Mar 11-Apr 14 Oak Spring Garden Foundation (Upperville, VA)
This spring I'm in a composition residency at Oak Spring Garden Foundation, the former estate of Paul and Bunny Mellon (a.k.a. the gardener who designed the Rose Garden at the White House). By day I'll be working on my cycle, "Elderflora," in an old airplane hangar on the estate, and by nite hanging with the other nerdy plant-enthusiast artists.
Wed, Apr 17 SKY CREATURE + Ringdown at Public Records (NYC)
Welp, I'm totally gagged about this, but we're gonna open for Caroline's neato mosquito duo with her partner, Danni at Public Records. My second-to-last-show before I move from NYC to somewhere in the Hudson Valley TBD. Gah!! Come out, come out!
TICKETS
Sun, April 28: Gather (MoCAD, NYC)
A hometown Rivers show w/ Felix Fan on electric cello at Gather NYC in the Museum of Contemporary Arts and Design near Columbus Circle. n.b. This is a MORNING SHOW so the idea is we drink coffee, make music and then GO OUT AND EAT pastries!
Sunday, April 28
Museum of Contemporary Arts & Design
2 Columbus Circle, NYC 10019
doors 10:30am, show 11am-12pm
Get tix
Fri, May 10: BWIAB (Toledo, OH)
In May, my dream comes true: I'll be premiering a new piece called A Season on the Wind with Bowerbird Collective, a duo and nonprofit in Australia that promotes awareness of birds and bird migration. I have waited YEARS to collaborate with my old pal, cellist Anthony Albrecht, and his partner, violinist Simone Slattery on something juicy. A Season on the Wind is co-written by Doug & Brad Balliett (two of my collaborators w/ Oracle Hysterical) for voice, violin, and cello. We'll be premiering the work alongside a new version of my song cycle, The Rivers are our Brothers, for trio at the Biggest Week in American Birding Conference in Toledo, OH. Apparently the birds are all going to Toledo!? Stay tuned for details, buy binoculars now, and get your hotel room before 10,000 other people get it ahead of you!!
Mon, May 13: Toledo Museum of Art (Toledo, OH)
Wed, May 15: Cleveland Museum of Art (Cleveland, OH)
Sat, May 18: Piano Palace (Half Moon Bay, CA)
My triumphant return to my favorite place on earth, i.e. the crazy art salons hosted by Elektra Schmidt and Mauro Ffortissimo in windy Half Moon Bay. This is an afternoon show & starts at 4pm (i.e. before the fog gets the better of us all).
Sun, May 19: Noe Valley Ministry (SF, CA)
Thur, May 23: First Church Berkeley (Berkeley, CA)
Tues, May 24: Cowell Hay Barn (Santa Cruz, CA)
Wed, May 25: Henry Miller Library (Big Sur, CA)
Sun, May 26: Carmel Bach Festival (Carmel, CA)
Yes, you got me: This isn't the actual Carmel Bach Festival we all know and love, because that happens in July. (It's July, right?) They're making an exception for us and programming something in May. So stay tuned, and I'll have details in a minute.
Sun, June 9: Caramoor Festival (Katonah, NY)
I have been wanting to play at this festival quite awhile now, and I'm super pumped to be doing a Rivers marathon there with who? Well, Felix Fan, of course. The Festival is 12-4pm. We'll be in the Sunken Garden!
MORE INFO FREE EVENT
Thurs, June 27: Crocker Museum of Art (Sacramento, CA)
I'm bringing Rivers are our Brothers to CREMENTO! (It's okay if you don't know that joke.) We'll be playing at the Crocker Museum's ArtMix with a double set in case you miss the first time around. Come find me!
LIST OF PAST EVENTS
Sat, Dec 2: Hyde Park Salon (Chicago, IL
The Hyde Park Salons I founded roughly forever ago with physicists Sidney Nagel and Young-Kee Kim are turning 100! (That is, we've had 100 salons.) So naturally I had to come back and perform.
Please bring whatever you're planning on drinking, and get ready for a party!
7:30pm doors
8:00pm showtime
49th & Kimbark Ave
Email me for address
Nov 15: Panic Jazz (Marostica, Italy)
Panic Jazz
P.za Castello, 42, 36063 Marostica VI, Italy
https://panicjazzclub.com/
Nov 14: Casa del Jazz (Rome, Italy)
Casa del Jazz
Villa Osio, Viale di Porta Ardeatina, 55, 00154 Roma RM, Italy
Info here
Nov 13: Carambolage (Bolzano, Italy)
Carambolage
Via Argentieri, 19, 39100 Bolzano BZ, Italy
https://www.carambolage.org/it/
Nov 12: Teatro Magro (Mantua, Italy)
Teatro Magro
via Brescia 2 Mantova
6:00pm
https://www.quattroetrenta3.com/
Nov 11: House Concert (Cremona, Italy)
House Concert generously hosted by Giancarlo & Matteo
DM me for details
Nov 6: Chanticleer at California Festival (San Francisco)
If you're in the Bay Area, I'll be onstage with Chanticleer tonight to introduce audiences here to The Rivers are our Brothers, in its latest incarnation ... for 12 male voices!
St. Joseph's Art Society
6-9pm
Info
Nov 3: Chatter Late Works (Albuquerque, NM) w/ Felix Fan
Felix & I will be playing Rivers are our Brothers, plus covers of Imogen Heap and Annie Lennox.
Late Night Show
9pm
Details
Oct 29: Chatter Sunday (Albuquerque, NM) w/ Felix Fan
Same show, different locale!
Sunday, Oct 29
912 3rd St NW
Albuquerque, NM 87102
10:30am
Tickets
Oct 28: Chatter North (Santa Fe, NM) w/ Felix Fan
The Rivers are our Brothers travels to the Southwest in new completely badass arragnements with Felix Fan on electric cello.
Saturday, Oct 28
Center for Contemporary Arts
1050 Old Pecos Trail
Santa Fe, NM 87505
10:30am
Tickets
Sept 23: RiverArts (Hastings-on-Hudson) w/ Sky Creature
First half is Rivers are our Brothers, second half Sky trying not to rock the place down. Thanks so much to Stuart to the invite to play with RiverArts!
8-9:30pm
Purpl
52 Main Street
Hastings-on-Hudson, NY 10706
Get tickets
Sept 17: Hyde Park Salon (Chicago, IL) w/ Felix Fan
I co-founded the Hyde Park Salon wtih Sidney Nagel and Young-Kee Kim and curated it for 10 years while living in Chicago. I'll be in Chicago with Felix for a recording session so we're popping in on the salons to say hellooooo!
