"To Have A Voice Is Everything"
–Jacob Nossell
Disability Activist, Sensorium Advisory Board
Collaborators
Paola Prestini, composer
Jerron Herman & Jay Scheib, directors
Brenda Shaughnessy, librettist
Elizabeth Askren, music director
NYU Ability Project, technology
Produced by VisionIntoArt in association with Beth Morrison Projects
Principal Performers
Kitsune - Jakob Jordan (May 22nd / 24th)
Kitsune - Kader Zioueche (May 23rd / 25th)
Mem - Hailey McAvoy
Mycelia - Gerlinde Sämann
SOPHIA - Ju Hyeon Han
CORP - Lucia Lucas
Niles - Joshua Jeremiah
Orchestra
National Sawdust Ensemble:
Flute - Jennifer Grim
Clarinet - Eileen Mack
Bassoon - Alexander Davis
Trumpet - Federico Montes
Violin 1 - Todd Reynolds
Violin 2 - Katie Hyun
Viola - Ljova
Cello - Jeffrey Zeigler
Double Bass - Jordan Sanborn Morton
Percussion - Ian Rosenbaum
Producer, Electronics - Sxip Shirey
Rehearsal Pianists - Mila Henry & Forrest
Eimold
Choral Ensemble
Lindsey Chinn (Mem Cover)
Fourth Wall Ensemble: Olivia Greene
(SOPHIA Cover, Mycelia Cover), Heather
Jones, Sydney Anderson, Lukas Papenfusscline,
Gregorio Taniguchi, Benjamin Howard
(CORP Cover, Nile Cover), Dicky Dutton
Camera Operator
Anna Borou Yu
Accessibility Aides
Shakina Fagan - Kitsune’s Nurse &
Personal Aide to Kader Zioueche
Julie Sando - Communication Partner
to Jakob Jordan
ABOUT SENSORIUM EX
Sensorium Ex is a groundbreaking new opera that explores the intersections of artificial intelligence (AI), disability, and the arts. Composed by Paola Prestini with a libretto by Brenda Shaughnessy, it features a predominantly disabled cast and a dystopian story about a mother and her nonverbal child. The opera uses custom-designed AI tools, developed with NYU's Ability Lab, to expand the expressive potential of voice for minimally verbal individuals. The visionary production pushes the boundaries of what it means to have a voice, paving the way for future artists with disabilities. Premiered May 2025, Sensorium Ex is by librettist Brenda Shaughnessy and acclaimed composer Paola Prestini, co-directed by Jerron Herman and Jay Scheib, with music direction by Elizabeth Askren. It is Commissioned by VisionIntoArt in association with Beth Morrison Projects and Common Senses Festival. Developed and Produced by VisionIntoArt and Beth Morrison Projects. Electronics produced by Sxip Shirey.
Sensorium Ex was developed and presented with support from the Ford Foundation, the Mellon Foundation, the Doris Duke Foundation, Jill and Bill Steinberg, National Sawdust, the Virginia B. Toulmin Foundation with additional support provided by the Allen R and Judy Brick Freedman Venture Fund for New Music, Creative Capital, Alphadyne Foundation, Achelis & Bodman Foundation, New York State Council on the Arts, the Atlantic Opera, the National Endowment for the Arts and New York State Council on the Arts.
Opera
Synopsis | A mother’s love, science/tech ethics, romance, corporate greed, a mystical escape, and a robot named Sophia come together in this story about what it means to be human...
Sensorium Ex is an opera for soloists, choir, chamber orchestra and electronics - exploring the nature of voice beyond language, non-speaking or non-typical patterns of speech and voice in opera, and what it means to be truly human. The use of artificial intelligence expands the possibilities for voice and expression in this dystopian tale.
Kitsune is a young boy with a disability who is non-speaking. The Opera centers around his relationship with his mother, Mem, as they seek to explore their own forms of expression, listening and exchange beyond the conventions of spoken language.
