Cecilia Livingston

Cecilia Livingston is a Canadian composer of opera and orchestral music. She is composer-in-residence at the Canadian Opera Company, and was composer-in-residence at Glyndebourne Opera. A profile in Opera Canada headlined Livingston as “a true storyteller” in new opera. Her work has drawn comparisons from reviewers and musicologists to both Missy Mazzoli and Jeanine Tesori, the first two female composers commissioned by the Metropolitan Opera, and to Benjamin Britten. A cover story for La Scena Musicale concluded that “the range of Livingston’s achievements is undeniable.” During her graduate studies, Livingston joined Tapestry Opera’s 2013 Composer-Librettist Laboratory (LibLab), composing opera scenes with various librettists, including Morris Panych, Nicolas Billon, and David Yee. Three of these early Livingston opera scenes, two written for Krisztina Szabó, were singled out in a review for The Globe and Mail as exemplary new opera written in “a tradition of creative imagination being brought to bear on the human condition… that Mozart would have recognized instantly.” That same year, Livingston received her first opera commission, from indie producer Opera 5, for an adaptation