Sunday, Sept 17
7:30pm doors
8:00pm performances
Email me for private address
Sept 2: Piano Palace (Half Moon Bay, CA) w/ Sky Creature
Organized by Artist Migration in an amazingly cool indoor/outdoor barn-studio-art gallery just blocks from the beach, tickets come with a glass of wine and the best party of the season. Come early and hang out with us.
7-10pm
Tickets
Aug 31: Exploratorium (San Francisco) w/ Sky Creature & Tony Orrico
"After Dark" series
Kanbar Forum
6:00-10:00pm
Info/tix
NYC-based duo Sky Creature crosses contemporary Classical music with ambient rock. Tony Orrico is a kinetic visual artist who creates life-size graphite works using his entire body. In this high-energy performance, the music progresses from sound bath to ecstatic electronic raga, while Orrico’s canvas thickens with lines.
AuG 30: BAMPFA (Berkeley, CA) w/ Sky Creature
Sky Creature appears at BAMPFA on the Full Moon Series! (Thank you so much Sarah Cahill & Sean Carson for the opportunity!) Come dance and howl with us in the moonlight.
7:30pm-9:00pm
Tickets/info here
AUG 20: Avalon (Catskill, NY) w/ Sky Creature
Having officially relocated to Catskill for the summer, we're finally playing at Avalon as locals. The Korean food in this place is off the chain, so if you come, get the tofu bi bim bap I'm telling you.
Sun, Aug 20
7:30-10:30pm
More about the show
June 21: Chapel of the Chimes (Oakland, CA)
Organized by Sarah Cahill and Lucy Mattingly, Garden of Memory at Chapel of the Chimes is my favorite show all year period, exclamation mark! It is my insane pleasure to be welcomed back again; this year I'll be performing with cellist Felix Fan (on electric cello!) Audience is capped at 2500 this year, so tickets are a must.
5-9:00pm
4499 Piedmont Avenue
Oakland, CA
tickets
June 11: The Rambling House (Sierraville, CA)
This is a last-minute add, and I'm so happy to be performing at what must be the most beautiful house concert venue within a 100-mile radius of the prettiest town on earth. Josh and Jill, thank you for this cool opportunity to perform in your space, and to Musica Sierra for making it their inaugral salon. Come check us out!
Address with RSVP to:
musicasierra415@gmail.com
2:300pm doors
3:00pm show
June 10: Reno Museum of Art Second Saturdays (Reno, NV)
I have a new beautiful wooden rig to show off at my my first-ever SOLO version of Rivers are our Brothers. I am an orchestra! Presented by the Reno Museum of Art Second Saturdays and Musica Sierra.
Apr 23: Bunker Hill Music Series (Sewell, NJ)
Earth Day!
Rivers are our Brothers
w/ the Brothers Balliett
3:00pm
Information on the show here.
Apr 14: St. John's College (Annapolis, MD)
McDowell Great Hall
8:00pm
Information on the show here.
Program includes Rivers are our Brothers, arrangements from the Oracle Hysterical album Passionate Pilgrim, and Songs of Innocence and Experience by Doug Balliett.
Apr 11: Rowan College of South Jersey (Sewell, NJ)
The Rivers are our Brothers, presented by Music at Bunker Hill. Performed with Brad and Doug Balliett. This is a private event.
Apr 11: West Deptford Public Library (West Deptford, NJ)
The Rivers are our Brothers, presented by Music at Bunker Hill. Performed with Brad and Doug Balliett. More info here
April 4: Sky Creature at Government Center (Pittsburgh, PA)
Hemlock for Socrates, Sky Creature, Murder for Girls. Show starts 8pm.
Info here.
April 7: Sky Creature at The Windjammer (Ridgewood, NY)
Devon Church, Sky Creature, Church Crush
8:30pm
Info here
We go on around 9.30pm but these things are on rock time so be forewarned!
Saratoga Springs, NY : Sky Creature // Desperate Annie's w/ Superdark Collective
Sky Creature, or Sky Creatures??? User's choice lol. Proud to appear on our 3rd (I think??) SuperDark bill with Yeah Universe and Shortwave Radioband. Can't wait to meet you guys!
Desperate Annie's
12 Caroline St
Saratoga Springs, NY
Thurs, Feb 27
9:00pm
https://desperateannies.wordpress.com/super-dark-mondays-thursdays/
NYC : Sky Creature // Alphaville w/ Big Bliss and Russian Baths
Hometown show! We go on at 8:30pm ...
Alphaville
Thurs, Mar 2
8:00pm
140 Wilson Ave
NYC 11237
tickets
Princeton Alumni Weekly Feature : A Music of Their Own podcast
Thank you, Mark Bernstein and PAW, for the opportunity!!
https://paw.princeton.edu/article/majel-connery-01-interviews-women-classical-musicians-podcast
WUOT Feature w/ Melony Dodson
Thank you, Melony, for the opportunity to speak with you! https://www.wuot.org/music/2023-01-20/a-conversation-with-loghaven-artist-majel-connery
Jan 9-20 Knoxville, TN / Loghaven Artist Residency
What a treat!!
https://loghaven.org/#intro
Jan 19 Knoxville, TN / Pilot Light // Sky Creature w/ Horcerer
Just a straight up rock show!
Thurs, Jan 19
https://thepilotlight.com/
$10 door
8-10pm
Jan 20 Louisville, KY / Speed Art Museum w/ Sky Creature + Tony Orrico
After Hours at the Speed
Fri, Jan 20
7:30pm-9:30pm
https://www.speedmuseum.org/event/after-hours-at-the-speed-2/
Jan 22 Knoxville, TN / Knoxville Museum of Art w/ Sky Creature + Tony Orrico
Sky Creature and Tony Orrico present a free, 2-hour immersive multimedia collaboration at the Knoxville Museum of Art. In this high-energy performance, the music progresses from ambient sound bath to ecstatic electronic raga, while Orrico's canvas thickens with lines.
Audience members are encouraged to move freely throughout the space during the show and come and go as they please. Children are most welcome, and dancing very much encouraged.
NYC-based duo Sky Creature crosses contemporary Classical music with ambient rock. Tony Orrico is a kinetic visual artist who creates life-size graphite works using his entire body.
Bailey Hall
Knoxville Museum of Art
Sun, Jan 22
2:00-4:00pm
FREE
Oct 28 Chicago / Hyde Park Salons w/ Sky Creature + Tony Orrico
Sky Creature and endurance artist Tony Orrico take over the Hyde Park Salons for 7:30pm doors, 8:00-10pm show. Private address, but open to the public. Email for address: skycreaturenyc.com. BYOB.
