Experience Florence with Ecce as your guide
Renowned composer and long‑time Ecce collaborator Martin Brody premieres his newest operetta, The Carp, on October 16th, 2026 in the place where it was born: Florence, Italy. We invite you to join us for this singular occasion.
The Venue
I Tatti, the Harvard University Center for Italian Renaissance Studies, will serve as the venue for the premiere of Brody’s operetta which was written during his residency there. The villa, located on an estate of olive groves, vineyards, and formal Renaissance‑style gardens on the border of Florence, Fiesole, and Settignano, is a center for advanced humanities research and houses significant art and library collections. Its role within Harvard’s Renaissance program provides an academic context for the premiere, aligning the work with the institution’s mission of fostering scholarship on Italian Renaissance culture.
IT BEGAN WITH A FISH…
Martin Brody’s The Carp is a 45‑minute chamber operetta that transforms a bizarre 2003 news story about a “talking fish” into a witty, hybrid comic work scored for four singers and five instrumentalists. Brody, collaborating with art historian Dario Gamboni, shapes the tale of an articulate carp delivering an apocalyptic message into a playful, genre‑bending piece - part opera, part cantata - where singers fluidly shift between characters and chorus while a clarinet gives voice to the fish itself. The result is a compact, surreal, and sharply crafted operatic world that reflects Brody’s long-standing fascination with modernism, narrative ambiguity, and interdisciplinary collaboration.
The Production
Martin Brody
ComposerMartin Brody is Catherine Mills Davis Professor Emeritus at Wellesley College. He served as composer in residence at the American Academy in Rome in 2001-2 and as Andrew Heiskell Arts Director of the Academy from 2007 to 2010. As a composer, he has received grants and awards from the American Academy of Arts and Letters, the Fromm Foundation, Guggenheim Foundation, and the National Endowment for the Arts, among others. He has also served as resident composer at the Bogliasco Foundation and La Mortella. He has written extensively about modern music during the Cold War, with special emphasis on the music of Milton Babbitt, Elliott Carter, and Stefan Wolpe. He is currently President of the Stefan Wolpe Society, Director of One Landscape—an arts and conservation organization—and a trustee of the American Academy in Rome.
Photograph taken by Magali Le Mens.
Dario Gamboni
LibrettistDario Gamboni is professor emeritus of art history at the University of Geneva and an honorary fellow of the Institut Universitaire de France. He engages in issues of visual perception and of interactions (including violent ones) with art. His books include The Destruction of Art: Iconoclasm and Vandalism since the French Revolution (1997), Potential Images: Ambiguity and Indeterminacy in Modern Art (2002), and The Brush and the Pen: Odilon Redon and Literature (1989).
During his stay in Rome, Gamboni continued his exploration of the aesthetics of marble, participating in a workshop at the Bibliotheca Hertziana related to a recent collection of essays, The Aesthetics of Marble: From Late Antiquity to the Present (2021), which he edited with Gerhard Wolf and Jessica N. Richardson. Gamboni also worked on a review of Fabio Barry’s Painting in Stone on the same subject, “for which Rome is a crucial place, starting with the Pantheon, which contains the oldest preserved examples of ‘book-matched’ marble incrustation, a mode of decoration that interests me particularly.” Expanding on his book The Museum as Experience (2019), he revisited the Museo Mario Praz in Rome and sought out similar museums established by artists and collectors.
After his Residency, Gamboni joined I Tatti in Florence as a visiting scholar, together with his wife, Johanna Weis, an artist in residence there.
