Now in its 9th year, the Poetry & Music Project connects student poets and their words with composers to create original music and explore the connections between poetry and music.
The Opera Omaha’s Poetry & Music Project is a statewide program run in partnership with the Nebraska Writers Collective to amplify the voices of youth poets, both urban and rural, across Nebraska and Iowa. The project connects student poets and their words with composers to create original music and explore the connections between poetry and music.
Over the last 8 years, more than 1000 poems have been submitted to the Poetry & Music Project. This fall, Opera Omaha and the Nebraska Writers Collective invited Nebraska and Iowa students in grades K-12 to submit works of poetry exploring the theme of memory. Writers were asked to share memories — big and small — that made an impact on them, forever changed them, that are worth reliving, that they want to gift to others. Opera Omaha received 87 poem submissions from students across Nebraska and Iowa. Poets ranged from second graders to high school seniors, including first time poets and seasoned writers. All submitted poems will be available in the Poetry & Music Project Book, available online, and as part of the Omaha Public Library Collection.
While there were many outstanding poems submitted to the project, in the end, project composers Sidney Marquez Boquiren and James Schroeder selected 14 poems that inspired them and will create original music with the poems as the lyrics. Poets and composers will work together with Opera Omaha musicians during workshops this spring, and these original songs will premiere at the Poetry & Music Concert May 9, 2026.
25/26 SELECTED POEMS
“Good Company” Nora Barth, Duchesne Academy
“A World of Pure Imagination” Adeline Olsen, Westside Middle School
“Friends Like Them” Allison Billau, Liberty Middle School
“Making Memories” Briana Brown, Northside Elementary
“Saltwater Taffy (Best If Used By 2018)” Emery Jobst, Lincoln East High School
“A Simple Thank You” Maren Ferguson, Platteview High School
“Little me” Juliett Flores Fierro, Andersen Middle School
“The Simple Things” Sophie Dudek, Papillion Middle School
“Untitled” McKenna Songster, Platteview Senior High School
“Shadow guide” Allison Kriz, Palmer Public School
“My Tears” McKinley Coe, Lewis & Clark Middle School (Omaha)
“Untitled” Ally (Vee) Krumwiede, Meridian Public Schools
“Piercing through the Dark” Emery Lausterer, Wahoo Public High School
“A Cabin in the Woods” Alice Tripp, Kiewit Middle School
Meet the Composers
Sidney Marquez Boquiren
Sidney Marquez Boquiren grew up in the Philippines and Saudi Arabia, spending most of his adult life in the United States. As a creative artist, he is strongly drawn to the practice of collaboration: the ideation, germination, development, creation, realization, performance, and celebration of art that arises out of working closely with others. Past collaborative projects include works on Biblical illumination (folia ligni for Spark and Echo Arts); multimedia and multi-sensory art experience (The Gretel Project with Lauren K. Alleyne, Catherine Chung, and Tomiko Jones); chamber opera (Independence Eve with Daniel Neer); dance (Young Dancemakers Company’s Choreographers & Composers Project); and poetry (Opera Omaha’s Poetry & Music Project). He has received commissions from the German vocal quintet, amarcord; harpist, Tasha Smith Godinez; the contemporary ensemble, counter)induction; and Parhelion Trio. He is one of 32 composers in the international roster commissioned to write new solo piano works for Yael Weiss’ “32 Bright Clouds.” His works are often informed, influenced, and shaped by contemporary social justice issues; his Catholic faith; and his Philippine identity. Recent projects have focused on the immigrant experience and climate change, including Paghihirap, Pagsisikap, at Pagbubunyi (for Ciompi Quartet); Manlalakbay (for NOISE Ensemble and the 2025 soundON Festival); Agos (for pianist, Melody S. Quah); and Panalangin (for Palaver Strings).
Sidney is a professor at Adelphi University in Garden City, New York , where he teaches courses in music theory, composition, general education, and directs the Improvisation Ensemble. His teaching is informed and impacted by the practices and principles of Process Oriented Guided Inquiry Learning (POGIL), for which he received a 2025 POGIL Early Achievement (PEAch) Award.
