Aging Magician is an epic opera-theater work written to help children understand the nature of death via the story of Harold, an old clockmaker writing a book about an aging magician in search of a young child to pass his knowledge on to. Creators Julian Crouch, Rinde Eckert, Paola Prestini, Mark Stewart and the Attacca Quartet created a set that can be played on as a giant instrument, bringing together the worlds of music, theater, puppetry, instrument making and scenic design to paint this poignant allegory on time, youth and the peculiar magic of ordinary life, or perhaps, the ordinary magic of peculiar life. Written for the Attacca Quartet and the Brooklyn Youth Chorus, who participated in a ten year journey to create the work: a culmination of education, professional development, and deep process work.

“The rich artistic elements of “Aging Magician” come together powerfully.”

– The New York Times

The Hubble Cantata was the first ever live event fusing a major musical performance with virtual reality, taking primary inspiration from astrophysicist Mario Livio’s interconnected thoughts between human loss, love and sorrow, and the life cycle of a star. Supported by an adult choir, children’s choir and chamber orchestra, the work joins the visual beauty and depth of Hubble’s images with the narrative of the lead character, an astrophysicist who had lost his wife.

“It astounded me, this feeling of floating above Earth, and tears began to emerge from my cardboard goggles.”

– The New Yorker

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Con Alma is an operatic tableau on isolation adapted both as an album and a groundbreaking live digital experience, featuring original works alongside classic songs from the Mexican and Jazz songbook. It's the result of the impulses that arrested the minds and hearts of two extraordinary artists – gifted singer-songwriter Magos Herrera and composer Paola Prestini – at a time when they were prevented from being together alongside the broader community of fellow artists they work with regularly. A pioneering digital project during the early stage of the COVID-19 pandemic, Con Alma incorporated cutting-edge technology to synchronize streamed performance during the groundbreaking streamed performance event that launched the album.

Deeply engaged...a genre-crossing blend of Mexican folk staples, American jazz standards and original musical meditations on isolation.

— The Washington Post

Houses of Zodiac: Poems for Cello is an album, film and immersive performance with video, that combines spoken word, movement, music and image to explore the intersection of mind, body and nature. Taking its title from the twelve houses of the zodiac as facets of the self, the project draws inspiration from explorations of the subconscious through the writings of Anaïs Nin, Pablo Neruda, Brenda Shaughnessy and Natasha Trethewey. A culmination of years of collaboration, a family of sound bound by friendship and poetic imagery, each solo cello work traverses the career of composer Paola Prestini through the fierce, sonic interpretations of former Kronos Quartet member, Jefferey Ziegler. With film by Murat Eyuboglu, and the unexpected encounter of “The Rogue Ballerina”,  (New York City Ballet’s first Asian American star) Georgina Pazcoguin, and Sankai Juku member and Butoh star, Dai Matsuoka.

"One of the greatest and most ambitious solo cello albums of all time."

– Strings Magazine

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Based on the best-seller by two-time Newbery Medalist Kate DiCamillo, Edward Tulane is an acclaimed opera for audiences of all ages, that takes us on a miraculous journey from the depths of the deep blue sea to the streets of Memphis. This is Paola's first grand opera, and she was the first woman to have been commissioned by the Minnesota National Opera for their New Works Initiative. With a libretto by Mark Campbell, this elegantly whimsical Minnesota original shows us a true miracle– that if you open your heart, you can find home.

"A production that can engage a multi-generational audience with its score, story and eye-popping visuals...Prestini's arias and orchestrations are a combination of simplicity and complexity."

– Minnesota Star-Tribune

Sensorium Ex is an opera in development that centers around the story of Mem and Kitsune, a mother-child relationship that explores what it means to be human through the intersections of love, science and tech ethics, corporate greed, a mystical escape and a robot named Sophia. The opera will form the core of an integrated web of emergent artistic, scientific and community-driven collaborations which take key ideas and themes of the Opera from Stage to society.

Sensorium Ex has a larger mission of using art to reframe how society views people with disabilities. As the first opera starring a nonverbal lead, with a libretto written the mother of a nonverbal son, and a creative team made up of leaders in disability awareness, the piece is the first to truly incorporate disabled people from the ground up.

"One of the six trends to watch in the Arts in the US by Inside Philanthropy"

– Inside Philanthropy

Paola Prestini, jazz sensation Magos Herrera and German vocal sextet Sjaella come together at the Met Cloisters to recreate the dream of the first Mexican proto-femenist, Sor Juana Inés de la Cruz.

Port(al) is a musical and civic exploration of the world through the lens of port cities – where human life and the oceans that connect and sustain us meet. Vividly evoking and honoring Brooklyn’s ghosts, Port(al) spins oral histories from recently passed figures like historian Howard Zinn (who worked as an apprentice in the Navy Yard) and activist Clarence L. Irving, Sr. (who had been a riveter in the Navy Yard) into stunning compositions; looks into the legacy of machinist and drag king Rusty Brown; and considers the power of the first live radio singing performance, by mezzo soprano Eugenia Farrar. Reflected in this swirl of text and song, performance, guided audio tour, and séance are the early prison ships that floated in Wallabout Bay and left over 11,500 victims in their wake, all buried near Navy Yard in the early 1800s; Walt Whitman’s “Crossing Brooklyn Ferry”; women’s, immigrants’, and Black Americans’ labor during wartime; the rise of queer culture into the public eye; and more. Ebbing, flowing, and interweaving throughout the piece are the voices of the youth chorus speaking to their relationship to their very own time and place, and their future.