The Cast
Stephanie Lamprea
Colombian-American soprano Stephanie Lamprea is an architect of new sounds and expressions as a performer and composer. Trained as an operatic coloratura, Stephanie uses her voice as a mechanism of avant-garde performance art, creating 'maniacal shifts of vocal production and character… like an icepick through the skull' (composer Jason Eckardt). She has been praised by Opera News Magazine for 'her iconoclasm and fearless commitment to new sounds... [an] impressive display of extended vocal techniques, in the honorable tradition of such forward-looking artists as Bethany Beardslee, Cathy Berberian and Joan La Barbara.' Her work has been described as 'crystalline' (The Financial Times), 'divinely deranged' (Herald Scotland), and ‘performance art of the highest caliber’ (PopMatters.com). She has performed at Roulette Intermedium, Sound Scotland, Kings Place, Southbank Centre, Helsinki Music Centre, and Casa da Música, and collaborated with Riot Ensemble, the London Sinfonietta, and International Contemporary Ensemble. Stephanie collaborated with artist Jesse Jones to co-create films Mirror Martyr Mirror Moon (Ikon Gallery, Birmingham) and The White Cave (Singapore Biennale). Commissioned by the 2026 Open Ear Festival on Sherkin Island, Stephanie created and perfomed AtLantis AtLand, a site-specific operatic work described as 'one of those rare performances that fundamentally alters how you perceive a place.' (Clash Magazine) Stephanie released albums Quaking Aspen, Georges Aperghis' 14 Récitations, Don't Add to Heartache, and Ecstatic Visions to international acclaim. Quaking Aspen was hailed as 'a bold artistic statement that’s exciting and innovative.' (PopMatters.com) 14 Récitations was described as a 'tour-de-force... sportive vocal adventure of impressive proportions,' (Concerti.de) Don't Add to Heartache was celebrated as 'a fiercely inventive body of work that urges listeners to consider their relationship with nature in an increasingly artificial world.' (The Skinny) And Ecstatic Visions was acclaimed as 'one of the most thought-provoking and imaginative releases in contemporary vocal music.' (Paris Move)
Zalman's Wife | Soprano 
Nathan Halbur
Nathan Halbur is a singer-composer of eclectic curiosities: voicing Dr. Seuss’s Grinch for the Boston Pops; performing alongside Esperanza Spalding in the world premiere of Wayne Shorter’s Iphigenia; doubling as a vibraphonist with Ensemble Altera in the world premiere of Piers Connor Kennedy’s Declarations; collaborating with Mark Adamo on his Lysistrata with Odyssey Opera; and singing on Skylark’s GRAMMY-nominated Clear Voices in the Dark. He has sung much solo repertoire by J. S. Bach with Emmanuel Music, The Thirteen, Cantata Singers, and many other ensembles, garnering acclaim for “nimble accounts of [Bach’s] melismas” (Boston Classical Review). His compositions have been heard in planetariums, art installations, and works of theatre; his setting of Shakespeare’s Sonnet 43 was a winner of the WNYC Public Song Project. He leads a series of Exploratory Choral Meditations combining improvisation, diverse art, and social justice, while his band DREAMGLOW synthesizes kaleidoscopic musical influences and artistic collaborations.
Zalman | Baritone
Samuel Rosner is a tenor/composer based in Chicago. His recent and upcoming engagements include Don Ramiro in La Cenerentola (Cinderella) with Salt Marsh Opera, the Tenor Soloist in Stacy Garrop’s Terra Nostra with the Elgin Symphony & Master Chorale, Elvino (cover) in La Sonnambula with Teatro Nuovo, the Tenor Soloist in Carmina Burana with the Oratorio Society of New Jersey, and the Tenor Soloist in BWV 194 and 71 in the Grace Lutheran Bach Cantata Vespers. Previous credits include Jupiter (cover) in Semele with Wolf Trap Opera, the Tenor Soloist in multiple works by Lili Boulanger with Voices of Ascension, as well as credits with Music of the Baroque, Sarasota Opera, St Pete Opera, and Opera Neo. Samuel received his Graduate Diploma from Juilliard, where he was awarded the Novick Career Advancement Grant upon graduating. He previously attended the Harvard / New England Conservatory Dual Degree Program. Samuel is also a composer of vocal, chamber, and electro-acoustic works. Samuel performed his own settings of Holocaust poetry on NPR’s From the Top, and the short film he co-scored, Jeffrey Liu’s Hustle Mode, was screened at the New/Next Film Festival, the Nitehawk Shorts Festival, and was selected as a Vimeo staff pick.
Zev | TenorSamuel Rosner
Baritone Corey Gaudreau is a singer and teacher who is frequently praised for his mastery of language and style, especially in French and German song. He is Chair of Voice of New England Conservatory Expanded Education where he founded the Vocal Theatre Lab and Art Song Studies Lab, two training programs for young singers, and through which he established an ongoing collaboration with Voice at Peabody Preparatory Institute of Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore.
