Kelley Rourke is a librettist, translator and dramaturg. She has collaborated with composers including John Glover, Laura Karpman, Ben Moore, Kenji Oh, Kamala Sankaram and Wang Lu on new operas. Her modern English adaptations of numerous standard and not-so-standard operas have been hailed as “crackingly witty” (The Independent, London) and “remarkably well wedded to the music and versification in arias” (New York Times). She has written libretti for four youth operas, with performances across the country.

Her work has been commissioned and performed by the Metropolitan Opera, Washington National Opera, English National Opera, Welsh National Opera, The Glimmerglass Festival, Opera Theatre of Saint Louis, Boston Lyric Opera, Young People’s Chorus of NYC, Seattle Opera, Minnesota Opera, Carnegie Hall, Urban Arias (Washington, DC), Met LiveArts, Houston Grand Opera’s HGOco, San Francisco Conservatory, Milwaukee Opera Theatre, American Opera Projects, Atlanta Opera, Kentucky Opera, Walnut Hill School for the Arts, Lyric Opera of Kansas City, and Nautilus Music-Theater, among others.

Kelley is Artistic Advisor for Washington National Opera’s American Opera Initiative and resident dramaturg for The Glimmerglass Festival. She has been engaged as a guest lecturer at Boston University, Carnegie Mellon University, NYU’s Tisch School of the Arts, Walnut Hill School for the Arts, and University of Maryland College Park; and as librettist mentor for Washington National Opera’s American Opera Initiative and Seattle Opera’s Creation Lab. She was founding editor of Opera America magazine and a contributor to the New Grove Dictionary of American Music. She is a Certified Critical Response Practitioner.

Kelley holds degrees in piano performance and arts management. Her work as a collaborative writer is supported and informed by more than two decades of studying, practicing and teaching yoga and mindfulness. In 2009 she began studying with Eddie Stern (Ashtanga Yoga New York / Broome Street Temple), and subsequently made five extended trips to India to learn more about yoga and the culture from which it sprang. Kelley has been engaged to teach classes and workshops in a variety of specialized settings. She is a co-developer and trainer for a wellness curriculum that has been implemented in public school districts in New York City, Houston, Indianapolis, El Paso and Columbia, SC.

Upcoming premieres include The Emissary (Kenji Oh, composer) at Opera Parallèle; Right Now, an orchestral song cycle with composer John Glover for Chrystal E. Williams, Felipe Hostins, and American Composers Orchestra; Macbeth and the Weïrd Sisters, a rock adaptation of Verdi’s Macbeth featuring Andrew Wilkowske at Theater Latte Da; Songbird at Washington National Opera; and a new adaptation of Hansel and Gretel for Royal Opera House, Covent Garden.