A Powerful New Opera
This Pride Month, Yale’s Center for Collaborative Arts and Media (CCAM) and the LGBTQ Center are thrilled to celebrate national recognition of I AM ALAN TURING, a groundbreaking new opera by composer and Yale faculty member Dr. Matthew Suttor. The piece, which premiered during Envisioning AI: A Festival of Art, Ideas, and Performance in May, was featured by NPR’s Sunday Baroque as part of their Pride Month spotlight on LGBTQ+ voices in classical music.
Suzanne Bona, host of Sunday Baroque, attended the keynote performance of I AM ALAN TURING at Yale and later invited Suttor to discuss the opera on her program. In the episode, now live, Bona describes the work as “a powerful new opera,” highlighting its emotional depth and contemporary relevance. The episode joins a month-long celebration of trailblazing LGBTQ+ artists including guitarist Sharon Isbin, countertenor Reginald Mobley, the ensemble Chamber Queer, and drag violinist Thorgy Thor.
The recognition of I AM ALAN TURING is a major achievement for both Yale and the LGBTQ+ arts community. Rooted in the tragic yet brilliant life of Alan Turing—gay mathematician, cryptanalyst, and father of artificial intelligence—the opera explores themes of identity, legacy, and resilience. Its national spotlight through Sunday Baroque affirms the power of queer storytelling in reshaping classical music.
