Sheila Silver received a 2013 Guggenheim, and an Opera America Discovery Grant for Female Composers for development of A Thousand Splendid Suns.  With her development partner, American Opera Projects, the project also received an NEA Development Grant and was featured in Opera America’s  New Works Forum in 2016 in New York City, with a 25 minute orchestral reading of excerpts at Trinity Church.  The second workshop (January 2016) which included all of Act I and funded by the NEA  took place in Key West Florida in partnership with the Studios of Key West.  

The third Workshop, all of Act II, took place in November 2017 at the Hudson Area Library and the National Opera Center in NYC and was supported, in part, by the Berkshire Taconic Foundation and the New York State Council on the Arts. Director Leslie Swackhamer and conductor, Sara Jobin collaborated with Silver on all three workshops and the New Works Forum.

Seattle Opera commissioned the opera and received a 2018 Opera America Toulmin Commissioning Grant. It was premiered at McCaw Hall in February, 2023.

Read Sheila’s early diary about the initial phases of study in India and composing.