Mirror Visions Ensemble Announces 25th Anniversary Programming
By: BWW News Desk Aug. 16, 2016
Mirror Visions Ensemble (MVE) today announces concerts and programming for its 25th anniversary season. Highlights of the season are a three concert series at the Loreto Theater at The Sheen Center for Thought & Culture, including a unique anniversary performance, as well as additional concerts in Salem, Oregon, in Seattle, Washington, and at New York University and the University of Iowa. Throughout the season, MVE will perform its signature programs Flights of Fantasy, A Winter Solstice of Song, and Concert à la carte.
Mirror Visions Ensemble-featuring soprano, tenor, baritone and piano, often joined by other instrumentalists-continues to explore the relationship between music and text, taking audiences on an imaginative journey through song. The group showcases well-known and oft-neglected pieces by composers both familiar and new; these pieces are often commissioned by the ensemble.
The group celebrates its 25th anniversary on Monday, January 16 at 8:00 p.m. at The Sheen Center with a program highlighting favorites from the group's repertoire, including Tom Cipullo's song cycle A Visit with Emily based on the poetry of Emily Dickinson and her correspondence with T.W. Higginson. The anniversary concert also includes the world premieres of four works written by the winners of MVE's inaugural Young Composers Competition-At a Window by Margaret Barrett with text by Carl Sandburg, Squall by John Glover with text by Leonora Speyer, Invitation to Love by Aaron Grad with text by Paul Laurence Dunbar, and Summer Rain by Daniel Temkin with text by Amy Lowell and James Joyce. The winners of the Young Composers Competition, selected in 2015, were chosen from over 70 submissions from US-based composers ages 35 and under. The anniversary concert features sopranos Vira Slywotzky and Justine Aronson, tenor Scott Murphree, and baritones Mischa Bouvier and Jesse Blumberg, with pianists Alan Darling and Margaret Kampmeier.
Mirror Visions Ensemble performs its program Flights of Fantasy on Friday, October 8 at 5:00 p.m. as part of the Highlands Chapel Concert Series in Seattle, Washington; on Saturday, October 9 at 2:30 p.m. as part of the Camerata Musica chamber music series in Salem, Oregon; and on Friday, October 14 at 8:00 p.m. at the Loreto Theater at The Sheen Center. Soprano Vira Slywotzky, tenor Scott Murphree, baritone Jesse Blumberg, and pianist Grant Wenaus are featured in the exploration of the worlds of the mysterious and magical through pieces about enchanted forests, whispering waters, and the creatures that inhabit them, by composers including Holst, Sibelius, Schubert, Gershwin and Schumann. The centerpiece of the program is a MVE commission by Gilda Lyons-Scales and Tales-a historical account of mythological beasts set to texts by Lawrence de Ferry, Hesiod, John Nieuhoff, and Claudius Aelianus.
On Tuesday, December 6 at 8:00 p.m. at The Sheen Center, the ensemble gives a performance of its festive seasonal program A Winter Solstice of Song with soprano Vira Slywotzky, tenor Scott Murphree, baritone Mischa Bouvier, and pianist Grant Wenaus. The program of winter songs and carols reflects on how various countries including France, Germany, Sweden, Spain and Australia celebrate the holidays.
The pleasures of dining take center stage with MVE's Concert à la carte on Sunday, February 26 at 7:30 p.m. at the University of Iowa Voxman Music Building, featuring American songs by Barber, Berg, Bernstein, Bolcom, Porter and Schwartz, as well as Clean Plates Don't Lie, a MVE-commissioned cantata by Richard Pearson Thomas inspired by the menus and philosophies of renowned chef Dan Barber. Soprano Vira Slywotzky, tenor Scott Murphree, and baritone Jesse Blumberg are joined by composer and pianist Richard Pearson Thomas, violinist Naho Parrini, and cellist Alberto Parrini.
Continuing the group's commitment to education, Mirror Visions Ensemble also gives masterclasses to music students on October 28 at New York University and on February 27 at the University of Iowa. NYU students taking part in the masterclass will present their own fantastical pieces as an extension of MVE's Flights of Fantasy program, alongside soprano Vira Slywotzky, tenor Scott Murphree, baritones Jesse Blumberg and Mischa Bouvier, and pianist Grant Wenaus onMonday, October 31 at 7:30 p.m. at the Loewe Theater at New York University.
2016-17 Season Information:
Mirror Visions Ensemble
Vira Slywotzky, soprano
Scott Murphree, tenor
Jesse Blumberg, baritone
Mischa Bouvier, baritone
Alan Darling, piano
Margaret Kampmeier, piano
Grant Wenaus, piano
Tobé Malawista, Artistic Director
Flights of Fantasy
Works by Holst, Sibelius, Schubert, Gershwin, Ravel, Debussy, and more, together with MVE commission, Scales and Tales, by Gilda Lyons with text by Lawrence de Ferry, Hesiod, John Nieuhoff and Claudius Aelianus
For October 8, 9 and 14 concerts:
Vira Slywotzky, soprano
Scott Murphree, tenor
Jesse Blumberg, baritone
Grant Wenaus, piano
For October 31 concert:
Vira Slywotzky, soprano
Scott Murphree, tenor
Jesse Blumberg, baritone
Mischa Bouvier, baritone
Grant Wenaus, piano
Friday, October 8 at 5:00 p.m.
