Boston-based artist Omar Najmi splits his time between composition and performance, maintaining a busy schedule as an operatic tenor. As a performer, Najmi has recently made his international debut creating the title role in Joseph Summer’s operatic adaptation of Hamlet with Bulgaria’s State Opera Rousse. Other recent and upcoming engagements include Rodolfo in La Boheme with Opera Steamboat, Shakur in Thumbprint with Portland Opera and Tybalt in Romeo and Juliet with Boston Lyric Opera to name a few. Najmi enjoys a long standing relationship with Boston Lyric Opera where he began his professional career as an Emerging Artist (2013-2015). Najmi began his composition career with the production of his first opera, En la ardiente oscuridad, in 2019. After a run of sold-out performances, he was invited to serve as the first ever Emerging Composer in residence with Boston Lyric Opera, where he worked with Boston Youth Poet Laureate Alondra Bobadilla. He is currently working on Jo dooba so paar - a short opera exploring the intersection of queer and Muslim identity - which will be premiered as part of White Snake Projects’ Let’s Celebrate initiative. In 2022, Najmi and his husband Brendon Shapiro co-founded Catalyst New Music - an organization dedicated to fostering, developing, and producing new works. Catalyst’s first project was a concert performance of Najmi’s new opera This Is Not That Dawn, a drama set during and after the Partition of India. In this episode, we discuss exploring hidden talents, dismantling ancient art forms and the complexity of nature vs. nurture. Welcome to Omar’s LAB!