As a performer, Gaudreau has worked with opera companies throughout the United States. He has sung and understudied a variety of roles including Sid in Benjamin Britten’s Albert Herring, Des Grieux in Massenet’s Le Portrait de Manon, Figaro in Rossini’s The Barber of Seville, Aeneas in Henry Purcell’s Dido and Aeneas, Billy Bigelow in Rodgers and Hammerstein’s Carousel, Yamadori in Puccini’s Madama Butterfly, Masetto and Don Giovanni in Mozart’s Don Giovanni, Alvaro in Daniel Catàn’s Florencia en el Amazonas, and Hannah Before in Laura Kaminsky and Mark Campbell’s As One. Gaudreau was a Bonfils-Stanton Studio Artist and Apprentice Artist for two seasons with Central City Opera, and Artist-in-Residence with both Pensacola Opera and Opera on the James.
As a guest artist, Gaudreau has sung Ligeti’s Aventures and Nouvelles Aventures, and Schumann’s Spanische Liebeslieder in two installments of the First Monday Concert Series at Jordan Hall and recorded Pavel Haas’ Four Songs on Chinese Poetry for an NEC Liederabend. In a repeat performance of Ligeti at Boston Symphony Hall, Corey was hailed by Boston Music Intelligencer as a baritone with “vitality and precision,” offering “a fascinating study of shifting sonorities and sonic possibilities.”
A versatile singer with flexibility in various styles, Gaudreau has been heard in concert and oratorio in the United States and Europe. He is a proponent of new music, jazz and musical theatre, and the intersections of these styles. He has sung a program of the Great American Songbook at the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum in Boston and performs prolifically as a song recitalist and concert artist.
Corey Gaudreau
Luis | Baritone The Ensemble
Aleksis Martin
Aleksis Martin is a clarinetist from Saint Charles, Missouri. A dedicated chamber musician, he has performed with the Missouri Chamber Music Festival and is active in Boston’s contemporary music scene performing with the ECCE ensemble, Callithumpian Consort, and is a member of the Boston Annex Chamber Players. As an orchestral musician, he performs regularly as a substitute with the St. Louis Symphony Orchestra and Symphony New Hampshire and has appeared as a guest artist with the Hartford Symphony Orchestra, New World Symphony, and The Orchestra Now. He studied clarinet under Thomas Martin of the Boston Symphony Orchestra and Scott Andrews of the St. Louis Symphony Orchestra.
Clarinet | The Carp
Emma Burge
Violinist Emma Burge is an avid supporter of contemporary and new music, seeking to combine her classical training with improvisation.. A founder of the new music ensemble Alinéa, formed at the New England Conservatory, she has premiered more than thirty chamber works in recent years—including Arturo O’Farrill’s Tiny Little Walls and the U.S. premiere of Salvatore Sciarrino’s Quaderno di Strada. She has also recorded with singer-songwriter Heather Maloney on her album Soil in the Sky. Emma performs regularly with the Phoenix Chamber Orchestra, Fermata Chamber Soloists, Cape Cod Chamber Orchestra, Boston Philharmonic Orchestra, Du Bois Orchestra, and New Bedford Symphony.
A graduate of the New England Conservatory, Emma is an active performer and teacher based in Boston and Seattle. Her teaching philosophy is rooted in balance, mindfulness, and emotional awareness—helping students develop self-confidence and a healthy, joyful relationship with music. She currently serves on the faculties of the New England Conservatory Preparatory School’s Suzuki Program, Project STEP, and the University of Hartford’s Hartt Community Division, and is the Assistant Director of the Ithaca Suzuki Institute as well as the former Director of the Massachusetts Suzuki Festival. Emma is deeply grateful to her formative teachers—Heidi Flanders, Gabriel Pegis, Ayano Ninomiya, and Lucy Chapman.
First Violin
Anna Pavlou is a Japanese Greek American violinist based in New York. Anna holds a Masters in Music degree for String Studies from Steinhardt School of New York University, studying with Giora Schmidt and Kurt Nikkanen. During her graduate studies, Anna was named winner of the annual NYU Concerto Competition where she performed Ravel’s Tzigane with orchestra. Anna also launched her teaching career at NYU where she was named adjunct faculty, mentoring many undergraduate students from vast violin backgrounds. Anna holds a Bachelors of Music degree from Peabody Institute of Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore, where she studied with Herbert Greenberg. At Peabody, Anna was a member of Marin Alsop’s conductors’ orchestra, and worked with maestros, Joe Young, Peter Oundijan, Dalia Stasevska, and Rune Bergman. Recently, Anna played in New World Symphony during the 2025-2026 season, working with John Adams and Stephane Deneve and actively plays in NYC organizations such as NYC orchestra project, Chelsea Symphony, and Carnegie Hall Link up Orchestra, while continuing freelance work in NY.