Oct 29 SKY CREATURE / PS1 Iowa City w/ Sky Creature + Tony Orrico
PS1 Close House
Iowa City
8-10:30pm
http://www.publicspaceone.com/events/skycreature-orrico
Nov 2 Sky Creature / Govt Center Pittsburgh w/ Sky Creature, Trovants & Take Me With You
Government Center
Pittsburgh
w/ Trovants (album release) and Take Me With You
https://www.thegovernmentcenter.com/events/sky-creature-trovants-album-release-take-me-with-you
Nov 4 Sky Creature / Greenfield, MA with Zebu!
Ten Forward
Details to come!
Nov 5 SKY CREATURe / Troy, NY with Lisa Schonberg
Nov 13 SKY CREATURE / Rizzoli Bookstore (Manhattan) w/ Jeff Dolven
SKY CREATURE ALBUM DROP AND NATIONAL TOUR June 1 - Aug 6
My punk band, Sky Creature, is hitting 42 cities in the US this summer! (Full schedule on our website.) Check out our the brandspankingnew double EP, Bear Mountain/Childworld, available on vinyl or on (Spotify, iTunes, Apple Music, Bandcamp, etc)!!
May 9 Rivers are our brothers album drop
Thanks so much to Musica Sierra for funding this beautiful record! I'm incredibly proud of my collaborators, and grateful to Musica Sierra for seeing this vision all the way to the finish line. You can read more about the original commission here, or download the album on Spotify, iTunes, Apple Music, or donate & download on Bandcamp!
May 12 rockaway music live w/ underground system
I'm so proud to be helping put together the new Rockaway Music Live series at the Rockaway Hotel this spring! Our next concert is with Underground System. Join me and my co-curator, Found Sound Nation, on the Hotel's gorgeous rooftop deck for live music & drinks!
Thursday, May 12
Doors 6pm
Performance 8pm
108-10 Rockaway Beach Dr
Queens, NY 11694
More information here.
MAY 14 RIVERS ARE OUR BROTHERS AT WAVE HILL W/ BROS BALLIETT
Wave Hill Public Garden & Cultural Center
4900 Independence Ave
Bronx, NY
Sat, May 14, 2022
2:00PM – 3:00PM
“The Rivers are Our Brothers” is a narrative song cycle on ecological responsibility told from the point of view of the land. With titles such as “I Am a River” and “I Am a Cloud”, each song is given the power of first-person speech to highlight important elements in the natural world, ascribing human qualities and feelings to water, trees, mountains, rivers, fish, air and rocks.
Listen to the album on:
Bandcamp:
https://theriversareourbrothers.bandcamp.com/
Spotify:
https://open.spotify.com/album/2FdZMODBm9g04bnc092ldw
Apple Music:
https://music.apple.com/album/id/1620904978
iTunes:
http://itunes.apple.com/album/id1620904978?ls=1&app=itunes
“The Rivers are Our Brothers” was commissioned by Musica Sierra as part of its “Musical Headwaters” program, a residency series that brings musicians and composers to the headwaters of the Feather River to compose and perform original works reflecting the natural world.
MAY 16 New Sounds Features Rivers are our Bros
Thanks so much to John Schaefer/WNYC for including selections from The Rivers are our Brothers on New Sounds/New York public radio, "Voices in Unusual Contexts." You are an indispensible cornerstone of the contemporary classical scene, John! Thank you for the work you do.
APR 7 ROCKAWAY MUSIC LIVE // ROCKAWAY HOTEL
Beginning April 7, 2022, The Rockaway Hotel + Spa launches a music series in collaboration with Brooklyn-based creative agency, Found Sound Nation, co-curated by FSN and Majel Connery, and hosted by Connery.
Nappy Nina
Thursday, April 7th
Doors at 8pm | Performance at 8:30-9:30pm
https://www.therockawayhotel.com/happenings/rockaway-music-live-fsn
Echoing The Rockaway Hotel + Spa’s ethos of art being a connective tissue that brings people and communities together, Found Sound Nation encourages the diminishing of boundaries in music-making and music-listening, be they ethnic, cultural, or stylistic. Rockaway Music Live is designed to provide a community-centric stage for artists while bringing art and cultural initiatives to the Rockaways.
Nappy Nina is an Oakland-born writer, emcee, and producer. Her debut album The Tree Act was released in January 2019 with LucidHaus and has received much acclaim. She has been featured on tracks with Yeaji, Moor Mother, Quelle Chris, Son Lux, and many other talented artists. Her rap efforts have led her to perform across the U.S. as well as spread her west coast chill to Europe.
APR 21 5 boroughs music festival
7:00 PM PRE-CONCERT CHAT
7:30 PM PERFORMANCE
BROOKLYN PUBLIC LIBRARY
10 GRAND ARMY PLAZA | BROOKLYN
Tickets/information here: https://5bmf.org/events/songbook-vol-iii
5BMF’s 2021-2022 Season continues this spring with the World Premiere of the Five Borough Songbook, Volume III!
A special co-production with ON SITE OPERA, this new cycle of fifteen songs, duets, and ensembles by fifteen composers was commissioned in honor of 5BMF’s 15th Anniversary and On Site Opera’s 10th Anniversary seasons, and marks the third installment of 5BMF’s critically-acclaimed quinquennial FIVE BOROUGH SONGBOOK project.
Featuring new works by Arianne Abela, Raquel Acevedo Klein, Kinan Azmeh, Colin Britt, Majel Connery, Laura Jobin-Acosta, Will Healy, Brian Lawlor, Jessica Meyer, Angélica Negrón, Nkeiru Okoye, Juri Seo, Aaron Siegel, Darian Thomas, and Jonathan Woody, the Songbook derives its inspiration from locations scattered throughout New York City — three songs for each borough — to create a mosaic of the city’s past, present and future.
Feb 19 TRIBECA NEW MUSIC FESTIVAL at THE CELL THEATER
I'm super pleased to be performing alongside my old bud, Will Healy, and his amazing band, Shouthouse! I'll also be performing my own music along with my band, Sky Creature, a duo with guitarist Matt Walsh. Get tix & find out more on the festival here.
Saturday, Feb 19
8:00-9:00pm
338 West 23rd Street
New York, NY, 10011
Dec 7 sky creature drops "no one" / featured on WFUV, CapRadio, Brooklyn Vegan, Resonance FM and more ...
Sky Creature's first single, No One, drops Tuesday, Dec 7 on Spotify, Apple Music, and all major streaming services. Huge thanks to CapRadio for the interview & video premiere, to WFUV and Reonsance FM for the radio play, and other outlets for the awesome features.
dec 9 brooklyn, ny / sky creature at tv eye : w/ cronies, clone, and pelican movement
Sky Creature drops its first (ever!) single, No One, on Dec 7. The release party is at TV Eye on Saturday, Dec 9!
Thursday, Dec 9
TV Eye, 1647 Weirfield St
Ridgewood, NY 11385
tix here and FB event here
*We play at 10pm!
