Mary Mackenzie presents Philomel: music for solo voice
Program
Ruth Hertzman-Miller - Savage Dialogue (Du-siach Pir'i) for unaccompanied voice (2025) (Zelda Schneurson Mishkovsky/Marcia Falk) *premiere
Zelda Schneurson Mishovsky (known as “Zelda”), 1914 – 1984, was an Israeli writer whose poems blend her unique spirituality with phrases and images from canonical Jewish texts. She combined Orthodox religious observance with a strong tolerance for others’ nonreligious customs. Her English translator, Marcia Falk, had the pleasure of meeting Zelda in person and found her “soft spoken, unassuming and even shy” and “utterly original.” - Ruth Hertzman-Miller
Anthony R. Green - Shining for solo voice and snapping (2025) *premiere
While many events in the first quarter of 2025 have thrust concepts of duality and contradictions (US democracy vs. true democracy, self-preservation vs. the overall global state, relative vs. actual privilege, fire vs. water) upon my artistic and personal ontology, I have used art as a medium to mitigate such topics. As a forever learner, the opportunity to examine “shining” vs. “burning” with regards to fire’s purpose was fascinating, especially after having just completed a project where fire was considered a weapon that only water can survive. Water can be violent, too – swallowing, drowning, destroying, bombarding, dissolving, poisoning (after being poisoned), etc … Music can make profound statements concerning the duality of elements, and hopefully SHINING can add to such observations about fire. - Anthony R. Green
Milton Babbitt - Philomel for soprano, recorded soprano, and synthesized sound (1964)
Babbitt's Philomel was one of the first compositions written for synthesizer: the RCA MkII, and is considered a significant piece for the modern soprano voice and a groundbreaking work of electroacoustic music.
"Philomel is a melodramatic representation of Philomel at the moment of her metamorphosis, when she discovers her restored voice among the threatening sounds of the forest. Gradually achieving coherence, she echoes the birds with her song, and the world responds with the final words of her questions." - Milton Babbitt
Gilda Lyons - A Manual for the Use of Wings for unaccompanied voice (2017)
Through little-girl eyes, I remember paging through maps and instruction books like they were invitations to other worlds. Legends, lines transcribing a distance, assembly charts, and diagrams can create secret languages that reveal themselves in powerful ways. A Manual for the Use of Wings extends from my fascination with cartography and instruction books, and reaches toward the notion of unspoken truths associated with the exploration of unassisted flight. — Gilda Lyons
About the Artist
Critically acclaimed as “a soprano of extraordinary agility and concentration” by The New York Times, soprano Mary Mackenzie has emerged as one of contemporary music’s most compelling storytellers. With a career that has taken her to performances in 11 U.S. States and Washington D.C., as well as a seasoned discography spanning eleven years, Ms. Mackenzie is particularly known for her evocative chamber music performances. For her efforts, she has earned praise for a “sensational, epically unsettling” rendition of George Crumb by the Boston Globe and her “mystifying” vocal effects by The Financial Times.
Examples of some of her most immersive work to date includes several “one-woman” performances, like the United States premiere of Héctor Parra’s monodrama Hypermusic: Ascension at the Guggenheim Museum, a highly technological experience which utilized Harvard professor of theoretical physics Lisa Randall as librettist. At the Bravo! Vail Festival, Ms. Mackenzie performed and designed the storyline for a cabaret-style, costumed and staged rendition of De Leeuw - Im wunderschoenen Monat mai, a Pierrot-style “recomposed” adaptation of works by Schumann and Schubert, with new music collective Le Train Bleu. She regularly appears with the Chameleon Arts Ensemble of Boston, and has also performed with the Borromeo String Quartet, Collage New Music, the Da Capo Chamber Players, Ekmeles, the Juilliard Percussion Ensemble, the Talea Ensemble, the Albany Symphony, among many others.
On Albany Records, she has frequently collaborated with the MacArthur Grant awardee composer John Harbison on albums such as Vocalisms: Songs of Daniel Crozier, John Harbison, James Primosch, and Ned Rorem; Closer to My Own Life with the Albany Symphony; and Songs After Hours (a World Premiere). Her other album work includes Cathedral Music with The 21st Century Consort, Louis Karchin: To the Sun and Stars on Bridge Records, and The Opera America Songbook.
