As we're busy making resolutions, starting revolutions, and picking up where we may have left off on old projects (*cough* my dissertation *cough) - I'm thrilled to begin my musical year with the amazing women of Quince.
As we are spread about the country (with members currently located from the Missouri River to the Atlantic Ocean), rehearsing proves a special challenge. For our upcoming tours, we'll spend time in residence this month in St. Paul, Minnesota - I'm hoping for lots of snow, except on travel days... We shall convene with steel bars and bass bows, theremins, iLophones, and of course, lots and lots of music to polish!

OH! BIG NEWS! The above photo was taken just after our return from DeKalb, IL last January = where we recorded what has become our second album, hushers . We are beyond excited to announce that hushers will be released in February 2017, on New Focus Recordings - on it, you can hear works by Giacinto Scelsi, Kaija Saariaho, Warren Enström, and Kate Soper! Preorder here. 
​
Check out my schedule for updated 2017 performances!

Just prior to the end of Milton Babbitt's centenary-year celebration, I will have the great privilege of sharing his epic Philomel at the NYU Institute of Fine Arts Duke House. In addition, composer C. Spencer Yeh will premiere a new work responding to the 1964 Babbitt score. This concert is presented as part of Some Hags, an exhibition of thought-provoking, spiky, gorgeous sculpture by artist Martha Friedman, whose works are on display at the Duke House Great Hall now until December 3. 

It's probably pretty clear already, but Quince Ensemble is so, so important to me. Working with them for the past six years has changed who I am as a musician, as a colleague, and as an advocate for vocal music. This past spring, we got the once-in-a-lifetime chance to sing David Lang's love fail - a piece new to us - at the KODY Festiwal Tradycji i Awangardy Muzycznej in Lublin, Poland. Performing this gorgeous piece in a beautiful, brand new opera hall is an experience I will cherish forever. 
​
As with most new-music ensembles, we've had our share of self-produced shows, basement/bar gigs, and we generally are in charge of all production elements (lights! outfits! stand placement!). We love this autonomy...but it was nice to feel so pampered by the Beth Morrison Projects team - who built the set, and executed all visual elements. We just had to sing - what a treat! 

I want to share with you an excerpt of our Lublin performance - featuring Kayleigh Butcher singing "the outing", followed by "I live in pain".
​

​We look forward to returning to love fail in spring 2017!

It's been a heck of a 2016 so far - performing more in my "hometown" with the lovely groups newEar and Classical Revolution KC, and singing all OVER the place (California, Poland, and points between) with Quince, in addition to my first solo Lachenmann - got lost with the amazing Stacey Barelos at this summer's Omaha Under the Radar Festival. 

Many exciting projects loom on the horizon - Quince performing with Eighth Blackbird and Third Coast Percussion, a Dada recital at the Green Mill, my second Pierrot lunaire of the year - and that's just for starters!  

Check out more on my schedule. 

I am so happy to announce that my document proposal has been accepted, and I will officially be dissertating  - "Comparing selected singing pedagogies in the twenty-first century"   is happening!

And in a fun discovery, lovely pianist Karl has posted our recording from last February of Harawi. . .​I hope you like it : )

 Though the spectre of my dissertation looms, this has been a most enjoyable year. From repeat performances of  Three  Voices   with my  dear friends of  Quince,  and  Harawi​  with the inimitable Karl,  to   this year's Omaha Under the Radar  Festival,   I've loved every musical moment.  How fortunate  to  have so many opportunities to make glorious music with dear friends.

As a personal highlight, I wanted to share  the audio from my live performance of Philomel   this summer in Omaha.  I  have never worked so intensely on one piece before, and though there's always work to be done for future performances, I  hope you like it : )

Next up?  Scelsi, Saariaho, Enstrom, and Soper. . . Quince is  back in the recording studio  this January,  2016! 

It's been too long! Months filled with performances with Quince, Karl, and my Kansas City debuts with KcEMA and newEar. . .and I'm happily back where 2015 began - Harawi.


The most excellent Johnstone Fund for New Music is hosting us on Wednesday night at the Short North Stage in Columbus, Ohio - it's a free concert at 7p (cocktail hour preceding!).
Christopher Purdy wrote a lovely article about the piece. 

This is Karl and my sixth performance of Messiaen's glorious song cycle of love and death, and we hope to share it with you. 

Karl Larson and I will be presenting Harawi  three times in February:

2/12/2015 - 7:30p    Luther College 
                                                                              Jenson-Noble Hall of Music, Noble Recital Hall
                                                                             700 College Drive ,  Decorah, IA 52101

2/13/2015 -  7:00p     DeWitt United Methodist Church
                                                                            222 12th Street, DeWitt, IA 52742

2/22/2015 -  8:30p  Constellation Chicago
                                                                            3111 N. Western Ave., Chicago, IL  60618

What a season so far - Fall 2014 has been basically put to bed, and I'm glad for this time to plan for what's in store come 2015!  After an excellent time with Bowling Green State University's New Music Ensemble at their Fall Festival, I had the extreme privilege of performing Morton Feldman's intense Three Voices in a trio. The piece (rarely performed with three live singers) took me to the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee and Kent State University with two of my favorite singers and long-time collaborators, Amanda DeBoer Bartlett and Kayleigh Butcher. I have sung with these immensely talented women for four years as part of Quince Ensemble, whose debut album was also released this fall, to lovely reviews.  Most recently, Quince performed (along with our newest member and absolutely brilliant talent Carrie Henneman Shaw) at Constellation Chicago, a venue we've performed in a few times now (we can't wait to return!)

I am simply ecstatic to announce that I will be returning to Constellation on February 22, to perform Olivier Messiaen's Harawi with pianist Karl Larson (my first recital in Chicago!) After last year's performances at Baldwin Wallace University and Kerrytown Concert House in Ann Arbor, we couldn't wait to present the work again - this will be an unforgettable evening of otherworldly music, and I couldn't ask for a better collaborator in Karl. 
More announcements can be found on my updated schedule!

After several months away in Lucerne and Kansas City, I am thrilled to be returning to Bowling Green State University next week for the MACCM New Music Festival!  I will be performing works by Morgan Krauss, Christopher Dietz, and Reiko Fueting on Concert 2 at:

7:30pm Thursday, 10/16, in Kobacker Hall on the campus of BGSU. 

After that, it's off to Chicago to rehearse Three Voices with two of my dear Quince friends. . .we'll be touring Feldman and more in a few weeks!