Downwind
by Butler School of Music

Feb. 19 - Feb. 22, 2026
Thursday, Saturday-Sunday

On July 16, 1945, New Mexicans awoke to Trinity, the world’s first nuclear test. Manhattan Project leaders did not inform residents, despite tens of thousands living nearby. In the years that followed, people in the surrounding areas began to report serious health issues. These individuals would be known as “Downwinders.” Downwind is the story of these people.

This opera is a world premiere, written by students Michael Smith and Demian Galvan, who traveled to New Mexico to help bring this story to life. Smith writes, “While the family in our opera is fictional, the reality that they face is not.”

World Premiere

Music by Michael Robert Smith

Libretto by Demian Chavez Galvan

Director
Madison Jackson 

Conductor
Douglas Kinney Frost

Director, Producer, Principal Coach
Tamar Sanikdize

Sung in English with supertitles. 

 

Downwind
by Michael Robert Smith, Demian Chavez Galvan
Butler School of Music

Thursday, Saturday-Sunday,
February 19 - February 22, 2026
McCullough Theatre, University of Texas
Robert Dedman Drive and E. 23rd Street
Campus of the University of Texas
Austin, TX, 78712

 – 

Feb. 19, 2026, 7:30 p.m.

Feb. 21, 2026, 7:30 p.m.

Feb. 22, 2026, 4 p.m.

McCullough Theatre (map)

 

$10 – 20

All University of Texas at Austin students are allowed one free ticket as long as they are available. Student tickets must be picked up at the Box Office with valid student I.D. Seating is unassigned.

If you are a patron with specific seating needs, please email tickets@mail.music.utexas.edu and we will reserve ADA seating for you.