Mirror Visions Ensemble Announces 2017-18 Season

Mirror Visions Ensemble (MVE) announces its 2017-2018 season, which brings the group to Hudson, Quebec; Jamaica Plain and Salem, Massachusetts; Philadelphia, Pennsylvania; Fullerton, California; Morristown, New Jersey; and New York City. Now in its 26th season, 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. Featuring soprano, tenor, baritone and piano, often joined by other instrumentalists, Mirror Visions Ensemble artists include soprano Vira Slywotzky, tenor Scott Murphree, baritones Jesse Blumberg, and Mischa Bouvier, and pianists Grant Wenaus, and Margaret Kampmeier. Guest artists this season include sopranos Mireille Asselin and Justine Aronson, and mezzo-soprano Abigail Levis.

On Monday, August 7, 2017 at 7:00pm, MVE presents its acclaimed program Journeys at the eleventh annual Hudson Music Festival in Hudson, Quebec. Featuring travel songs by Barber, Berlioz, Blangini, Duparc, Haydn, Poulenc, Schubert, and more, the Mirror Visions Ensemble sings its way to far-flung destinations, real and imaginary. MVE commissions by Tom Cipullo and Gilda Lyons round out the program, along with the poetry of Baudelaire, Joyce, and Metastasio, and the correspondence of Edna St. Vincent Millay. The concert features soprano Vira Slywotzky, tenor Scott Murphree, and baritone Mischa Bouvier, together with pianist Margaret Kampmeier.

MVE will reprise Journeys on Friday, September 15, 2017 at 8:00pm, presented by JP Concerts at St. John's Episcopal Church in Jamaica Plain, Massachusetts; artists for this performance include guest soprano Mireille Asselin, tenor Scott Murphree, baritone Mischa Bouvier, and pianist Grant Wenaus.

On Thursday, September 28, 2017 at 8:00pm, MVE will perform its program Flights of Fantasy at Media Performing Arts Series in Media, Pennsylvania. Flights of Fantasy explores the worlds of the mysterious and magical through pieces about enchanted forests, whispering waters, and the creatures that inhabit them by Sibelius, Schubert, Gershwin, Schumann and others, together with Scales and Tales - an MVE commission by Gilda Lyons that gives an historical account of mythological beasts. Artists include guest soprano Justine Aronson, tenor Scott Murphree, baritone Jesse Blumberg and pianist Grant Wenaus.

From October 5 to 10, 2017, MVE heads to the West Coast for a five-day residency with vocal students at California State University, Fullerton. In addition to a masterclass and individual coachings, the residency will culminate in a concert on Tuesday, October 10 at 8:00pm, featuring both MVE artists as well as Fullerton students. The residency highlights the music of composer and pianist Richard Pearson Thomas who will be joined in concert by soprano Vira Slywotzky, tenor Scott Murphree and baritone Mischa Bouvier.

Back on the East Coast, MVE performs its Journeys program on Saturday, November 18, 2017 at 7:30pm, part of Abendmusik's 33rd season at Morristown Church on the Green in Morristown, New Jersey. Artists include guest mezzo-soprano Abigail Levis, tenor Scott Murphree, baritone Mischa Bouvier, and pianist Grant Wenaus.

On Friday, December 8, 2017 at 7:30pm, MVE rings in the holiday season with When Icicles Hang by the Wall presented by Salem Classical at Salem Old Town Hall in Salem, Massachusetts. The program explores how various cultures celebrate this festive time of year through folk songs and carols from Germany, Sweden, France, England, Australia, and the US. Artists include soprano Vira Slywotzky, tenor Scott Murphree, baritone Mischa Bouvier, pianist Grant Wenaus.

MVE will perform its new program Of Beasts and Brutes at 2:30pm on Saturday, February 3, 2018 in the Bruno Walter Auditorium at the New York Public Library for the Performing Arts. Of Beasts and Brutes playfully and seriously shines light on pigs, horses, and dogs, with a few insects and fish thrown into the mix. The songs also reference animalized brutes since the early Romans, up to and including modern times. Ukrainian translations of Russian favorites by Glinka, Tchaikovsky and Rachmaninoff are also on the program. Featured performers include soprano Vira Slywotzky, tenor Scott Murphree, baritone Mischa Bouvier, and pianist Grant Wenaus.

