The Composer

Niccolo Seligmann brings together old instruments and new practices, uniting gut strings with lines of code. He performs on over 20 historical and traditional instruments in the world, and designs his own software instruments. You can hear him perform on his 2020 solo album Kinship and on the soundtracks of the PC game Civilization VI and the 2017 feature film Papillon. Niccolo was an Artist-in-Residence at Strathmore Music Center in 2020 And is a member of ensembles Alkemie, The Broken Consort, Hesperus, Wherligig, and others. Minerva: Times Change, an opera Nicolo co-composed with George Frideric Handel, premiered in 2019 in Richmond, Virginia. Niccolo coached the UCLA early music Ensemble from 2016- 2018, and continues a bicoastal private teaching Studio. He holds a degree in viola da gamba performance from the Peabody Conservatory of the Johns Hopkins University. He is currently an apprentice to master luthier Ken Koons.

The Librettist

Dr. Raphael Seligmann is a writer, scholar, musician, translator, banker, and non-profit leader. He holds a PhD in English literature from Brandeis University, a master's degree from Johns Hopkins, and a bachelor's degree from Cornell. He has numerous publication credits in peer-reviewed books and journals. His reflections on Shakespeare, Machiavelli and Donald Trump are forthcoming in April in the book William Shakespeare and 21st-Century Culture. He has held editorial positions with the U.S. Military Academy and Cornell University Press, plus several faculty positions in the humanities in the United States and Germany. A baroque violinist, he is a founding member and artistic director of RVA Baroque. In 2019, he wrote the libretto for the original opera Minerva: Times Change. Raphael is Vice President of the Latin Ballet of Virginia. He also teaches music to underserved schoolchildren to the FRIENDS Association for Children.