The Story
Trusted follows two adult sisters as they navigate the emotional and legal fallout of their father’s decades-long fraud. Set against the backdrop of a high-stakes financial scandal, Trusted is an intimate exploration of deception, betrayal, and the emotional toll of broken faith that delves into the complexities of family bonds, the weight of inherited legacies, and the search for redemption in a world where trust—once lost—may never be regained.
Creative Team
Aaron Israel Levin is an American composer whose music explores the emotional dynamism of storytelling and drama. Praised for its “rich orchestration” and “visceral extremes” (I Care If You Listen), his music has been presented by Carnegie Hall, the Centro Nacional de las Artes (Mexico City), and Symphony Center (Chicago), and has garnered recognition from the American Academy of Arts & Letters (Charles Ives Scholarship), the Aspen Music Festival (Druckman Award), and the Cortona Prize. He has received further support from residencies at MacDowell, Virginia Center for the Creative Arts, and Yaddo, and was the 2024-26 Vanguard Composer-in-Residence with Chicago Opera Theater. Originally from Saint Paul, Minnesota, Aaron holds degrees from Grinnell College, the Royal Conservatoire of The Hague, and the Yale School of Music. https://www.aaronisraellevin.com/
Born in California to a family of classical musicians, Marella Martin Koch's deep curiosity about human behavior led her to writing. Now, her text has been spoken and sung across one quarter of the United States and noted for its "complete characters in swift sure lines" (Anne Midgette, The Washington Post). Her work has been developed and/or produced by American Opera Projects, Barrington Stage Company, Catwalk Institute, Chicago Opera Theater, Common Man Musicals, The Duplex, The Electric Lodge, The Glimmerglass Festival, The Jane Austen & The Arts Conference, The Kraine Theater, La Jolla Playhouse Without Walls Festival, Midnight Oil Collective, PianoFight 2.0, Quinnipiac University Theater, TheatreWorks Silicon Valley Writers Retreat, The Rally Cat, Tisch New Musical Theatre Workshop, Washington National Opera at the Kennedy Center, Will Geer Theatricum Botanicum Seedlings, The Workshop Theater, and others. Previously at West Edge Opera: Dolores (Aperture Commission Winner and world premiere; music by Nicolás Lell Benavides), Gilberto (Snapshot 2020; music by Nicolás Lell Benavides), and Ten minutes in the Life or Death of... (Snapshot 2021; music by TJ Rubin). She has taught as a guest director, librettist, and dramaturg with Fairfield University, NYU/Tisch School of the Arts, Quinnipiac University, UCLA Herb Alpert School of Music, and USC’s School of Dramatic Arts. Marella holds degrees from New York University and University of California, Berkeley. https://www.marellamartinkoch.com