This year, we are proud to announce that the 96-Hour Opera Project will form the beating heart of our first-ever NOW Festival. The festival will include the 96-Hour Opera Project competition showcase, along with developmental workshops and incubator performances of works by past competition winners. The competition pairs composers and librettists to write original ten-minute operas. Bringing their completed works to Atlanta, the creative teams are allowed 96 hours to rehearse and develop their productions with guidance from specialists in the field from June 10 through 13, 2026. On Saturday, June 13, 2026, a public competition showcase will present the ten-minute operas at the Ray Charles Performing Arts Center at Morehouse College where a winning team will be selected by a distinguished group of judges. All selected participants will receive a $1000 honorarium. The Atlanta Opera presents the Antinori Grand Prize to the winning team — a $10,000 award and an Atlanta Opera commission for a new work to be produced and performed in an upcoming season as part of our annual NOW Festival. The NOW Festival features presentations of the works in development by previous competition winners. Tickets and a full schedule of public opportunities to view these world premieres will be released Spring of 2026. Designed specifically for composers and librettists from historically underrecognized communities, the 96-Hour Opera Project competition is open to those who self-identify as part of a demographic that has been under-presented in the creative pantheon of opera. The Atlanta Opera provides singing talent, and a pianist as collaborators to bring the new works to life. The Atlanta Opera also provides story prompts, which will form the basis of the plot lines of the submitted works.