**Vax status req. at door!!
PAST
Sept 10 TROY, NY / RARE FORM BREWERY : : With haley moley + natural classics
Sky Creature at Rare Form Brewery in Troy!
90 Congress St
Troy, NY
Catch us 6-9pm
https://fb.me/e/2n6zvLNfK
Sept 11 CATSKILL, NY / AVALON LOUNGE : : W/ Wild Yaks + Architrave
Sky Creature at Avalon Lounge in Catskill, NY!
Avalon Lounge
Catskill, NY
8-11pm
more
Sept 17 BK NAVY YARDS / House Concert with Molly Joyce and Ali Dineen
This is a Majel solo + Sky Creature show in a beeeeautiful loft in the Brooklyn Navy Yards! RSVP to get the address m@operacabal.com (max 40 butts!!)
6-10pm
Sept 18 ROCKAWAY BEACH / ROCKAWAY BREWERY w/ Architrave (My B-Day!)
Bring hats and confetti and balloons! It's my birthday!!
Rockaway Brewing Co.
Probably about 8pm
46-01 5th St, LIC 11101
https://rockawaybrewco.com/
Sept 23 PITTSBURGH, PA / IRMA FREEMAN CENTER FOR IMAGINATION : : w/ TAKE ME WITH YOU
5006 Penn Ave
Pittsburgh, PA
8-10pm
Event details/tix:
https://fb.me/e/LB0dxNCx
Sept 24 Grand Rapids, MI / DAAC w/ IGOR STORM
We just added this show! Yoo hoo Grand Rapids!! We're so excited to be the opening show for the BRAND NEW DAAC!
1553 Plainfield Ave. NE, Unit 4
Grand Rapids, MI
Details here: https://fb.me/e/3HrC8vaeP
Sept 25 CHICAGO / GRAY WAREHOUSE :: Co-presented by Ear taxi festival
I can't wait to come back to the Gray Warehouse!! Catch new solo work in a combo set with Sky Creature. I love you, Chicago!
Gray Gallery Warehouse
2044 W Carroll Ave, Chicago, IL 60612
6-8pm
Reserve a seat
Sept 26 INDIANAPOLIS / HEALER
HEALER
3631 E Raymond St, Indianapolis, IN 46203
7ish, 8ish?
Details soon :)
OCT 5 HALF MOON BAY, CA / PIANO PALACE
My favorite place to play in all of California!! Sky Creature + Majel Solo + Mauro Ffortissimo. Reserve tix now!!
Piano Palace Salons
514 Kelly Avenue, Half Moon Bay, CA 94019
7-9pm
$35
OCT 8 SANTA FE, NM / EL REY/La Reina
We're so excited to be playing at gorgeous El Rey hotel in Santa Fe!
Event link on FB
8:00-10:30pm
OCT 9 ALBUQUERQUE, NM / SISTER BAR / W/ abbaquerque
Sister Bar with ABBAQUERQUE!! Excited to play on the same stage as my best-loved old grad school buddy, David Bashwiner. Yes, it's an ABBA cover band!
Sister Bar
407 Central Ave NW, Albuquerque, NM 87102
8pm
Eventbrite here
OCT 12 fayetteville, AR / trillium salon series
Delighted to be appearing at the Trillium Salon Series after wanting to play there for so long!! Info/reserve tix here.
Likewise Community
70 North College Avenue
Fayetteville, AR, 72701
7-9pm
Oct 14 Charlottesville, VA / Champion Brewery
Intel coming soon!
August 14 SECRET SHOW / BUSHWICK
Sky Creature performs in BK! This show is at a secret location, but I promise you won't be disappointed. Email me for location. (Hint: It's nautical...)
Saturday, August 14
7-10pm
Aug 21 Oceanus Studios / rockaway
My first solo show in forever! Plus my fellow lady electronic musician, Erosika. Plus Jimtronix on Buchla. Plus Sky Creature. BYOB.
Saturday, Aug 21
125 Beach 91
Rockaway Beach, NY
8-11pm
July 17 Rockaway Beach: Rippers
My new duo, Sky Creature (with Matt Walsh, of The Forms) opens for Rockaway legend the Wild Yaks, on the occasion of their release, "Live Rippers" at none other than ... Rippers! If you've never been to Rockaway in the summer, trust me that this isn't something you wanna miss.
Here's a taste.
FB Event page.
Order the vinyl.
June 7 Sierra River Valley Preserve Benefit Concert
Presented by the Feather River Land Trust and Northern Sierra Partnership. Convene at the West Entrance, Sierra Valley Preserve.
4:30pm follow botanical trail to to concert
5:30pm concert, refreshments
RSVP to Katie Bagby, kbagby@frlt.org
June 6 Beckworth, CA: LOST MARBLES RANCH
This special barn dinner, auction and performance is co-hosted by Musica Sierra and The Grizzly Cub’s Parents Club (GCPC) from Loyalton Elementary School on June 5th, at The Lost Marbles Ranch, in Beckwourth Ca.
The music in the program features a newly commissioned song cycle, “The Rivers are Our Brothers,” written and performed by vocalist and composer Majel Connery, along with Baroque violin (Edwin Huizinga) and Baroque bassoon (Ben Matus). The cycle is based on a quote from the Native American leader, Chief Seattle, who believed we must relate to our environment the way we relate to our closest kin. Each song begins “I am a river,” or “I am rain,” giving the power of first-person speech to these important elements of the Sierra Nevada landscape. The program also includes pieces arranged for Baroque violin and bassoon from Handel’s Watermusik, and other water-themed pieces from the Baroque era.
June 5 RENO, NV: Nevada Museum of Art
I'm sooooper excited to be presenting my brand new electronic song cycle -- the Rivers are Our Brothers -- for vocals, vocoder, electric piano, bassoon (Ben Matus) and violin (Edwin Huizinga) at the Nevada Museum of Art (Reno)!
The performance responds to a commission from Tahoe-based music group, Musica Sierra, and co-sponsored by the Feather River Land Trust. The cycle takes a first-person view of nature, ascribing human qualities and feelings to elements of the Sierra Nevada landscape: water, trees, mountains, snow, etc. The title of the cycle is based on a quote from the Native American leader, Chief Seattle, who believed we must relate to our environment the way we relate to our closest kin.
MAY 15 BROOKLYN Library
My beloved composer collective, Oracle Hysterical, is playing again for the first time in a year! Called “evocative art pop” by Brooklyn Rail, and “delightfully bonkers” by BBC Radio 3, we'll be appearing with Boston-based group, Hub New Music, outside the Brooklyn Library to reprise our Terra Nova song cycle on problematic explorers. The cycle, first (somewhat controversially!) performed at the Peabody Essex Museum in Salem, MASS, sets to music text of wanderers from flyer Amelia Earhart to naturalist Audobon to polar explorer Robert Falcon Scott. The program is presented by the Five Boroughs Music Festival.
