Marella Martin Koch

Biography

Marella Martin Koch is a NYC-based writer, director, and teaching artist. She received her M.F.A from New York University Tisch School of the Arts and her B.A. from University of California, Berkeley.

In 2018, she was one of 3 librettists selected nationally for Washington National Opera's American Opera Initiative commission. Her one-act opera PEPITO, written with composer Nicolas Lell Benavides, premiered at The Kennedy Center in 2019 and was recently recorded thanks to a grant from the Presser Foundation. Her full-length opera GILBERTO, also written with Benavides, was developed at Glimmerglass Festival and New Opera West and will be featured in West Edge Opera's upcoming Snapshot 2020. She won the 2017 Pocono Mountains Music Festival Developmental Lab for her musical DANNY & THE ROCKET, written with composer Casey O’Neil, and was invited to develop the show at the Tony Award-winning TheatreWorks Silicon Valley Writer's Retreat. She is also a Catwalk Institute Residency alum for the full-length musical ADAM & EVE with Minhui Lee. As a librettist, she has been praised for creating “complete characters in swift sure lines” (The Washington Post) and for displaying “cleverness in constructing humor” (DC Theatre Scene).

Marella is a guest instructor and mentor for doctoral students at University of California, Los Angeles Herb Alpert School of Music, and since 2018 she has been a guest director with NYU/Tisch School of the Arts Graduate Musical Theatre Writing Program. She also teaches Shakespeare, improvisation, and acting to middle and high school students with Classic Stage Company. www.marellamartinkoch.com

In 2017, she founded the multidisciplinary performing arts company The Rally Cat to empower artists and communities through opera, musical theatre, and theatre. www.therallycat.org