Ruth Hertzman-Miller - Savage Dialogue (Du-siach Pir'i) for unaccompanied voice (2025) (Zelda Schneurson Mishkovsky/Marcia Falk) *premiere
Zelda Schneurson Mishovsky (known as “Zelda”), 1914 – 1984, was an Israeli writer whose poems blend her unique spirituality with phrases and images from canonical Jewish texts. She combined Orthodox religious observance with a strong tolerance for others’ nonreligious customs. Her English translator, Marcia Falk, had the pleasure of meeting Zelda in person and found her “soft spoken, unassuming and even shy” and “utterly original.” - Ruth Hertzman-Miller
Anthony R. Green - Shining for solo voice and snapping (2025) *premiere
While many events in the first quarter of 2025 have thrust concepts of duality and contradictions (US democracy vs. true democracy, self-preservation vs. the overall global state, relative vs. actual privilege, fire vs. water) upon my artistic and personal ontology, I have used art as a medium to mitigate such topics. As a forever learner, the opportunity to examine “shining” vs. “burning” with regards to fire’s purpose was fascinating, especially after having just completed a project where fire was considered a weapon that only water can survive. Water can be violent, too – swallowing, drowning, destroying, bombarding, dissolving, poisoning (after being poisoned), etc … Music can make profound statements concerning the duality of elements, and hopefully SHINING can add to such observations about fire. - Anthony R. Green
Milton Babbitt - Philomel for soprano, recorded soprano, and synthesized sound (1964)
Babbitt's Philomel was one of the first compositions written for synthesizer: the RCA MkII, and is considered a significant piece for the modern soprano voice and a groundbreaking work of electroacoustic music.
"Philomel is a melodramatic representation of Philomel at the moment of her metamorphosis, when she discovers her restored voice among the threatening sounds of the forest. Gradually achieving coherence, she echoes the birds with her song, and the world responds with the final words of her questions." - Milton Babbitt
Gilda Lyons - A Manual for the Use of Wings for unaccompanied voice (2017)
Through little-girl eyes, I remember paging through maps and instruction books like they were invitations to other worlds. Legends, lines transcribing a distance, assembly charts, and diagrams can create secret languages that reveal themselves in powerful ways. A Manual for the Use of Wings extends from my fascination with cartography and instruction books, and reaches toward the notion of unspoken truths associated with the exploration of unassisted flight. — Gilda Lyons
About the Artist
Critically acclaimed as “a soprano of extraordinary agility and concentration” by The New York Times, soprano Mary Mackenzie has emerged as one of contemporary music’s most compelling storytellers. With a career that has taken her to performances in 11 U.S. States and Washington D.C., as well as a seasoned discography spanning eleven years, Ms. Mackenzie is particularly known for her evocative chamber music performances. For her efforts, she has earned praise for a “sensational, epically unsettling” rendition of George Crumb by the Boston Globe and her “mystifying” vocal effects by The Financial Times.
Examples of some of her most immersive work to date includes several “one-woman” performances, like the United States premiere of Héctor Parra’s monodrama Hypermusic: Ascension at the Guggenheim Museum, a highly technological experience which utilized Harvard professor of theoretical physics Lisa Randall as librettist. At the Bravo! Vail Festival, Ms. Mackenzie performed and designed the storyline for a cabaret-style, costumed and staged rendition of De Leeuw - Im wunderschoenen Monat mai, a Pierrot-style “recomposed” adaptation of works by Schumann and Schubert, with new music collective Le Train Bleu. She regularly appears with the Chameleon Arts Ensemble of Boston, and has also performed with the Borromeo String Quartet, Collage New Music, the Da Capo Chamber Players, Ekmeles, the Juilliard Percussion Ensemble, the Talea Ensemble, the Albany Symphony, among many others.
On Albany Records, she has frequently collaborated with the MacArthur Grant awardee composer John Harbison on albums such as Vocalisms: Songs of Daniel Crozier, John Harbison, James Primosch, and Ned Rorem; Closer to My Own Life with the Albany Symphony; and Songs After Hours (a World Premiere). Her other album work includes Cathedral Music with The 21st Century Consort, Louis Karchin: To the Sun and Stars on Bridge Records, and The Opera America Songbook.
For more information visit
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Recital & Concert