Jan 1 Trillium Salon Series
Thank you so much to Katy Henriksen and the Arkansas-based Trillium Salon Series for the opportunity to present on your NYD show! It was an honor to be in the company of such incredible artists. Find more about Trillium here: https://www.trilliumsalonseries.com/.
Nov 14 Piano Palace Salon Series: SOLD OUT
I was thrilled to perform at the first ever Piano Palace Salon, hosted by Half Moon Bay legend Mauro Ffortissimo and pianist Elektra Schmidt. My set includes my own electronic work, and an improvisation with Mauro. Including performances by Allison Lovejoy and Elektra Schmidt.
514 Kelly Ave
Half Moon Bay, CA
6:30-9:30pm
Sept 11 Kennedy Center + National Sawdust co-present Arts Across America
I was so honored to take part in this live-streamed performance on the anniversary of 9/11 co-sponsored by the Kennedy Center and National Sawdust, which has been a home away from home to me in Williamsburg. The concert is viewable on YouTube and Facebook.
June 28: Solo Stream Concert Presented by All About Jazz
Quarantine has officially gone on too long!! Thanks to the determined work of some dear friends (Ludovico Granvassu/New York and Wayne Grim/Berkeley) I'm very excited to say that I will be live-streaming a concert Sunday, June 28 3:30pm EST. I'll take care of the music, you bring the live chat, we'll commiserate over our matching woolly mammoth haircuts, etc. I can't wait!!
Sign up for the show here (if you miss he show, you can still watch it at the same link). The concert is free, but if you're in a position to do so, the organizers have suggested a $15 (or more) donation over Venmo (@majel-connery) or Paypal. I will be donating 25% of the proceeds of the concert to the NAACP.
I can't wait to see you. If only we could get rid of the screen :)
May 15: BMI Jam Sessions
Thanks so much to BMI for featuring me in their Jam Sessions! Video is online here, complete with full COVID-setup including cute indoor plants, natural light, and a crazy racket of bird sounds from outside my window :)
MAR 7: BOSTON: Oracle Hysterical & Hub New Music at Peabody Essex Museum
Hub New Music and Oracle Hysterical present "Terra Nova" at the Peabody Essex Museum. An evening-length work existing in a world between Western song cycle and indie-rock concept album, Terra Nova draws from those on the edge of discovery. Texts come from personal accounts of explorers spanning the centuries including John James Audubon, Hernan Cortes, Zheng He, Amelia Earhart, the Oresteia and more.
Peabody Essex Museum
161 Essex St
Salem, MA 01970
Feb 15: Rockaway Beach Brewing Co
I gotta be honest: I don't 100% understand what this show is, except that it's happening at the Rockaway Brewing Company, which seems real cool, and that Matt Walsh & I are one of about 19 bands playing. So my guess is, don't even think about it, just come, it'll be mad fun.
FB invite here
415 Beach 72nd St
Far Rockaway, Queens, NY
7:00pm-12:00am
Past events 2019
Jan 17: Oracle at Metropolis
About once a year, my NYC-based composer collective, Oracle Hysterical gets together to create a new project. Our latest, TERRA NOVA, commissioned by Hub New Music, presents a series of compositions with the theme of "Frontiers." Our 1-hour set includes new works on texts by new world explorer Hernando de Soto, the Epic of Gilgamesh, pilot Amelia Earhart, Arctic expeditioner Robert Falcon Scott and more.
We're grateful to Metropolis for co-presenting this NYC preview of the show. The full-length TERRA NOVA premieres March 7, 2020 at the Peabody Essex Museum in Boston.
Friday, January 17
1 Rivington Place, NYC
5:30pm doors, 6:00pm show
THIS SHOW WILL SELL OUT!
Tickets
Radiolab: Gonads Digital Album Release
It was my insane privilege last year to write some music for my favorite podcast, Radiolab, along with my collaborator, Alex Overington. I'm very excited to announce that Radiolab has released the digital album online. Download it for free at: https://radiolabpresents.bandcamp.com/
Dec 21: Omaha
Home town concert! All proceeds of this show go to benefit the Fine Arts at my high school, Duchesne Academy. Please bring cash or check for donations at the door. RSVP to m@operacabal.com for exact address.
Hosted by Ann Shapiro and Nancy Fager
Saturday, December 21
12th/Capitol Ave
7:00-9:00pm
Dec 15: Sacramento, CA
Sacramento! I'm so excited to come and play in your fair city. You might not believe it, but I don't know enough about you! Is it warmer in Sacramento than in the Bay Area? Do you drive on the right side of the road? Is there good food? I have so much to learn! Let's do this!
Sunday, December 15
The Starlet Room at Harlow's
6:30 doors
7:30 show
Tix and more here.
Nov 7: SAN FRANCISCO: Red Door House Concert with LOUIZA
Hosted by Dan Fabricant, the Red Door House Concerts is what you picture in your mind when you remember the warmest, friendliest house party you've ever been to. I AM VERY excited to be appearing there on November 7 along with my fellow lady solo electronic artist LOUIZA, who is gorgeous and amazing.
RSVP on Facebook & receive the address closer to the date.
time: 7-10pm
host: Dan Fabricant
area: Bernal/Noe
tickets: Eventbrite
Oct 19: Soho Loft Houseparty + Jeff Dolven
I'm joined this night and this night only by my perennial collaborator, Jeff Dolven, poet and Professor of English at Princeton, who will be making a special guest appearance. I'm a big fan of Jeff’s poetry collection, New English Grammar, which breaks and remakes the rules of English language, and which formed the basis for a number of my songs. They're even better when Jeff reads them aloud first.
