Elana Rogers

Elena Rogers has lived in Salt Lake for a long time and likes to write things. She is one of the librettists and this marks her first year as a contributor to DEXO. She is excited to be working with such impassioned and talented people.

Ilana Fogelson

Ilana Fogelson recently graduated from Brown University with an MFA in Fiction. Originally hailing from Salt Lake City, she now lives in Providence, Rhode Island and finds the lack of mountains disconcerting. She has joined DEXO in time to be a part of 2047, the company’s upcoming opera festival. Her writing has previously been published in Revolver Magazine, The Broome Street Review, No Tokens Magazine, and is pending publication with Monster House Press.

Jacob Rosenzweig

Jacob Rosenzweig is a musician who grew up in Salt Lake City, studied Jazz Performance at the U, got an MFA from the California Institute of the Arts, moved to LA, spent 6 years in traffic, and upon his return to SLC last year began collaborating with DEXO on Life Relegated. Along the way, he composed and performed music for a wide variety of ensembles including The Sogo Takeover, Stupid Man Suit, Three Thirds, My Allowance, and the Jacob Rosenzweig Bass Quartet.

Lara Candland

Lara Candland is a poet, performer and teacher living and working in Utah. She performed as Hildegard of Bingen in the DEXO production of The Heavenly City. She is the author of <Alburnum of the Green and Living Tree> (BlazeVox), and the forthcoming collection <The Lapidary’s Nosegay> (Colorado State University Center for Literary Publishing).

She is a librettist and founding member of the Seattle Experimental Opera.

Luke Swenson

A native of Utah County, Luke Swenson is co-founder and librettist for the Deseret Experimental Opera Company. Swenson’s work with DEXO began with the short epistolary libretto for Strawberries in the Hive, a story of love lost in space.  His first first full length opera, A Parking Lot for Hyacinths, received a grant from the BYU School of Music and premiered at the Nelke Experimental Theater. In 2015, Swenson laid the blueprint for the improvised opera The Heavenly City about the migraines of the 12th century composer, poet, scientist, and visionary Hildegard von Bingen.

Apart from his work with DEXO, Swenson is the author of the self-published chapbook Proportion and Ornament and his poems have been published in the journals Inscape, Lost Sparrow Press and Likewise Folio and are forthcoming in the journal Porcupine. His work as a performance poet has been featured at Red Butte Garden’s Garden After Dark, Avant GaRawge and 12 Minutes Max. Swenson has a B.A. in German from BYU. He currently lives in Salt Lake City and loves reading, writing, and working for the Salt Lake Public Library.