Colgate University announced that its inaugural Clifford Innovator in Residence Francesca Zambello ’78 will arrive in February 2025. The new program is designed to bring innovators from across different fields in the arts, entrepreneurship, pedagogy and technology to enrich the campus and community with their knowledge and work. The University announced the appointment in an email sent to the Colgate community on Thursday, Dec. 5.
“Students and faculty will have the opportunity to participate in a process of collaborative creation with artists of the highest caliber and share their work with the University community,” the email read.
Zambello is currently the artistic director of the Washington National Opera and has also served as the general and artistic director of the Glimmerglass Festival, a renowned opera festival. She has extensive experience working with children and early-career artists through her many apprenticeship programs.
During Zambello’s Colgate residency, she will work with Colgate students, faculty, staff and professional artists to develop original music, text and choreography for a new opera, “O’Keeffe: Kiss the Sky,” based on the lives of American Modernist painter Georgia O’Keeffe and patron of the Taos art colony Mabel Dodge Luhan. The University will be credited in all future productions of Zambello’s opera after the conclusion of her residency.
Zambello will also work with two-time Grammy-winning composer Christopher Tin, resident choreographer at Pacific Northwest Ballet and artist in residence at Sarasota ballet Jessica Lang as well as librettist, translator and dramaturg Kelley Rourke.
The innovator in residence program was made possible through the support of J. Christopher Clifford ’67, H’11, Keena Clifford P’93 and Carrie Clifford ’93, in addition to the Arts, Creativity and Innovation Initiative.
