Composer Liam Wade was the recipient of the Wagner Society of Northern California William O. Cord Memorial Grant Fund in 2015. Wade’s one act opera, The Stranger The Better, co-written by librettist Vynnie Meli, won the 2016 Audience Prize at The Atlanta Opera’s 24-Hour Opera Project, and has subsequently performed in Hartford, Austin, St. Louis, Berkeley and San Francisco.
His chamber opera collaboration with librettist John Grimmett, Part of the Act, was commissioned by Washington National Opera and premiered at the Kennedy Center on their 2012-13 season. His music has been heard on concerts at La Jolla Music Society, ProQuartet France, Toronto Music Garden, One Ounce Opera (Austin, TX), Hartford Opera Theater, St. Louis Opera Collective, The Atlanta Opera, West Edge Opera, Academy of Vocal Arts, The Kennedy Center, and Semperoper Dresden.
In October 2017, an excerpt from his operatic scene, Rosies, with libretto by Caitlin Vincent, was performed at Semperoper Dresden. Wade will return to Semperoper in September 2018 for the Dresden premiere of the new Wade/ Meli operetta, Boy Loses Girl (in the Beer Tent), at Semper Zwei.
Wade studied composition with Philip Lasser, Howard Frazin, Kurt Rohde, Ross Bauer, and Jake Heggie. He holds degrees from The Longy School of Music of Bard College and the University of California, Davis.