This is a private party, generously hosted by Jane Sachs and Andreas Agas, but it's open to the public with an RSVP; write me at m@operacabal.com, and I’ll shoot you the address. Space is limited to 45 butts.
hosts: Andreas Agas and Jane Sachs
time: 7:00pm doors, 7:30pm performance
subway: F at B'way/Lafayette
street parking available after 6pm
suggested donation: $20-25
drinks, light snacks provided
Oct 25: Far Rockaway: Zingara Vintage + Matt Walsh
Since I’m officially totally in love with Far Rockaway and want to live there forever and ever, I'm trucking out to my new favorite venue slash vintage shop, the lovely Zingara, hosted by Erin. First half is just me/my stuff. Second half is me playing with Matt Walsh on newly minted Walsh tunes (which are rockin). There are surprisingly awesome dinner spots in Rockaway, so if you wanna make a whole trip out of it, lmk and I’ll tell you where to eat first. If you have a car, definitely drive. Otherwise, take the Rockaway A train to 91st St.
time: 9:00pm
location: 202 Beach 91st St, Rockaway Beach, NY 11693
transit: Far Rockaway A train to 91st
Host: Zingara Vintage
suggested donation: $10
Oct 26: Washington Heights Houseparty + D. Graham Burnett + Matt Walsh
Those of you who attended the knock-down, drag-out, everyone-lying-on-the-floor listening party for my EP, Anything Chartreuse, last February will remember the unforgettably gorgeous penthouse apartment of D. Graham Burnett. As many of you know, DGB is a professor, prodigious author, schemer of sundry uncategorizable art performance projects, and his place has some sweet views out over the Hudson and up to the GW Bridge. It is possible that, adequately lubricated, Graham and I will attempt as part of my set to improvise a few songs based on his work on LSD, talking dolphins, and confetti. I'll also be joined by Matt Walsh for a second half that includes louder music, and much ecstatic dancing. This house party is open only to friends of the host, and me, with an RSVP. Limited to 50 total butts.
host: D. Graham Burnett
time: 7-10pm
location: Wash Heights, NYC
suggested donation: $20
some drinks, light snacks provided, but try to eat beforehand
Sept 22: Constellation with Julian Loida
I haven’t played at Constellation since 2014, when my boy band Oracle Hysterical (boys, minus me :) played a packed concert there with the Chicago Composers Orchestra. I’m super excited to be returning, this time on a double bill with ultra-talented NYC-based perucssionist Julian Loida.
8:30pm
3111 N Western Ave
Chicago, IL 60618
$10
get tix here
Sept 20: Richard Gray Gallery/Chicago EXPO
Join me from 8-9pm in the stunning Richard Gray Gallery warehouse. I'm super honored to be playing for their “Art After Hours,” a special event held in conjunction with the annual EXPO Chicago art fair. The gallery will also be showing their exhibition of artist Leon Polk Smith, and I will attempt in my music to be anywhere near as bold and sassy as LPS.
8-9pm
2044 West Carroll Avenue
Chicago IL 60612
FREE
Sept 19: Hyde Park Salon
Homecoming! Back in 2003 I founded the Hyde Park Salons along with physicists Sid Nagel and Young-Kee Kim. We thought it would last 3 months, but 15 years later the salons are alive and well! Join me for my unofficial 40th birthday party, and some music to sweat it all out. BLECH! I’m old! Wearing black is optional :) Email me to RSVP and I'll send you the address: m@operacabal.com. I'll be joined by percussionist Julian Loida, from Boston.
hosts: Sidney Nagel & Young-Kee Kim
7:30pm doors
8pm performance
9pm 40th birthday blues commence
FREE
Sept 17: Arts Club of Chicago
Denizens of Chicago! Join me in the intimate Drawing Room at the Arts Club of Chicago for a 7-9pm set. Sorry, this one is members and guests only!
time: 6:30-9pm
location: 201 E Ontario St
Chicago, IL 60611
JUNE 21 Oakland // Garden of Memory Chapel of the Chimes
My favorite event of the entire year happens on the solstice at the Chapel of the Chimes, a mausoleum in Oakland, CA. Join me and dozens of other Bay Area-performers for one of the most unique performance experiences, organized by the indispensible team Sarah Cahill & Lucy Mattingly. n.b. The venue can get VERY crowded, so I recommend coming at the beginning if ya can! I'll be in the Meditation Chapel!
5pm-9pm
4499 Piedmont Avenue
Oakland, CA 94611
From the event website: "Event goers are invited to wander the multilevel building which is built onto a hillside between Piedmont Avenue and Howe Street as the performers play simultaneously. Getting lost is part of the experience as guests climb up and down the three floors through a maze of gardens, cloisters, alcoves, stairwells, fountains and other architectural elements, which rise into vaulted ceilings. All architectural and garden areas have excellent acoustics and are illuminated by gentle natural light, often through beautiful arrangements of stained glass."
MAY 24 // Second Inversion/Seatlle premiere of Rebeam me
..."dreamy art pop with the sensitivity and nuance of classical music."
A few weeks ago, Four/Ten Media and I got up at 5am, drove to a windy beach at Point Pleasant, NJ before sunrise, and made this amazing video. Never mind that it was 43 degrees and I was barefoot in a nightgown, never mind that there was no one else insane enough to be swinging, building sand castles, and sprinting on an ice-cold beach at dawn in borderline freezing temperatures. This was THE MOST fun video shoot I can ever imagine doing, and I owe it all to Four/Ten Media. These guys rented an infrared camera, and blasted the heat in the car for me whenever I needed it, sweet-talked a state police trooper who tried to kick us off a site, and gleefully ran around after me all day on about 4 hours of sleep. And Kevin didn't even have a coat. YOU ARE BOTH AMAZING. Thanks to Brad Balliett whose sonnets formed the basis not just for this song but for the entire Anything Chartreuse album. Thanks too to Chris Botta and Matt Walsh for this stellar audio mix, and to Chris for suggesting the basic idea for the film -- a loose allusion to When the Sky is like Lace, my favorite children's book. Thanks also to Aleksandr Karjaka for this unbelievable photo, and Fallon Fitzpatrick for hair/makeup. And, last but not least, thanks to Stuart Wolferman and to Second Inversion for this video premiere!
MAY 5 NYC: New English Grammar at Look+Listen Festival
So excited to recap A New English Grammar, my songs based on the eponymous poetry collection by Jeff Dolven, for the 2019 Look+Listen Festival. Jeff and I have been teaching together at Princeton this semester, and this performance is the sweet cherry on top of our past 5 months together! With Dylan Greene on drums.
Arreté Venue & Gallery
67 West St. #103
Brooklyn, NY 11222
Facebook event
Tickets available here.
MARCH 22 BOSTON: Oracle Hysterical with A Far Cry
Oracle Hysterical and A Far Cry appear at the Stave Sessions/Celebrity Series of Boston. We'll be performing our album, Hecuba, played on the Greek tragedy by Euripides, and "The Sea" inspired by an issue of literary magazine Lapham's Quarterly. Tickets and more information here.
Friday, March 22, 2019
160 Mass Ave. Boston, MA
8:00pm
MARCH 7 SF: ICE HOURS at the EXPLORATORIUM
Honored to play a very small role in an extraordinary collaboration between composer/performers Kristina Dutton & Nathan Clevenger, photographer Camille Seaman and film artist Kim Miskowicz. Ice House is a multimedia event, featuring a series of six film vignettes of stunning Antarctic landscapes and a live musical score. It premieres at the SF Exploratorium March 7, 2019.