Second ViolinAnna Pavlou
Philip Rawlinson is a Boston-based violist/violinist interested in exploring the relationship between string playing and multimedia, and in how interdisciplinary work can help to defamiliarize classical forms of expression. Their work lives in the tangled space between genres, tying together contemporary, baroque, and folk into something else. Philip is always experimenting towards how we might give materials multiple forms through altered approach and continued collaboration with others, searching for how that collaboration can foster something more urgent and nourishing for each particular moment. Philip is a graduate of New England Conservatory, and currently enjoys working as a teacher to young strings students alongside collaborative performance and creative projects within their community.
ViolaPhilip Rawlinson
Robbie Bui is first recognized as a contemporary cellist, but his creative life stretches beyond the singular label. He is a frequent new music collaborator, a composer, a full-time nonprofit arts administrator, a portrait photographer, a collaborative pianist, pop violinist, and even once a mediocre piccolo player. His early fascination with orchestral instruments in his youth symphony days lead him to pick up composition: he later graduated with a Bachelors of Music With Honors in Composition from New England Conservatory as a Presser Scholar and as the commencement speaker. That curiosity evolved into a deeper exploration of interpretation, culminating in a Master of Arts and Doctor of Musical Arts in contemporary cello performance at University of California, San Diego. Through this mixed background, he invests consideration of music’s theoretical construction into his performance expressivity, leading to dozens of new pieces dedicated to him as a soloist and chamber musician.
Robbie currently plays in ECCE, Palimpsest Ensemble, Alinéa, and anywhere and wherever he is needed throughout San Diego. Some of his favorite spaces he’s been a soloist, recitalist, guest resident, or composer include the Koussevitzky Shed, Seiji Ozawa Hall, Jordan Hall, the DiMenna Center, Conrad Prebys Music Center, McGill Schulich School of Music, Bombyx, Mandeville Auditorium, and the San Diego's Public Libraries. He’s presented and been in residence at festivals such as the Darmstädter Ferienkurse, Klangspuren, Etchings Festival, Orford Music Academy Contemporary Workshop, and Vienna Summer Music Festival. Beyond music, he is a professional freelance photographer specializing in creative portraiture and performance documentation. Across music, art, and all of his daily life, he is grounded by the same principles: curiosity for the novel, dedication towards craft, and enthusiasm for trying to do a little bit of everything.
CelloRobbie Bui
Our Mission
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Inspire Innovention
We catalyze bold musical innovation, empowering creators to reshape their practice through adventurous collaboration, experimental thinking, and culturally resonant artistic leadership.
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Collaborate Openly
We cultivate dynamic, shared musical environments where artists co‑create, exchange ideas freely, and shape transformative work through collective imagination and mutual trust.
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Adapt as Needed
We empower others to evolve fluidly, embracing change, refining practice, and shaping resilient artistic networks through continuous adaptation.
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Experiences with Impact
We create cultural experiences that spark social connection, deepen community engagement, and generate lasting impact through ingenuity and creativity.
Meet us in Florence…
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Michelangelo Package (October 15-16, 2026)
Lunch with Martin Brody and Dario Gamboni
Dinner in Florence with the opera’s cast members
Tickets to the premiere and reception at I Tatti
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Raphael Package (October 14-16, 2026)
Vineyard tour and wine tasting
Lunch with Martin Brody and Dario Gamboni
Dinner in Florence with the opera’s cast members
Tickets to the premiere and reception at I Tatti
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Da Vinci Package (October 14-16, 2026)
Vineyard tour and wine tasting
Tour of the Academia
Lunch with Martin Brody and Dario Gamboni
Dinner in Florence with the opera’s cast members
Tickets to the premiere and reception at I Tatti
We want you to experience Florence your way. We preplan the events in your package and brief you on your itinerary before arrival. If you’d like to shape the days as you go, we’ll work with you ahead of time to get your itinerary the way you want it. We’ll take care of as much or as little as you’d like. And we’ll see you at the premiere!
WHAT TO EXPECT
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