About

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I am originally from Los Angeles, and as many Angelino stories go, I am the product of vastly different cultures. My mother was born and raised in India and my father is Latin American, with roots in New Mexico. Through their travels from opposite ends of the globe, they met and married in Africa and then decided to settle in LA. That’s where my story begins… I have memories of listening to Le nozze di Figaro at the age of 3, followed by a Ravi Shankar or Celia Cruz chaser!

My path to becoming a composer was rather circuitous, beginning with intensive training to become a concert pianist. I longed to be a composer, though. It felt like an impossible dream because of my gender, but I didn’t allow those odds to extinguish my fire. After my first year as a piano major at CalArts (California Institute of the Arts), studying under the late and great, Leonid Hambro, I switched my major to composition. I soon realized that I would be the only woman in my graduating class! This dramatically altered my course as an artist and as a woman living in this world. It gave me a greater sense of purpose and pushed me ever harder to reach my artistic and humanitarian goals. While at CalArts, I had wonderful opportunities to study with Rand Steiger, Morton Subotnick and another late and great - legendary film composer, Leonard Rosenman.

After college, I spent many years in LA as the Director of Music at Hal Roach Studios, and composed music for dance productions and independent films. I also started an “all-girl band”, Mozaic, playing the Hollywood circuit, (Roxy, Whiskey A Go-Go, Troubadour, etc.). Later, I co-owned a recording studio in the heart of Hollywood, Kitchen Sync Studios, recording such iconic artists as Eazy-E and Ice T.

I had other aspirations, though…  My deep love of opera and counterculture drew me to San Francisco where my first opera, WUORNOS, premiered at Yerba Buena Center for the Arts. The subject of this opera is Aileen Wuornos, known as “America’s First Female Serial Killer." This was a historic “first” for many reasons. The opera featured a large cast and full orchestra.

My second is opera, Juana – a Spanish language chamber opera based on the rich, historical novel, “Sor Juana’s Second Dream”, by the award- winning writer, Alicia Gaspar de Alba. It’s about 17th century Mexican nun, poet and feminist icon, Sor Juana Inés de la Cruz. It premiered in 2019 with Opera UCLA. (Juana had its East Coast premiere in NYC with dell'Arte Opera Ensemble in 2022.)

Another Spanish language opera of mine, Las Tres Mujeres de Jerusalén (The Three Women of Jerusalem), commissioned by LA Opera, premiered in March 2022. It was also remounted in 2024 by the company. The opera is based on the Passion, seen through the eyes of three women who encounter Jesus during the Eighth Station of the Cross. Its premiere at The Cathedral of Our Lady of the Angels marks many firsts for LA Opera – I am the first woman composer to be commissioned for LA Opera's Cathedral Projects and Las Tres Mujeres de Jerusalén is the first Spanish language Cathedral opera. It was also the first opera for the company that featured choral groups from around the world joining the live choruses, opera singers and orchestra of hundreds of musicians performing on stage!

Recently, I’ve had two operas premiere. The first was touch, based on the rich and complex life of Helen Keller. The libretto is co-written by librettist and playwright, Marianna Mott Newirth. It was commissioned by Opera Birmingham and premiered in 2024. Four months later, ¡Chicanísima! premiered in San Francisco. Commissioned by Quinteto Latino, it chronicles the heroic life of living legend and Chicana activist, Olga Talamante. ¡Chicanísima! will begin its Mexican tour in November 2025! 

In October 2025, Hello, Star will premiere in San Francisco and then in 2026 it’s off to Baltimore! The opera is full of wonder, and is based on Stephanie V.W. Lucianovic’s book of the same title. Jarrod Lee is the librettist and it is co-commissioned by Opera Parallèle and Peabody Conservatory. After this, it will be my current works in development, starting with TEA, based on Velina Hasu Houston’s award-winning play of the same title. She is also the librettist. TEA, the story of five Japanese “war brides” who struggle with life and finding their place in Kansas, is commissioned by Hawaii Opera Theatre and is set to premiere February 2027 in Honolulu. Last on the opera list (for now) is Muriel & Anita, a true crime opera based in 1970’s Napa. It is being developed at the Mercury Theater in Petaluma, California.

Aside from opera, I still enjoy composing for dance. Most recently, two new ballets premiered with my commissioned scores: Marika Brussel’s House of Names (San Francisco), and Heidi Duckler’s Reckoning Ramona (Los Angeles).

Through my decades long journey in live music, whether it is opera, dance, chamber or symphonic projects, I still have a great love for film music, and am looking forward to to scoring a new film in development with Spencer Keene.

I am very grateful to the following institutions, organizations and corporations for their generous support, awards and commissions: LA Opera, Opera America, Opera UCLA, Opera Birmingham, dell’Arte Opera, Quinteto Latino, Hawaii Opera Theatre, Opera Parallèle, Peabody Conservatory, PARMA Recordings, Navona Records, Composers NOW, Marika Brussel Dance, Heidi Duckler Dance, Earplay Ensemble, San Francisco Arts Commission, la Festival Contemporania de Habana (Contemporary Music Festival of Havana, Cuba), California Arts Council, Creative Work Fund, Zellerbach Foundation, Ann & Gordon Getty Foundation, Bill Graham Foundation, Meet the Composer, Horizons Foundation, Astraea, UC Berkeley, Dance Lumiere, QCC, Charles Schwab, Wells Fargo, OUT Magazine, the Advocate, ComuArte International, Resonancia (Chile), West Edge Opera, Theater Bay Area, the Mexico City Philharmonic, Orquesta del Instituto Politécnico (Mexico) and Orquesta Marga-Marga (Chile).