He sings with the Ignatian Schola as well as the choir of The Church of St. Francis Xavier in Manhattan, New York.
James Schroeder
James Schroeder is a guitarist, multi-instrumentalist, composer, and sound engineer from Nebraska. He is the leader of the instrumental jazz-rock-folk group “Mesa Buoy”. As a member of the bands “Rosali” and “David Nance & Mowed Sound”, he has recorded, performed, and toured nationally and overseas.
Recently he has composed music for performances by the tbd. dance collective, the musical “Through the Looking Glass” written by Kevin Lawler and produced by the Great Plains Theatre Company with Ollie Webb Center’s Art of Imagination, and for “DaVinci: Art and the Machine:” a live radio teleplay led by artists Ash Eliza Smith and Robert Twomey and commissioned by Nebraska Public Media.
About the Poetry & Music Project
The Opera Omaha Poetry & Music Project is a statewide program run in partnership with the Nebraska Writers Collective. Now in its 9th year, the Poetry & Music Project connects student writers and their words with composers to create original scores and explore the connections between poetry and music. Students are invited to submit poems for the project, and free Poetry & Music writing workshops are available in the fall. Professional composers select poems that move them from a robust collection of writing submitted by young writers in grades K-12 and create original music inspired by the selected poems. This program culminates in public performance of the selected poems -now songs- with the poets, their families, and community partners in attendance so they can see the fruits of labor that come from this season long project.
Poetry Book
All submitted poems will be printed in the Poetry & Music Project book which will be distributed to all poets, teachers, concert audience, and available online. The Poetry & Music Project book is also available in the Omaha Public Library’s collection.
Writing Workshops
Opera Omaha and Nebraska Writers Collective offer FREE writing workshops. Facilitated by Nebraska Writers Collective Teaching Artists, these FREE, in-class workshops aim to teach participants how to add musicality to their writing. Instructors explain a variety of poetic devices such as meter, rhyme, metaphor, and personification and show how these devices are used in poetry, modern music, and opera classics.
The workshops add a layer of understanding for students who are interested in participating in the Poetry and Music Project. Workshops can be adapted to various classrooms but are best suited for students in 4th grade and above.
Project Timeline
September 2025 | Submissions Open
October & November 2025 | Writing Workshops led by NWC
November 30, 2025 | Poem Submissions Close
December 2025 | Composers Select Poems
January 2026 | Poets of Selected Pieces Notified, Composers Writing Time
March/April 2026 | Music Workshop with Composers and Poets of the Selected Pieces
May 9, 2026 | Poetry & Music Project Concert
Partners
The Poetry & Music Project is produced in partnership with Nebraska Writers Collective. The NWC helped identify the theme and created prompts for the Poetry & Music Project, and NWC Teaching Artists designed and facilitated poetry workshops for over 200 middle and high school students across Nebraska.
Additional project partners include American Opera Projects who helped identify project composer Sidney Boquiren, and alum of their Composers & the Voice project.
The Poetry & Music Project is supported in part by Humanities Nebraska, Nebraska Arts Council, and The Nebraska Cultural Endowment.
Past Years
24/25For More Information
Contact: Lauren Medici | Opera Omaha Director of Engagement Programs
Lmedici@operaomaha.org | 402-346-7372
James Schroeder is a guitarist, multi-instrumentalist, composer, and sound engineer from Nebraska. He is the leader of the instrumental jazz-rock-folk group “Mesa Buoy”. As a member of the bands “Rosali” and “David Nance & Mowed Sound”, he has recorded, performed, and toured nationally and overseas.
Recently he has composed music for performances by the tbd. dance collective, the musical “Through the Looking Glass” written by Kevin Lawler and produced by the Great Plains Theatre Company with Ollie Webb Center’s Art of Imagination, and for “DaVinci: Art and the Machine:” a live radio teleplay led by artists Ash Eliza Smith and Robert Twomey and commissioned by Nebraska Public Media.