Kitsune will be co-created with the actor(s) in the role alongside the project’s choreographer through a series of residencies bringing together disability activists, artists, and families navigating the experiences of disability.
In a culminating scene of the opera called “the escape”- traditional notation will be replaced by medieval chant notation-neumes and a mixture of sound and language and direction and color. Like Benedictine monks, the ensemble will improvise on a series of calls and responses within which Mem and Kitsune are held, embodying a shared sense of space and purpose.
Sophia, the robot narrator of the story, is an amalgamation of the memories and lived experiences of the opera’s main characters. Her musical voice will be developed through a co-creative process which seeks to build new, inclusive AI datasets around non-normative patterns of voice and speech.
Tech
Sensorium AI is an international research, arts and technology project, with the overall aim of democratizing the development of voice-recognition AI and expanding possibilities for creative expression of voice.
The project has a specific focus on strengthening the experience of voice for people with voice-related disabilities, speech impairments and atypical speech patterns - beginning with the Cerebral Palsy community and expanding outward from there.
Sensorium AI will place an emphasis on both physical voice and expression, as well as voice in terms of social and democratic participation. The process will lead to a variety of outcomes including an interactive art installation and the development of creative voice technologies for artists with disabilities, which will be integrated into the Sensorium Ex opera.
You can find the Sensorium AI tech HERE.
The Sensorium AI project was developed through a deep collaboration with the NYU Ability Project and Arup.
Impact
Sensorium Ex is aiming to pioneer new approaches to creating opera in the 21st century.
Equity through Artistic Innovation
Devising artistic practices which center disability equity and access at all steps in the process - pioneering inclusive casting practices; co-creating the aesthetics and expressions of the opera with disabled cast and artists; designing a fully inclusive and accessible audience experience.
Knowledge & Documentation
The learnings and methods developed through the process will be documented, codified and scaled to partner institutions (for example: practices around inclusive casting, access needs, and co-creation - working with collaborators at across the country to integrate these practices institutionally.
Ecosystem Building
Sensorium Ex has created a platform for artistic development and knowledge exchange bringing together major arts institutions (Kennedy Center, Artscape) universities (NYU) and companies (ARUP) to collaborate and generate both the artistic work and support structures which drive equity-centered practices.
The opera titled "Sensorium Ex" is both art and advocacy, aimed at giving new voice and opportunities to the disabled, using A.I. to benefit, rather than harm, and changing the world of opera itself. "Sensorium Ex" is a new opera that is pushing boundaries by using AI to assist performers with disabilities.
A monumental disruption in the fusion of art and technology. [Sensorium Ex] fuses 3D sensing, artificial intelligence, disability solutions, operatic talent and artistic creativity to deliver a groundbreaking performance.
As for (Jakob) Jordan, he is dazzled by the new way he can communicate. "When I first heard the sound of my voice come to life, a new realization was born," he said through the new device. "Dream the bigger dreams, you know, the ones you dismiss and hide away because they seem impossible.
This work is a gateway for voices to come forward and express their non-verbal identities through opera as a means to inform us about a broader spectrum of possibilities through its own evolution. “Sensorium Ex” is an invitation to experience the center of humanity as the human voice.
Heroism and love are themes that have run through opera for centuries, but never one with a story such as this. Commissioned and produced by VisionIntoArt and Beth Morrison Projects with funding from The Ford Foundation, Sensorium Ex is the epitome of what opera is not. It is centered on the use of the human voice beyond language in opera through the incorporation of non-speaking and non-typical patterns of speech. Artificial intelligence is being used to expand their possibilities. Compelling stories, impassioned creative teams and break-through technology, however, do not make for an opera. It is an elusive synergy that is impossible to verbalize and can only be experienced. Mezzo-soprano Hailey McAvoy and pianist Forrest Eimold provided the latter with a spellbinding performance of ‘Birdsong’ from Sensorium Ex.
