Three days until the premieres of JAM on the Marsh’s opera writing composers’ pieces, there must be a feeling of excitement and elation. But behind that is the knowledge for these composers that life on the outside of Dungeness will return to normal with few opportunities for young composers, or those looking for experience in creating new opera.

In the last year I have written frequent news stories about the folding of various young composer programmes. Cheltenham Music Festival, Psappha and Dartington first come to mind, with opera writing initiatives by Britten Pears and the Guildhall-ROH collaborative PhD both having ended.

Does this make the way for new opportunities, like JAM’s, or is it indicative of a downward trend in support for new opera in the UK? ‘To have something like this where composers can actually write in a form that is incredibly expensive to put on is really important,’ says composer Paul Mealor, who is running the residency alongside other mentors, composers Jonathan Dove, John Frederick Hudson and Shirley Thompson.

‘Opera is such a vibrant living thing that communicates about ourselves,’ Mealor continues. ‘Like Shakespeare - It's essential that we have composers today writing about situations that matter. Today, things like the environment, relationships, sexuality. All those kinds of things are incredibly important.’

With a focus on the life and work of Derek Jarman underpinning JAM’s opera residency, it has provided and encouraged composers to explore aspects to themselves that have felt forbidden in the past. In the last fifty years, attitudes to queerness and sexuality and their connection opera have been transformed. Still, it can feel like the generational trauma of these issues is still at play.

JAM on the Marsh opera writing composers

‘His work makes me feel fearless, shows me to not shy away from being provocative, and helps me to remember to trust my instincts.’ Composer Toby Anderson is a non-binary composer who feels a particular connection to Derek Jarman. Anderson’s website reads: ‘Toby Anderson is a composer exploring queer and camp aesthetics through a creative praxis that seeks to explode and reimagine the possibilities of concert music.’ Not their first exploration of the opera genre, Anderson’s previous project, a chamber opera SATYRS at the Royal Academy of Music demonstrated their commitment to bringing a freedom of identity to the opera stage.

And this is richly encourage by JAM, who take composers as they are and have encouraged them to use this experience as a meditation, personal exploration or retreat, as well as a writing course. Composer John Frederick Hudson, also mentoring the composers on the residency, is enthusiastic about the young composers coming up through the industry. ‘It's exciting from the standpoint we have so many wonderful young musicians who are so creative.

‘We need to get the message out there that opera is for everybody, and contemporary opera is about now,’ Hudson continues. ‘It's not just Wagner and Britten. It's people alive now writing about issues that matter.’

Composers John Frederick Hudson and Paul Mealor

What needs to happen to ensure that groundbreaking, risk-taking composers in opera are nurtured? ‘Opportunities are drying up or becoming very expensive, and it is becoming more and more difficult to sustain yourself just on your composing alone,’ Sam Buttler, a composer on the JAM on the Marsh residency told me. JAM’s residency is free for the composers that take part, but this, Hudson explained, isn’t indicative of the rest of the industry. ‘We we need supporters, people that are going to put their hands in their pockets to pay for these types of things. Luckily we have at JAM, but it's incredibly expensive to put on a full-scale operas.’

So to our conservatoires, as Jessica Walker recently wrote for Opera Now’s opinion page, where larger, daring new opera projects are encouraged. But as well as money, it is important that composers have a space in the wider classical music world like JAM to be their authentic selves. Exploring subjects and identities that in Jarman’s day, had to remain a secret.

Four Short Operas, 15-minute operas by emerging composers on JAM’s Composers’ Residency; Writing for Opera will be performed at St Nicholas Church, New Romney at 3pm on Saturday 13 July. JAM on the Marsh (4-14 July) features outstanding music, theatre, opera, poetry and art. jamconcert.org