Missy Mazzoli is one of the most renowned and single-minded composers of the early 21st century, a modern visionary of classical vocal music and an outspoken advocate for breaking down doors in contemporary art music. Born in 1980, Mazzoli developed her multifarious style during her studies at Boston University, Yale and the Royal Conservatory of The Hague. Among her mentors were avant-garde opera and music-theatre visionaries David Lang and Louis Andriessen. Her pieces are emotionally trenchant and narratively gripping, often combining effortlessly idiomatic vocal writing with pop and electronic influences. After building up a résumé of compelling chamber works, Mazzoli in 2012 debuted Song from the Uproar, a one-woman opera that made her one of the era's most exciting composers for classical voice. She has gone on to adapt a variety of challenging source material into operatic works, including her 2016 dramatisation of Lars von Trier’s provocative film Breaking the Waves and a widely lauded 2018 take on "Proving Up", a short story by that master of harrowing Americana, Karen Russell.