The Mirror Visions Ensemble, a vocal trio featuring soprano Vira Slywotzky, tenor Scott Murphree and baritone Jesse Blumberg, presents Journeys accompanied by pianist Grant Wenaus in February and March with dates in San Francisco, Newton (MA), Hillsdale (NY) and in New York City at Lincoln Center’s Library for the Performing Arts and SubCulture.

Journeys is a new program in which the singers explore land, sea and air travel to far-flung destinations -- both real and imaginary -- in lighthearted and humorous ways. The ensemble sings about modes of transportation, travel experiences and hotel accommodation with style and flair. They also eloquently tour coral reefs in The Mermaid’s Song by Haydn, search for the isle of true love in Berlioz’s L’Ile inconnue, and have a momentary rest in Barber’s Solitary Hotel. This program features five MVE commissions in addition to familiar works by such composers as Haydn, Porter, Duparc, Wolf, Berlioz, Poulenc and Barber set to the poetry of James Joyce, Charles Baudelaire, Pietro Metastasio and others.

The commissioned works by composers Tom Cipullo, Scott Wheeler, Christopher Berg, Gilda Lyons and Deborah Fischer Teason share the travel theme. Cipullo’s song cycle Nightmare at the Windermere Hotel is based on a text from a letter of poet and playwright Edna St. Vincent Millay. Scott Wheeler’s Letters to Isabella consists of three songs, each a setting of a letter that avid art collector and Bostonian museum founder Isabella Stewart Gardner received during her life's travels -- one each from author Henry James, novelist Paul Bourget and scholar Kakuzo Okakura. Gilda Lyons’ Great Barrier Reef, a movement from her set A List of Wonders, celebrates the tremendous and wondrous work of nature.

At SubCulture on March 10, Mirror Visions also celebrates the pre-release of its forthcoming album on Centaur Records, The Three-Paneled Mirror. This disc – the fourth for the ensemble – is comprised entirely of commissioned works by composers Richard Pearson Thomas, Tom Cipullo and Christopher Berg.

On March 21 at 3PM, Mirror Visions Ensemble will also bring this program to Paris at Musée des arts décoratifs, Salon des Boiseries.

What began as programs built around individual poets and a fascination with multiple settings of the same text – a “mirror vision” – has expanded to include the commissioning of over 80 works from 24 composers, including Christopher Berg, Tom Cipullo, Richard Lalli, Russell Platt, Richard Pearson Thomas, Francine Trester, Scott Wheeler, Hans Gefors and Anders Nilsson, and Pulitzer Prize-winner Yehudi Wyner. Each Mirror Visions Ensemble concert is designed in the soirée style made popular during the 19th century, introducing composers, poets and historical figures not only through their published works, but also through correspondence and anecdotes woven throughout each performance. Past seasons include performances at Carnegie Hall’s Weill Recital Hall, Merkin Concert Hall, Bargemusic, (Le) Poisson Rouge, Lincoln Center’s Library for the Performing Arts, NYU’s Frederick Loewe Theatre, SubCulture, Boston Court PAC, Longy School of Music, Northwestern University and CSU Fullerton, as well as frequent appearances in Paris at the American University of Paris, the American Church in Paris, Musée Carnavalet, Musée Nissim de Camondo and the La Salle des Boiseries at the Musée des Arts Décoratifs.

JOURNEYS CONCERT DATES

February 21 – Hillsdale, NY – Adventures in Music at the Jansen Library
February 22 – Newton, MA – Druker Auditorium, Newton Library
March 7 – New York, NY – Lincoln Center Library for the Performing Arts 
March 10 – New York, NY - SubCulture 
March 21 – Paris, France - Musée des arts décoratifs, Salon des Boiseries
March 30 – San Francisco, CA – Music at Meyer

Mirror Visions Ensemble:
Vira Slywotzky, soprano; Scott Murphree, tenor; Jesse Blumberg, baritone
Grant Wenaus, piano

HENRI DUPARC                                           
L'invitation au voyage        

HUGO WOLF                                                 
Auf einer Wanderung

JOSEPH HAYDN                                          
The Mermaid’s Song

HECTOR BERLIOZ                                      
 L’Ile inconnue 

*GILDA LYONS                                             
Great Barrier Reef 

COLE PORTER                                              
Tale of the Oyster 

*SCOTT WHEELER                                      
Letters to Isabella 

FELICE BLANGINI                                       
Per valli, per boschi 

*DEBORAH FISCHER TEASON                 
The Bells at Saint-Aignan 

TRADITIONAL, arr. K. Davis                      
He’s Gone Away

HENRI DUPARC                                           
La fuite 

*TOM CIPULLO                                           
I. The Parlor Car from Nightmare at the Windermere Hotel

FRANCIS POULENC                                    
Hôtel 

SAMUEL BARBER                                       
Solitary Hotel 

*TOM CIPULLO                                            
II. At the Windermere Hotel from Nightmare at the Windermere Hotel

STEPHEN SCHWARTZ                                
Chanson from The Baker’s Wife

*CHRISTOPHER BERG                             
The Ghost of Madame de Sévigné at the Carnavalet                                 

*Mirror Visions Ensemble Commission

Mirror Visions Ensemble - click here for biography

ARTISTS - click here for individual biographies

Mirror Visions Ensemble Young Composers Competition
Mirror Visions Ensemble List of Commissions

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