Marisa Michelson and Miriam Parker Featured in IN PROGRESS: BENEATH THE SURFACE

In partnership with Pioneer Works, two co-fellows from their season-long collaboration with The Center for Ballet and the Arts at NYU - composer, performer, and founder of Constellation Chor, Marisa Michelson, and interdisciplinary artist Miriam Parker - connect sound and movement from sacred music to Western Classical Music to psychedelic improvisation, Buddhism to Anthroposophy to mysticism. This project is a continuation of an ongoing exploration and consistent practice of both artists. Their digital premiere will explore making visible and audible the space between form and no-form, sound and no-sound, material and immaterial. It begins with dark matter, where the body and voice exist as multiple creative possibilities within this dark space, and explores the connection between the body and the space where the notion of defined limits and edges is ignored. Michelson developed the music specifically for Constellation Chor, an immersion in voice, movement and spirit. Parker created the video, along with creative support by Christina Smiros and Emily Shanny. As part of their fellowship, Michelson and Parker will be mentored by acclaimed opera and theater director Yuval Sharon.

Marisa Michelson is a singer, composer, improviser, vocal philosopher and teacher. She is the founder and director of the vocal performance collective Constellation Chor, an immersion in voice, movement, and spirit. Performing internationally and in New York City, the Chor made their Lincoln Center debut in 2018 while premiering Ashley Fure's "Filament" with the New York Philharmonic. Since 2016, Constellation Chor has been in residence at the historic Judson Memorial Church, and in 2019, the Chor performed monthly at Spectrum in Brooklyn. They've collaborated with Claire Chase, Sarah Hennies, the Kitchen, Heartbeat Opera, and Harvard Art Lab; since the pandemic, they joined Maria Popova and Paola Prestini at Pioneer Works in Red Hook, BK, to bring to life Prestini's composition "Tree of 40 Fruit" as part of an outdoor ritual-celebration. As well as collaborating with composers, choreographers, directors, and videographers, Constellation Chor also perform interdisciplinary pieces composed by Michelson. As a solo artist or as the director of Constellation Chor, Michelson's has been in residence with-or won awards from- Pioneer Works, the National Endowment for the Arts, the Foundation for Contemporary Arts, MacDowell Colony, Ucross, New Dramatists, Jonathan Larson, the Eric Salman Foundation, and the Lower Manhattan Cultural Council, among others. Michelson lives, works and teaches in New York City and Hudson, NY.

Miriam Parker is an interdisciplinary artist who uses movement, paint, video art and sculpture/installation within a performance-based practice. Her work has been influenced by her experience as a dancer, her study of Buddhism and phenomenology, and her connection to the free jazz tradition. Parker is a CBA Fellow '21 in collaboration with Marisa Michelson. She has performed at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York; PS1 MoMA, New York; The Fridman Gallery, New York; a residency at École Normale Supérieure, Paris; at the Every Women Biennial, New York; Survey Dover Plains, NY; at Vision Festival through consecutive years; the Satellite Art Fair, in Miami, FL; Clement Soto Velez Cultural and Education Center, New York; Whitebox ArtCenter, New York; a month residency at Governors Island in the House of Poetics curated by Cooper Union; among others. She has previously collaborated with Jo Wood-Brown, Christina Smiros and Luke Stewart, among others. She is co-founder and collaborator of Lost Voyage, a multimedia collaborative work led by seven women artists; as well as Inner City Projects, a multimedia collaborative work group with Jo Wood Brown, based in New York. They have performed in WhiteBox New York, NY; Five Myles, in Brooklyn, NY; and Roulette Intermedium, Brooklyn, NY.

The National Sawdust partnership with The Center for Ballet and the Arts at NYU is dedicated to fostering interdisciplinary networks with composers and choreographers and is made possible by the Virginia B. Toulmin Foundation. Artists receive project development support, resources to adapt their work to the digital space, and a generative environment in which to develop new work and collaborate across artistic disciplines. This livestream is also made possible through the generosity of the Alphadyne Foundation and with public funds provided by the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs; in partnership with the New York City Council.

DETAILS:

In Progress: Beneath the Surface

Marisa Michelson and Miriam Parker (Toulmin Co-Fellows)

In Partnership with The Center for Ballet and the Arts at NYU

and Pioneer Works

Streaming Premiere on Thursday, April 22 at 6PM EST

Part of National Sawdust's Digital Discovery Festival

Available Free, On-Demand

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