FRANCES POLLOCK’s (composer)  music digs its roots into jazz, blues, gospel, folk, and a variety of other styles. Her music has been performed all over the country by the Bridge Ensemble, Prima Volta, The North Carolina Governors’ School, Divine Waters Ensemble, Aspen Contemporary Ensemble, and many others. In 2016, Frances was commissioned by Washington National Opera to write a one-act opera entitled “What Gets Kept” as part of the Kennedy Center’s “American Opera Initiative” Festival. In 2015, she wrote, produced and directed her first opera, Stinney, and held an open workshop to a sold-out audience in Baltimore, Maryland. Stinney’s accolades include multiple awards from Johns Hopkins University and beyond, including the Diversity Innovation Grant and a Baltimore City Paper’s “Best of Baltimore” award and will travel to New York City to be performed at the PROTOTYPE Festival in January 2019. She is a composition fellow at the Aspen Music Festival, and a “Turn the Spotlight” fellow working under the mentorship of Kamala Sankaram. Frances is a founding member of the new music non-profit, Prima Volta. She holds a Bachelors of Music in Theory and Composition from Furman University where she studied with Dr. Mark Kilstofte. She is graduated from Peabody Conservatory with a Masters of Music in Vocal Performance under the tutelage of Dr. Steve Rainbolt. She currently studies with Christopher Theofanidis at Yale University.