In residence at the historic Judson Memorial Church, Marisa Michelson and Constellation Chor research the interaction of mind/body/spirit practices with virtuosic voice and movement, and rigorously develop performance pieces. Founded one year ago thanks to a space grant from Judson, they engage with the intersection between voice, movement, storytelling, healing, meditation, gesture, inner-development, Oliveros’ Deep Listening, and music-theatre. The chor’s research explores performer as a presence-cultivator, truth-seeker, shaman, and the performance as an invitation to enter into an intimate, heightened, and revelatory relationship with the moment and each other.
Based on Marisa’s interest in the natural musical language of the body, Constellation Chor explores composition-as-improvisation and improvisation-as-composition. An accomplished musical theatre and choral composer, Marisa often teaches the Chor her compositions and arrangements while holding as primary that process is as important as product. With Constellation Chor, singing itself forms the core of Marisa’s artistic vision. Inspired by her intensive training with the Libero Canto School of Singing, Marisa is interested in cultivating bodies free of extraneous tension, bodies which can then respond ever more spontaneously to the musical imagination.
Presented by Crowded Outlet in October 2016, the Constellation Chor shared their first fully improvised, site-specific piece at Judson followed by an International trip to Iceland in 2017 which created a site-specific improvised piece at Harpa Opera Center in the capital of Reykjavik. Acting as 2017 Generator Artist again with Crowded Outlet, Marisa Michelson and Constellation Chor are creating The Mother of Beauty, Death - a new piece currently exploring how mortality contextualizes beauty. In collaboration with Heartbeat Opera, Ethan Heard and Chase Brock, they have been developing and performing Michelson’s Desire and Divinity Project, a three-part exploration of the liminal space between longing for earthly love and divine love. Part One, Song of Song of Songs, recently won a 2017 grant from the Lower Manhattan Cultural Council. Part Two, Sappho Fragments, was presented by Heartbeat Opera in May. In early 2018, both pieces will be performed together for three evenings.
Constellation Chor’s rotating orbit of acclaimed international artistic creators include Marisa Michelson, Chad Goodridge (Obie Award, Passing Strange), Nikko Benson (2016 Jonathan Larson Award Grant winner, Nikola Tesla Drops the Beat), Jen Anaya (Tamar of the River), Heathcliff Saunders (NYMF Award for Best Musical, Best Lyrics, Natasha, Pierre, and the Great Comet of 1812), Ako (Kentucky), Tamrin Goldberg (Tamar of the River), Shawn Shafner (I’ll Never Love Again), Nickolas Vaughn (Scheherezade), Kalli Siamidou (Asters Team), Luisa Muhr, and Sarah Beth Pfeifer.
Learn More: http://www.constellationchor.com