MVE closes its season on Thursday, March 15, 2018 at 8:00pm with Of Beasts and Brutes at the Sheen Center in New York City. Performers include soprano Vira Slywotzky, tenor Scott Murphree, baritone Mischa Bouvier, pianist Grant Wenaus.

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About Mirror Visions Ensemble

Mirror Visions Ensemble'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. Programs take audiences on an imaginative journey through song, showcasing well-known and often-neglected pieces by composers both familiar and new, set to texts by poets and historical figures that encompass published works, correspondence and other anecdotes. MVE has championed and fostered the work of new composers, providing a platform for their works to be showcased through the commissioning of over 85 works by 28 composers, including Tom Cipullo, Scott Wheeler, and Pulitzer Prize recipient Yehudi Wyner. Dedicated to developing the future catalogue of vocal chamber music, the ensemble launched its first-ever Young Composers Competition in the 2015-2016 season, awarding four commissions to early-career composers.

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 appeared 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 (Albany 2003), Secrets (Albany 2004), Cosmic and Domestic Matters (Albany 2008), and The Three-Paneled Mirror (Centaur 2015). Mirror Visions Ensemble was founded by Tobé Malawista, Richard Lalli and Scott Murphree in 1992.

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2017-18 Mirror Visions Ensemble Concert Schedule

All concerts subject to change, please visit www.mirrorvisions.org for updates.

Monday, August 7, 2017 at 7:00pm
Journeys at Hudson Music Festival (Hudson, Quebec)
Artists: Vira Slywotzky (soprano), Scott Murphree (tenor), Mischa Bouvier (baritone), Margaret Kampmeier (piano)
For more information: www.hudsonmusicfestival.ca

Friday, September 15, 2017 at 8:00pm
Journeys at JP Concerts (Jamaica Plain, MA)
Artists: Mireille Asselin (soprano), Scott Murphree (tenor), Mischa Bouvier (baritone), Grant Wenaus (piano)
For more information: http://www.theopentheatre.com/jp-concerts

Thursday, September 28, 2017 at 8:00pm
Flights of Fantasy at Media Performing Arts Series (Media, PA)
Artists: Justine Aronson (soprano), Scott Murphree (tenor), Jesse Blumberg (baritone), Grant Wenaus (piano)
For more information: www.relcmedia.org

October 5 - 10, 2017
Residency at California State University Fullerton (Fullerton, CA)
Artists: Richard Pearson Thomas (composer/piano), Vira Slywotzky (soprano), Scott Murphree (tenor) and Mischa Bouvier (baritone)
For more information: http://www.fullerton.edu/arts/music/students/areas_of_study/vocal_choral_opera.php

Saturday, November 18, 2017 at 7:30pm
Journeys at Abendmusik (Morristown, NJ)
Artists: Abigail Levis (mezzo-soprano), Scott Muphree (tenor), Mischa Blumberg (baritone), and Grant Wenaus (pianist)
For more information: http://morristownumc.org/ministries/music-ministry/concert-series/

Friday, December 8, 2017 at 7:30pm
When Icicles Hang by the Wall at Salem Classical (Salem, MA)
Artists: Vira Slywotzky (soprano), Scott Murphree (tenor), Mischa Bouvier (baritone), Grant Wenaus (piano)
For more information: www.salemclassical.com

Saturday, February 3, 2018 at 2:30pm
Of Beasts and Brutes at the New York Public Library for the Performing Arts' Bruno Walter Auditorium (NYC)
Artists: Vira Slywotzky (soprano), Scott Murphree (tenor), Mischa Bouvier (baritone), Grant Wenaus (piano)
For more information: https://www.nypl.org/events/programs/lpa

Thursday, March 15, 2018 at 8:00pm
Of Beasts and Brutes at the Sheen Center (NYC)
Artists: Vira Slywotzky (soprano), Scott Murphree (tenor), Mischa Bouvier (baritone), Grant Wenaus (piano)
For more information: https://sheencenter.org/music/classical/