The Industry is an independent, artist-driven company creating experimental productions that expand the definition of opera. In just a few short years, The Industry has been praised for “quickly and dramatically making itself an essential component in American opera” (Mark Swed, Los Angeles Times) and “the coolest opera company in the world” (Brian Lauritzen, KUSC).

Founded by Artistic Director Yuval Sharon, The Industry burst onto the creative scene with the 2012 premiere of Crescent City, a large-scale, interdisciplinary opera by Anne LeBaron and Douglas Kearney. Opening to rave reviews, the production’s striking intersection of visual artistry and musical ingenuity firmly established The Industry as an innovative force in American opera.

In June of 2013, the company presented First Take at the Hammer Museum, a concert reading of six works-in-progress by Pauline Oliveros, Mohammed Fairouz, David Brynjar Franzson, Ellen Reid, Aaron Siegel, and Alexander Vassos, establishing a biannual venue for the exploration of new operatic works.

In 2013 The Industry garnered international recognition for Invisible Cities, an operatic adaptation of Italo Calvino’s novel, composed by Christopher Cerrone. Staged in the spectacular public areas of Los Angeles Union Station, the opera was produced for wireless headphones and marked significant collaborations with L.A. Dance Project and Sennheiser.

Highway One, an initiative to celebrate creative milestones in California’s countercultural musical history, launched in 2014. The first project in this series was In C, an imaginative staging of Terry Riley’s iconic 1964 masterpiece, performed in the courtyard of the Hammer Museum.

In 2014 The Industry established its own label, The Industry Records, for presenting high-quality recordings of new experimental American opera. The first release was Invisible Cities by Christopher Cerrone, in November 2014, with reviews from New York Times, Boston Globe and Los Angeles Times. The Industry Records released The Edge of Forever by Los Angeles-based composer Lewis Pesacov in Spring 2016.

The Industry co-presented the second biennial First Take, the only West Coast workshop of new American operas, with wild Up music ensemble, in February 2015. First Take is quickly establishing itself as one of the most compelling platforms for the exploration of new ideas in American opera.

Most recently, The Industry presented Hopscotch with music by Veronika Krausas, Marc Lowenstein, Andrew McIntosh, Andrew Norman, Ellen Reid, and David Rosenboom, unfolding in 24 cars zigzagging throughout Los Angeles and telling a single story of a disappearance in time. In this unprecedented city-wide event, six composer-librettist teams collaborated with over 120 musicians, singers, designers, and dancers on a world premiere opera. Audiences experienced the work in both the intimacy of a car, where artists and audiences shared a confined space, or for free in the Central Hub, a temporary space where all the journeys were streamed live, creating a dizzying panorama of life in Los Angeles.

Beginning Fall 2016, Artistic Director Yuval Sharon serves as the Los Angeles Philharmonic’s Artist-Collaborator for a three-year residency, which includes collaborations each year with The Industry.