Highlands Chapel Concert Series
NW 145th Street and 3rd Avenue NW
Seattle, Washington 98177
Tickets: $30; available at the door
Saturday, October 9 at 2:30 p.m.
Camerata Musica
Loucks Lecture Hall at the Salem Public Library
585 Liberty Street
Salem, Oregon 97301
Tickets: Free; available at the door
Friday, October 14 at 8:00 p.m.
The Sheen Center for Thought & Culture
Loreto Theater
18 Bleecker Street
New York, NY 10012
Tickets: $20 ($15 for students); visit SheenCenter.org or call 212-925-2812
Monday, October 31 at 7:30 p.m.
New York University
Loewe Theater
35 West 4th Street
New York, NY 10012
Tickets: $10 ($5 for students); available by calling 212-998-4941, online at www.nyu.edu/ticketcentral or by visiting NYU Ticket Central's box office at 566 LaGuardia Place (side entrance of the KimMel Center)
A Winter Solstice of Song
Winter songs and carols that reflect on how various countries including France, Germany, Sweden, Spain and Australia celebrate the holidays
Vira Slywotzky, soprano
Scott Murphree, tenor
Mischa Bouvier, baritone
Grant Wenaus, piano
Tuesday, December 6 at 8:00 p.m.
The Sheen Center for Thought & Culture
Loreto Theater
18 Bleecker Street
New York, NY 10012
Tickets: $20 ($15 for students); visit SheenCenter.org or call 212-925-2812
Mirror Visions Ensemble's 25th Anniversary Concert
Four world premieres by the winners of MVE's Young Composers Competition, as well as MVE commission A Visit with Emily by Tom Cipullo set to poetry by Emily Dickinson and her correspondence with T.W. Higginson
Vira Slywotzky, soprano
Justine Aronson, soprano
Scott Murphree, tenor
Jesse Blumberg, baritone
Mischa Bouvier, baritone
Alan Darling, piano
Margaret Kampmeier, piano
Monday, January 16 at 8:00 p.m.
The Sheen Center for Thought & Culture
Loreto Theater
18 Bleecker Street
New York, NY 10012
Tickets: $20 ($15 for students); visit SheenCenter.org or call 212-925-2812
Concert à la carte
Works by Barber, Berg, Bernstein, Bolcom, Porter, and Schwartz, as well as Clean Plates Don't Lie, a MVE-commissioned cantata by Richard Pearson Thomas, inspired by the menus and philosophies of renowned chef Dan Barber
Vira Slywotzky, soprano
Scott Murphree, tenor
Jesse Blumberg, baritone
Richard Pearson Thomas, piano
Naho Parrini, piano
Alberto Parrini, cello
Sunday, February 26 at 7:30 p.m.
University of Iowa
Voxman Music Building
93 East Burlington Street
Iowa City, IA 52240
Tickets: Free and open to the public
Mirror Visions Ensemble (MVE) was founded from a desire to explore the relationship between music and text, initially through the creation of "mirror visions" - settings of the same text to music by different composers. The group's passion for storytelling has produced thematic concerts on surprising subjects, based on scholarly research and laced with humor, leading to the revitalization of art song programming. Featuring soprano, tenor, baritone and piano, often joined by other instrumentalists, MVE's programs take audiences on an imaginative journey through song, showcasing well-known and oft-neglected pieces by composers both familiar and new, set to texts by poets and historical figures that encompass published works, correspondence and other anecdotes.
During its 25-year history, Mirror Visions Ensemble has championed and fostered the work of new composers, providing a platform for their works to be showcased through the commissioning and performance of over 80 works by 24 composers, including Tom Cipullo, Scott Wheeler, and Pulitzer Prize recipient Yehudi Wyner. In the 2015-16 season, the ensemble launched its first-ever Young Composers Competition, awarding four commissions to early-career composers dedicated to developing the future catalogue of vocal chamber music.
The ensemble has presented its programs, residencies, and masterclasses both in the U.S. and abroad at concert halls, schools, libraries, and museums. MVE's concerts are often free and open to the public, continuing the ensemble's commitment to education and its tradition of providing access to the arts. Mirror Visions Ensemble has performed at such venues as Weill Recital Hall at Carnegie Hall, Merkin Concert Hall at the Kaufman Music Center, Le Poisson Rouge, SubCulture, and Mt. Kisco's Copland House, and at educational institutions including California State University at Fullerton, University of Southern California, New York University, the Longy School of Music of Bard College, Northwestern University, Williams College, and Yale University. Museums in France have become a home for MVE, with many performances at the Musée Carnavalet, Musée des Arts Décoratifs and the Musée Nissim de Camondo, as well as at the American University of Paris.
In recognition of strengthening cultural relationships between the U.S. and France, bringing to life forgotten texts and music from both French and American traditions, and sharing these works through commissions and performances by Mirror Visions Ensemble, Artistic Director Tobé Malawista was named Chevalier of the Legion of Honor in 2008.
MVE's discography includes Américain à Paris (2003), Secrets (2004), Cosmic and Domestic Matters (2008), and The Three-Paneled Mirror (2015). Mirror Visions Ensemble was founded by Tobé Malawista, Richard Lalli and Scott Murphree in 1992.
Videos