and visual artist. Based in Auburn, Washington, he currently serves as the 2023-24 Seattle Youth Poet Laureate. He is a sophomore at Pacific Lutheran University in Tacoma, where he has played in the Wind Ensemble, Symphony Orchestra and studied composition under Gregory Youtz. He has been awarded the Knudsen Family Memorial Scholarship for creative writing and an Artistic Achievement Award for his French horn playing. He is studying an Individualized Major in Multimedia Storytelling across the disciplines of music, creative writing, communications, theater and visual art.

Hannah Schoettmer is a poet, fiction writer, and teaching artist currently based in Washington state. Her work has or will appear in venues like The Louisville Review, The Indianapolis Review, Glass: A Journal of Poetry, SOFTBLOW, ONE ART, The Shore, and elsewhere. Awards include a fellowship from Brooklyn Poets and a Pushcart Prize nomination. She’s the author of Body Panopticon (Bottlecap Press), released in 2022. A graduate of Interlochen Arts Academy, Hannah is currently a student in the School of Cinematic Arts at USC where she studies Cinema and Media Studies and Screenwriting. Her interests are in all types of writing, particularly in writing for performance.

Her short opera Hello World was created in collaboration with Kassey Castro with the support of the Jane Lang Davis Creation Lab for the 2022/23 season. She is thrilled to return to the program for a second year.

Ozzy Wagner is an emerging playwright from Seattle, soon to be based in NYC. They earned a BA in Playwriting from Emory, where they produced the university's student playwriting festival and received the Lucius Lamar McMullan award for extraordinary promise. Ozzy’s work, often experimental, has been invited to festivals such as KCACTF (2020, 2021), Essential Theater’s Bare Essentials’s readings, Barter Theater CPF, Horizon Theater’s NSYPF, Theater Emory’s Viral Plays, etc.; and has been developed through The Workshop Theater and Silver Glass Productions’ Experimental Playwriting Workshop. Check out their short play DON’T FEED DEAD ROSES YOUR DRINKING WATER in the upcoming edition of Rain City Project’s MANIFESTO series! bit.ly/ozzynpx.

Spencer Young (they/them) is a poet, essayist, and editor. They write about embodiment, punk music, queerness, climate change, and good books. A graduate of the Writer’s Workshop at the University of Nebraska and Kansas State University, they hold degrees in British Literature, Creative Writing, and Gender, Women, and Sexuality studies. Born and raised in Nebraska, Spencer relocated to the Inland Northwest in 2022. They currently live in Moscow, Idaho, where they study poetry at the University of Idaho’s MFA in Creative Writing program. Alongside their studies, Spencer edits reviews and interviews for Fugue Journal, and they read poetry for Pleiades: Literature in Context and the Cow Creek Chapbook Prize. Spencer was nominated for Best New Poets in 2021 and 2022. Their work has been published in many literary magazines and journals, including Terrain.org and Thirteen Bridges Review, among others. In their free time, Spencer sings loudly and badly while cooking in the kitchen.

ZW Buckley is a composer, music producer, and teaching artist living in Seattle, Washington.

Working primarily in video games, he most recently composed the music for Mattel and Peeka VR's Barbie: You Can Be A Fashion Designer, which marks the popular toy's first foray into virtual reality. In 2022, ZW was inducted into The Game Awards Future Class, which honors individuals “who represent the bright, bold, and inclusive future of video games.” He is a co-founder of Plant Based Audio, a worker-owned game audio studio.

Alongside his composition work, ZW is a passionate music educator and community builder. He is an instructor at the award-winning Point Blank Music School and a private lessons instructor for music producers and composers. ZW also serves on the board of directors for the experimental music non-profit, pt.fwd, and the Music Production Advisory Board of Edmonds College. ZW holds an M.S. Creative Technologies from Illinois State University where he researched music-led virtual realities. His research has been published in the United Kingdom, Japan, and the United States.

Grace Oberhofer is a bi-coastal artist who tells stories about women--either real or imagined--who are not perfect, but rather, amazing. A Tacoma, WA native and a Tufts graduate, Grace works as a composer, performer, sound designer, and educator. Grace’s compositional works include the ICONS/IDOLS choral play series with playwright/lyricist Helen Banner, HOT CROSS BUNS with playwright/co-lyricist Julia Izumi, A DOLL’S HOUSE: A NEW OPERA with director/co-writer Allison Benko, among others. Grace’s work has been supported by OPERA America, New Georges, The Tank, New York State Council on the Arts, Seattle Repertory Theater, Brown University/Trinity Rep, O’Neill Theater Center, Central Square Theater, and the Powell Family Foundation, among others. She’s had pieces commissioned by the Young New Yorker’s Chorus and the New Ohio/IRT Archive Residency. She has performed with theater-makers at spots like Cherry Lane, Tacoma Opera, Green Room 42, and 54 Below. Most recently, Grace was seen on tour opening for Jack White with her pals, Geese. Grace is an alumna of the Broadcast Music, Inc. Musical Theater workshop and the New Dramatists Composer-Librettist Studio. As a teaching artist, she worked for several years with the Metropolitan Opera Guild and has been a guest lecturer at the k-12 and university level.

