INCUBATOR: POCO LABS

Todd's passion for writing custom texts for composers led him to assemble a collective of artists willing to speak and host events on the topic.

The inaugural collective includes poets Samiya Bashir, Taylor Brorby, Melissa Studdard, and Arisa White, as well as composers Jake Runestad, Hila Plitmann, Christopher Theofanidis, Joel Thompson.

POCO LABS is nonprofit initiative under Todd's Poetical Constructs umbrella that aims to inspire more poet + composer collaborations.

The project started taking shape in 2022 when Todd and Jake brought together Samiya and Joel for their first collaboration on a choral commission from Lynda Hasseler's Capital University Chapel Choir.

Many poets and writers are unaware that lucrative and rewarding opportunities exist for them in the classical music space; and many composers are uncertain about how to source and engage with living writers for texts. But there are robust commissions in the choral music world in particular, just like the ones that have landed Todd at Kennedy Center and Carnegie Hall.

I love this initiative!

— Librettist Mark Stephen Campbell

POCO LABS champions writers to develop "custom texts" in active co-creation of a performance work. Todd's collaborative projects with composer Jake Runestad, for example, typically involve idea-to-execution creative input from both parties, sometimes resulting in as many as twelve revisions of a text before a note of music is ever written. These high-touch experiences have become a POCO LABS gold standard, because of how they inform both parties' creative process.

This video excerpts exit-interviews with participants in a 2025 POCO LABS mixer at Disney Hall sponsored by LA Master Chorale.

In its inaugural year 2025, POCO LABS hosted online conversations like this one, a panel discussion, a workshop for The Writers' League of Texas, and two mixers:

• bringing poets to the annual conference of the American Choral Directors Association conference in Dallas, and

• bringing composers to the annual Association of Writing Programs conference in Los Angeles.

Writers (of all genres, not just poets) and composers interested in collaborating are invited to subscribe or RSVP to upcoming events at pocolabs.org.

POCO LABS has tapped a real need in the classical music industry for access to creative writers.

The nonprofit initiative welcomes individual contributions, grants, and corporate and college/university sponsorships.

Todd invites choirs and conductors to reach out for a consultation.

If classical composers want to make work that is relevant to the world in which they live, they should collaborate with writers who live in that world. I'm grateful that so many talented writers and composers agree, and have taken time to make POCO LABS a reality.