7:30pm talk 8:30pm performances
FEBRUARY 24 NYC: Hae Voces at The Stone with Jeff Zeigler
Hae Voces (my girl band with Kristina Dutton) visits NYC to perform with Jeff Zeigler at the extra awesome new Stone location. (n.b. Yes, the Stone still exists; it just moved from its old Stoney location on Avenue C to a new Stoney location at The New School.)
Saturday, Feb 23, 2019
The Stone @ The New School, Glass Box Performance Space
8.30-9.30pm
58 W 13th St, New York, NY 10011
Dec 2018 SF: Hae Voces at I.O.U.
Hae Voces had a one-week residency in SF this winter at the enigmatically-named I.O.U., the Insitute of advanced Uncertainty, a multidisciplinary arts program showcasing trajectories of the creative process, false starts to finished works. We made an experimental music video with The Understory that drops this March! Our residency was curated by Elkhanah Pulitzer. Follow I.O.U. at i.o.u.sf on Instagram.
2018/Past
Thursday, Nov 29, 2018 - Wednesday Dec 5, 2018
IOU
Ivy St, SF (Hayes Valley)
Oracle Hysterical featured on BBC Radio
Oracle's most recent album, HECUBA, was featured on BBC3 Radio! (Link here.) To be totally honest with you, I don't even really know what that means, but British is fancy!
Majel Connery: The Debut Record Kickstarter
I'm launching a Kickstarter to help fund my first SOLO album. Having spent a year and a half creating the songs on this record, and much longer finding the balls to do it, it’s been humbling, it’s been exhilarating. It’s been a frigging education. AND I AM NEARLY THERE! I’m so happy I could cry. If you like my music, please consider donating! Holy crap I need help! http://kck.st/2Ky3IMq
Radiolab "Gonads" series
June 15 - July 26, 2018
Along with my co-composer, Alex Overington, I was HONORED AS HELL to write and perform wrote the "Gonads" theme song, plus a bunch of other ditties ("Ballad of the Fish," and "Ballad of Daniel Webster"), for this phenomenal series about sex, gender, the biology of reproduction, and the ways those terms simply cannot describe the subtlety or complexity of these things in 2018. Listen to the series here. Gonads was produced by Molly Webster. There be rumors of a forthcoming Gonads album. Stay posted. Keep posted? Stay tuned.
Hae Voces at Chapel of the Chimes
June 21, 2018
Thursday, 5:00-9:00pm
4499 Piedmont Ave, Oakland, CA 94611
Violn/voice duo Hae Voces -- Majel Connery and Kristina Dutton -- first met playing at the extraordinary annual Garden of Memory event in 2017. Hosted by Bay Area legend, Sarah Cahill, they are delighted to appear there again in 2018! We'll be playing the whole time in the Chapel of Tenderness. Come find us! Everything you need to know on the New Music Bay Area FB page and tix available here.
Radiolab Live: Sex Ed!
May 16, 2018
Wednesday, 7:30pm
Skirball Center for the Performing Arts, NYU
Radiolab producer Molly Webster and some amazing special guests wrestle with the nature of sex, and also take a crack at responding to the intimate questions you asked in high school but probably never got a straight answer to, like: what is an orgasm and how do I get one? How do I know if I’m gay? Why do people make those sounds when they have sex? How do I masturbate? What is cunnilingus? Am I normal?
Hae Voces at Kala Institute
June 1 & 2, 2018
Friday and Saturday, 8:00pm
1060 Heinz Ave, Berkeley, CA 94710
Hae Voces presents "Rapoport Remembered," a posthumous collaboration with visual artist Sonya Rapoport. [sonyarapoport.org/hae-voces][93] Listen [here][94]. Tickets here. [93]: http://www.sonyarapoport.org/hae-voces/ [94]: https://haevoces.bandcamp.com/
Hae Voces presented by Metropolis Ensemble, 1 Rivington, NYC
June 14, 2018
Friday, 8:00pm
1 Rivington Street, 2nd Floor, Buzzer #1, NYC 10002
Violn/voice duo Hae Voces -- Majel Connery and Kristina Dutton -- appears for the first time in NYC with a new EP. Listen to Hae Voces here.
Hae Voces presented by Spectrum Underground
June 15, 2018
Saturday, 8:00pm
70 Flushing Ave, Garage A, Brooklyn NY 11205
Violn/voice duo Hae Voces -- Majel Connery and Kristina Dutton -- appears for the first time in Brooklyn, NY with a new EP. Listen [here][97].
[97]: https://haevoces.bandcamp.com/"Hecuba" Pre-Release at Princeton University
May 6, 2018
Sunday, 5:00pm
Taplin Auditorium, Fine Hall, Princeton University
Hecuba, a concept album based on the original play by Euripides, is Oracle Hysterical's sophomore album on National Sawdust Tracks (formerly Vision Into Art). The live concert of the album is followed by a talkback moderated by Professors of Classics Brooke Holmes and Joshua Billings. This concert is generously sponsored by the Depts. of Classics and Music at Princeton University.
"Hecuba" Concert & Release Party: National Sawdust
May 13, 2018
Sunday, 8:00pm
80 N. 6th St, Brooklyn NY 11249
Oracle Hysterical's sophomore album, HECUBA, drops on National Sawdust Tracks (formerly Vision Into Art) this spring. Join us for a live concert of the full album.
A New English Grammar with Jeff Dolven and David Scher
April 7, 2018
Friday, 8:00pm
Spectrum Underground, 70 Flushing St., Garage A, Brooklyn 10002
New English Grammar is a multimedia performance based on the eponymous poem cycle by Jeff Dolven, and created in concert with painter David Scher. A workshop premiere involving live music, narration and improvisation takes place at Spectrum (Brooklyn) this spring. Dolven is a poet and professor of English at Princeton; Scher is a painter based in Brooklyn.
2017
"Hecuba" Toledo Museum of Art, OH
September 23, 2017
Saturday, 8:30pm
2445 Monroe St, Toledo, OH 43620
Tickets Here
"Hecuba is both a live concert and an art-rock concept album, based on Euripides' Trojan War tragedy of love, loss, murder, and revenge. “The project folds classic text into a modern sound world; we call it ‘psychedelic electro-acoustic,’” says Doug Balliett, founding member of Oracle Hysterical. “The opportunity to perform this album in conjunction with The Berlin Painter and in a theater inspired by a Greek agora really spoke to us.”
## Recording session at Oktaven Audio
Oracle Hysterical & A Far Cry**
October 6, 2017
We're recording and filming Oracle Hysterical's New Music USA project from 2016!
Project: The Sea: Tales of Lapham
Collaborator: A Far Cry
Location: Oktaven Audio
## Concert Artists Guild competition
October 12, 2017
Oracle Hysterical competes at the annual Concert Artist Guild Competition.
