[May 8 – Aug 8] Light as a Feather by Charlotte Mundy

Created by vocalist and composer Charlotte Mundy, ‘Light as a Feather’ is a ghost opera inspired by the parlor room of 10a Nolan Park. In a room covered in sighing pink tissue paper, invisible voices beckon, whisper, growl and swirl around listeners, lights glow and change color, and floral scents waft through the space. Light as a Feather takes inspiration from the healing, psychedelic visions of medieval abbess Hildegard of Bingen; the visionary 1949 film The Wizard of Oz; and girlish sleepover games.

Spanning 24 minutes and three scenes, the ghost opera will not feature any live performers, but will feature Mundy’s own layered and stretched voice channeled through an eight-speaker array, accompanied by simple machines built and programmed by Mundy with multimedia artist Melody Loveless.  

Location: The Workings of Media [art and artists] at the Harvestworks Art and Technology House

May 8th – August 8th, 2021: Building 10a, Nolan Park, Governors Island

Open to the public on weekends – Saturday and Sunday 11 am to 5 pm. Ticketed Entrance. 

Mundy’s compositions have been presented on the Chance and Circumstance Festival, Resonant Bodies Festival, and Periapsis Music and Dance series. As a soloist, founding member of TAK Ensemble and core member of Ekmeles vocal ensemble, she is one of the foremost voices shaping contemporary music in New York City today. 

Three guided meditations intended to prepare audience members to experience ‘Light as a Feather’ will be available to stream or download at charlottemundy.com/light-as-a-feather beginning April 28.

Charlotte Mundy specializes in music that is new, daring and sublime. She has been called a “daredevil with an unbreakable spine” (SF Classical Voice), and her performances have been described as “an oasis of radiant beauty” (NYTimes) and “marvelously appealing” (The Log). Mundy was awarded the Jan DeGaetani prize for contemporary song performance from the 2019 Joy in Singing Competition, and has performed with the Resonant Bodies Festival, BAM New Wave Festival and New York Festival of Song. She has appeared as a soloist at the 92nd Street Y, Metropolitan Museum, Park Avenue Armory and the Library of Congress and given critically acclaimed renditions of Schoenberg’s Pierrot Lunaire, Boulez’s Le Marteau sans Maître, Feldman’s Three Voices and Messiaen’s Poémes Pour Mí. 

Mundy “slays the thorniest material like it’s nothing” (WQXR) with TAK ensemble at venues including Issue Project Room, Miller Theater and the Look and Listen festival; she sings stratospheric microtonal lines with Ekmeles vocal ensemble at venues including The Kitchen and Philadelphia’s Rotunda. 

Mundy was a host of WQXR’s new music station, Q2music, from 2012-2015 and currently co-hosts, co-edits and co-produces the TAK Editions Podcast. Her compositions have been featured on the Resonant Bodies Festival, Chance and Circumstance Festival, Periapsis Music and Dance festival, Higher Ground festival and Broad Statements. She has lectured on writing for voice and participated in readings, workshops and performances of student compositions at institutions including Columbia University, Princeton, Yale, Stanford, Cornell, McGill, and Juilliard. Mundy studied at the Contemporary Performance Program at the Manhattan School of Music, and the Faculty of Music at the University of Toronto. She was born and raised in Toronto, Canada and currently resides in Brooklyn. 

“Mundy and Sugiyama sound like daredevils with unbreakable spines…Even these opening phrases showcased the staggering plasticity of Mundy’s voice: On a dime, she shifted from white, almost breathy tones to sounds so suffused with core that they nearly overwhelmed the small space.” – SF Classical Voice. 

Website and Social Media

charlottemundy.com

Instagram: instagram.com/charl_ttemundy

Twitter: twitter.com/charl_ttemundy

Collaborators

Melody Loveless

Interviews and Press Coverage:

Schmopera

NY Times

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