Mina Pariseau (Esary) is a Seattle-based composer whose music takes inspiration from improvisation, visual art, poetry, and chant to grapple with the spirituality of nature and human experience. Her compositions range in character from pensive to whimsical, and she is passionate about creating collaborative and community-centered projects. A recent commission by the Harpeth Hall School in Nashville, her work The Four for treble voices and string quartet features student poetry excerpts in an eclectic exploration of the seasons. A frequent collaborator with artists and poets, Mina enjoys both responding musically to existing works and commissioning artists to create pairings with her music.

Mina’s work has received recognition from organizations including the Eastman School of Music, American Guild of Organists, and National Collegiate Choral Organization, and she has participated in festivals such as Nief-Norf’s 2021 Composer-Performer-Improvisor summit, Art Song Lab, Oregon Bach Festival Composers Symposium, and a 2023 composers institute studying with Sir James MacMillan. In addition to composition, Mina is experienced in administration and education, working with organizations including Seattle Modern Orchestra, OSSIA new music, and Eastman’s Concert Office and teaching courses at Stony Brook University, Summer@Eastman, and InspireLAB.

Mina holds a Bachelors of Music in Composition from the Eastman School of Music, where she studied with Carlos Sanchez-Gutierrez, Ricardo Zohn-Muldoon, David Liptak, and Oliver Schneller, and a Masters in Composition from Stony Brook University, studying under Matthew Barnson, Nirmali Fenn, and Daniel Weymouth. Originally from the Pacific Northwest, she now lives in West Seattle with her husband. minapariseau.com

Mike Powers is a composer, arranger, and scholar. His musical influences include Darius Milhaud, Caroline Shaw, and Björk; his scholarly pursuits focus on timbre and the contemporary branding practices of bands and artists. Mike is a frequent collaborator of Seattle artists Townsend’s Solitaire and Alison Banchero, arranging for the former’s 2023 EP When We Were Faraway and co-producing the latter’s 2021 EP It Ain’t Love. His 2023 operetta The Lost Genital Department, written with librettist Althea Rao, was funded by Seattle Opera’s Jane Lang Davis Creation Lab.

Matt Perri is currently the Resident Music Supervisor for The 5th Avenue Theatre in Seattle, WA. Perri recently made his Carnegie Hall conducting debut with Austen’s Pride: Live at Carnegie Hall. Broadway credits: Bandstand, Come From Away; Rodgers and Hammerstein’s Cinderella; Scandalous; How to Succeed… (2011); Promises, Promises (2010); White Christmas; and The Drowsy Chaperone. The 5th Avenue Theatre: Sweeney Todd, Into The Woods, Afterwords, Austen’s Pride, West Side Story. Off-Broadway: Cagney. Perri also coproduced the original cast recording of Cagney. Television credits: The Sound of Music Live and Peter Pan Live, both on NBC; Late Night with Jimmy Fallon; The Late Show with David Letterman; and The View. In concert, he has served as music director and performed with Bette Midler, Kristin Chenoweth, Jessica Vosk, and Mario Cantone. He lives in Poulsbo, WA with his wife Molly, son Elliot, and daughter Nola. Instagram: @mattperriconductor

Daren Weissfisch is a distinguished conductor, oboist, and educator based in Seattle, Washington. He currently serves as the Principal Conductor for the Tacoma Opera and the new Music Director of the Lake Union Civic Orchestra beginning in the 2024-2025 season. He is also Conductor for the Seattle Opera Creation Lab and has worked with local orchestras including the Bainbridge Symphony Orchestra, Harmonia Orchestra, and the Issaquah Philharmonic Orchestra.

Daren has held notable positions such as Artistic Director and Conductor of the Sinaloa Esperanza Azteca Symphony Orchestra and Choir, which was an El Sistema based youth orchestra and choir in Culiacán, Sinaloa, Mexico. In his seven-year tenure, he positively impacted over 300 young musicians through free music education and performance opportunities. Continuing his love for music education, Daren spent the 2023-2024 academic year as interim band teacher leading the middle and high school bands at the Lakeside School in Seattle.

Daren earned a second Master’s degree at the University of Washington in orchestral conducting—because one Master's degree in oboe just wasn't enough--and he continues to work towards completing his Doctoral degree at UW.

Daren is also an accomplished oboist. He has performed with various ensembles in the United States and Mexico, including a significant tenure with the Sinaloa Symphony Orchestra. He has been a soloist for works by Mozart, Strauss, and Bach, and subbed for many local orchestras in Seattle.

In addition to his professional achievements, Daren enjoys the Pacific Northwest's outdoor activities. He is an avid scuba diver and snowboarder, and when his back is not hurting, he enjoys playing basketball and ultimate frisbee. He also has a passion for animal rescue, having balanced his musical career with a dedication to helping dozens of animals find forever homes while living in Mexico.