KQED Women to Watch
August 23, 2017, 7:30pm
Public Works
161 Erie St., San Francisco
A performance featuring KQED Arts’ Women to Watch, a series celebrating 20 local women artists, creatives and makers who are pushing boundaries in 2017. Driven by passion for their own disciplines, from photography to comedy and every other medium in between, these women are true vanguards paving the way in their respective communities.
"Majel Connery has achieved the practically impossible: she makes contemporary opera feel both accessible and hip."
Tickets here. Read the article.
14-Person Poem
June 4, 2017
Whitney Biennial
A performance curated by Jeff Dolven for Asad Raza's "Guest Weekend." Part of the Root Sequence. Mother tongue installation. Learn more here.
Passionate Pilgrim Deluxe Release
June 3, 2017
National Sawdust, 80 North 6th St, Brooklyn, NY
Early music group New Vintage Baroque joins Oracle Hysterical to celebrate the release of Passionate Pilgrim Deluxe album (VIA Records), headlined by the debut of five original songs by composer Majel Connery (deemed “thoroughly Schubertian” by Allan Kozinn, Wall Street Journal). NVB and OH will also perform freshly-minted re-orchestrations by Timo Andres of Benjamin Britten’s Folksong Arrangements for baroque band (featuring tenor Owen McIntosh) and Elliot Cole’s striking living-room opera, Babinagar, based on a folktale from Afghanistan.
Mainline Music presents Oracle Hysterical
May 13, 2017
Starline Social Club, 645 W. Grand Ave., Oakland CA
NYC-based Oracle Hysterical unfurls a trio of chamber pop works co-authored and -performed by the four musician-composers Elliot Cole, Majel Connery, Doug Balliett and Brad Balliett. The program showcases Oracle Hysterical's distinctive alchemy: literary classics paired with musical influences ranging from John Blow to the Beatles to My Brightest Diamond.
The concert presents Doug Balliett's sinister “Cleopatra” cantata (based on the writings of the ancient historian Suetonius); Elliot Cole's song cycle,"Babinigar" (on an ancient Afghani folktale about a snake king and his human bride); Brad Balliett's concerto for solo bassoon, "In Triple Time." Led by conductor Stephen Prutsman, Oracle Hysterical is joined by a local ensemble of classical virtuosi including Jeff Anderle (clarinet), Kyle Bruckmann (oboe), Jill Heinke (flute), Meena Bhasin (viola), Owen Dalby (violin), Robert Howard (cello), Nick Woodbury (percussion), Jennifer Ellis (harp) and Anne Rainwater (piano).
"Contriving the Chimes" by Caroline Shaw
APRIL 21, 2017 [BUY TICKETS][108]
In a first-time collaboration, Mohr Visiting Artist Majel Connery and the St. Lawrence String Quartet partner with the Pulitzer Prize-winning composer Caroline Shaw and famed opera director Christopher Alden to present a workshop staging of Shaw’s latest commission, the vocal quintet Contriving the Chimes. Based on Isaac Newton’s “Before Whitsunday 1662,” Shaw’s work for voice and string quartet sets to music a list of sins penned by a boyish 19-year-old Newton. Shaw’s playful, seemingly improvised textures offer a cheeky counterpoint to Newton’s earnest confessions. Together with a song cycle by Doug Balliett, August is also cruel, Shaw’s work appears for the first time in a workshop staging by Alden.
POST-SHOW DISCUSSION. The evening concludes with a panel conversation led by dramaturg and University of Chicago professor David J. Levin.
[108]: https://live.stanford.edu/calendar/april-2017/contriving-chimes
"Aeolus" with Ken Ueno and Thomas Tsang
APRIL 7, 2017
AEOLUS is a new opera combining throat singing, multiphonics, indie-rock and electronics making its premiere at National Sawdust. It is written and performed by Ken Ueno (Rome and Berlin Prizes winner) in collaboration with FLUX Quartet (“legendary for its furiously committed, untiring performances,” Alex Ross), and the “haunting, Björk-like vocals” (SF Classical Voice) of Majel Connery. AEOLUS is inspired by the mythological keeper of the winds, Aeolus, from the Odyssey. In the classic tale, wind shapes human destiny. In the opera, wind, reinterpreted as breath, is a compositional tool. AEOLUS charts Ueno’s personal odyssey, linking impressionistic scenes from memories, found objects and literary fragments from the composer’s past. Musically, the opera juxtaposes “arias” by Ueno and Connery; virtuosic, voiceless passages by FLUX; and meditative textual interludes.
Wellesley College
Mellon Visiting Artist Residency
with Ken Ueno and Thomas Tsang
April 6, 2017
April 2-7 Ueno, Connery and Tsang are at Wellesley College under the auspices of a Mellon Visiting Artist residency at the Newhouse Center to present a musical preview of Ueno's new opera, Aeolus, on campus. The residency concludes with a performance at Jewett Auditorium featuring the FLUX Quartet.
Passionate Pilgrim
album release
Janurary 21, 2017
Oracle Hysterical's, "Passionate Pilgrim," drops on the National Sawdust label, Vision Into Art, on Feb 10, 2017. Join us for a concert and release party at National Sawdust, January 21. “The Passionate Pilgrim” is a song cycle co-written by composer-performer collective Oracle Hysterical (Elliot Cole, Majel Connery and Doug and Brad Balliett). In this collaboration with baroque period ensemble, New Vintage Baroque, “The Passionate Pilgrim” brings an all-but-forgotten poem cycle back to life. Once believed to have been penned by a “W. Shakespeare,” the collection was stripped of its stature when the Shakespearean parentage of all but four poems was revealed as a fake. Here, finally, this orphaned cycle enjoys new pride of place, reimagined as tuneful Baroque pop. The album’s instrumentation includes a mix of Baroque and modern instruments pitched at 415 and 440 hz, respectively. Get the album on iTunes!
2016
The Sea: Tales of Lapham
Commissioned by and performed with A Far Cry
Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum, Boston 25 Evans Way, Boston, 2115, MA
October 6
The Sea is an evening-length symphonic song cycle inspired by the literary magazine, Lapham’s Quarterly. It is commissioned by and performed with Grammy-nominated A Far Cry. Using Lapham’s “The Sea” issue as eclectic libretto, Oracle Hysterical weaves music from texts by history’s greatest seafarers, explorers, and aquatic fabulists, from Shakespeare to Homer, and John Donne to the Book of Jonah.
The Sea premiered in Boston at the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum where Grammy-winning A Far Cry has served as ensemble in residence since 2010. Before its Boston debut, The Sea received preview performances at Spectrum (NYC); Joslyn Art Museum (Omaha); and MANA Contemporary/High Concept Labs (Chicago). This project is supported by a grant from New Music USA. (Woot!)