New music powerhouse Dr. Lisa Neher is an award-winning composer, mezzo-soprano, and actress on a mission to transform audiences through sound, story, and vulnerability. Described as a “maestro of beautifully wacky noises” (Oregon ArtsWatch) and a composer of “varied and imitable” vocal lines (Contemporary Classical), Neher writes music inspired by female athleticism, the tender love of friends, the ambiguities of death, and the eerie mystery of deep ocean life. With librettist Kendra Leonard, Neher wrote and produced the One Voice Project Micro-Opera Festival, a weeklong festival of miniature operas released online and hailed as “a great example of grassroots music theatre” (Contemporary Classical). Her EP Of Wind and Waves explores the currents of air, water, and emotions that define our natural and psychological world. Neher’s commissioners include Third Angle New Music, Opera Elect, Opera Theatre Oregon, Coe College Symphony Orchestra, Kirkwood Community College Choirs, the Glass City Singers, tenor Zach Finkelstein, pianist Michael Kirkendoll, and flutists Hal Ide and Rose Bishop. Neher won the 2020-2021 Iowa Composers Forum / Iowa Choral Director's association Choral Composition Contest for her work Three Basho Haiku, and is a winner of the 2021 Mirror Visions Ensemble Young Composer Competition. She was selected as one of ten mentees for the NATS Composer Mentorship Program, under the guidance of Tom Cipullo. Praised as “a small woman with a very big voice” and “especially alive” (Oregon ArtsWatch), Neher captivates audiences as a performer with her electrifying dramatic commitment and unforgettable vocal colors. She recently performed with Third Angle New Music, the Resonance Ensemble, New Music Gathering, Queer Opera, the International Saxophone Symposium, and Opera Theatre Oregon. Lisa is the curator of the One Voice Project, which champions unaccompanied solo vocal performance. In addition to her creative work, Neher coaches composers and singers. Neher uses she/her pronouns and her last name is pronounced "NEER."

Learn more about Lisa on her website here