Lila Palmer is a British and American librettist whose warmth, clarity, and stylistic flexibility have made her a favoured partner of established and emerging composers alike. An advanced vocal performer herself, Lila’s skill in advocating for and writing to the classically trained voice has enabled her to bridge the gap between the world of interpreter and creative. She is proud to be the only dual graduate of both the Royal Opera House London - Guildhall Opera Makers MA program and American Lyric Theater’s Composer Librettist Development Program.

Upcoming performances of Palmer’s work include The Fox Sisters, with Marc Migo for Teatro Liceu in Barcelona; In Her Own Valley, with Grace Mason for Liverpool Philharmonic; and American Apollo, with Damien Geter for Des Moines Metro Opera. Holy Ground, also with Geter, will be excerpted as part of the Guggenheim’s Works & Process before receiving its world premiere at the Glimmerglass Festival. Lila’s song cycle for soprano Golda Schultz, This Be Her Verse, is out on Alpha Classics, and has been hailed by Opera News as “a new repertoire staple.” The cycle will receive national premieres in Canada, Scotland, Switzerland, and France, where Lila will also attend the 2022 Aix-En-Provence Women’s Opera Lab.

Future works coming in 2023 & 2024 include her children’s opera with Clarice Assad, The Selfish Giant (Opera Saratoga); Shell Shaker with Chickasaw composer Jerod Impichchaachaaha’ Tate, and Splintered with Jorge Sosa and Justine Chen. Lila serves as ALT’s Associate Director for Partnerships & Promotions following a year as Interim Managing Director. In addition to supporting Artist Development at ALT, she has served as Artist Leader/Dramaturgy Mentor in new works development for Boston Opera Collaborative and Loose Tea Music Theater, Canada.

An accomplished producer, Lila has led expanded arts programming in non-traditional and heritage spaces, producing and co-producing operas and enrichment and activation events with The Museum of London, The London Transport Museum, Trebah Gardens, and the Bethlem Gallery and Trust.

A lifelong advocate for the arts across the public sphere,  Lila’s career trajectory has taken her from children’s book and storyline editor to cultural commentator: her blogs, program notes, and essays have been featured by the Carl Nielsen Competition, English National Opera, Leeds Piano competition, and other leading arts programmers. As a presenter and interviewer, she has had the great fortune to interview opera stars including Susan Graham, Ferruccio Furlanetto, Edita Gruberova, and many others. Most recently she co-hosted the International Tchaikovsky awards with Alexander Malich in St. Petersburg for Medici TV.

Lila is a graduate of Cambridge University (BA History 1:1), New England Conservatory, a Fellow of Guildhall School of Music & Drama,  and an alumnus of Tapestry Opera’s LIBLAB. An accomplished lyric mezzo-soprano, she trained at ENO and  began a performing career before committing to making opera in 2014 in order to expand the perspective of stories on opera stages. Her ongoing research project, The Archetypes Project, challenges the fetishised death culture towards women in modern and period operatic repertoire within the expanded framework of Jungian archetypes, with grateful acknowledgment of the pioneering scholarship of Catherine Clément.