"Mannisto has one of the most hauntingly beautiful voices I have heard in years"
~ Paul de Barros, Seattle Times
Next up: A performance with the UW Chamber Singers on Tuesday, May 29. The program is entitled “The Artist’s Voice”, a concert of music exploring the wide range of sounds made by the human voice. Program selections include Madrigal, by Gabriel Fauré; Four Slovakian Folksongs, by Bela Bartók; In Lumine, by UW composer Huck Hodge; Villarosa Sarialdi, by Thomas Jennefelt; andExalted, by David Gordon.I will be performing Richard Karpen’s Pericolose-un giorno-bellezze for soprano, choir, and computer-realized sound. For more information about Richard Karpen’s piece: http://faculty.washington.edu/karpen/Pericolose.htmlTo purchase tickets to the event: http://www.meany.org/tickets/?prod=5067 

Next up: A performance with the UW Chamber Singers on Tuesday, May 29. The program is entitled “The Artist’s Voice”, a concert of music exploring the wide range of sounds made by the human voice. Program selections include Madrigal, by Gabriel Fauré; Four Slovakian Folksongs, by Bela Bartók; In Lumine, by UW composer Huck Hodge; Villarosa Sarialdi, by Thomas Jennefelt; andExalted, by David Gordon.I will be performing Richard Karpen’s Pericolose-un giorno-bellezze for soprano, choir, and computer-realized sound. 

For more information about Richard Karpen’s piece: http://faculty.washington.edu/karpen/Pericolose.html

To purchase tickets to the event: http://www.meany.org/tickets/?prod=5067 

I have the privilege of performing Samuel Barber’s stunning “Knoxville: Summer of 1915” with text by James Agee tomorrow evening (Saturday, March 31) with the Seattle Metropolitan Chamber Orchestra, 8pm at Nordstrom Recital Hall at Benaroya. 

“We are talking now of summer evenings in Knoxville Tennessee in the time that I lived there so successfully disguised to myself as a child.” These are the opening words of author James Agee’s prose poem from which Barber selected passages for his composition. Uncomplicated, sincere, and amazingly alive, Agee’s text struck a chord not only with Samuel Barber, but also with several well-known interpreters of this piece. Both Eleanor Steber, the singer who commissioned Barber’s work, and Leontyne Price, another well-known interpreter of Barber’s music, claimed that Knoxville perfectly resonated with their own experiences growing up. Curiously enough, people of very different backgrounds and ages seem able to connect with Agee’s account of summer evenings in Knoxville, Tennessee in 1915. I too find the text deeply meaningful despite being part of a completely different generation. Although specific imagery such as horses drawing buggies and primitive automobiles are no longer relevant to Americans today, the overlying theme of nostalgia for a simpler, more comforting time is something to which we can all relate. Agee illustrates the innocent state of a child’s being when one gathers information from the outside world and from behaviors of our loved ones, but isn’t able, or burdened with the need, to interpret or understand these actions. His language and descriptions are matter-of-fact and simple, with occasional attempts to explore subjects that are difficult for a child to comprehend (“And who shall ever tell the sorrow of being on this earth?”, “And those receive me who quietly treat me as one familiar and well-beloved in that home: … but will not ever tell me who I am”). Through vivid depictions of sight, sound, taste, and touch (“the taste hovering over them of vanilla, strawberry, pasteboard and starched milk”, “the dry and exalted noise of the locusts”, “on the rough, wet grass”), Agee effectively uses synesthesia to draw the reader into the described moment. In his musical interpretation of Agee’s text, Samuel Barber succeeds in deepening the feeling of nostalgia for a simpler time by using word painting and other musical tools that evoke certain associations from the listener. At the beginning of the piece, he sets up a rocking 12/8 tempo that returns a few times throughout the piece as a comforting representation of lullabies and rocking chairs. The idyllic mood that Barber sets up is rudely interrupted by orchestral outbursts as the singer tells of “a streetcar raising its iron moan”, and further text painting takes place with the staccato musical phrases under the words “the bleak spark crackling and cursing above it” and the lush, expansive vocal line sung to the text “now is the night one blue dew”. Throughout the piece, the soprano line emphasizes the conversational and innocent tone of the text in its simple, folk-like melodies. All in all, this has become one of my favorite pieces of all time, and I feel very lucky to be performing it in a beautiful space with such an accomplished orchestra!

Listen to one of my favorite recordings, performed by Leontyne Price, here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sJjXadvkohk

Other American masterpieces on the program tomorrow:

AARON COPLAND: Fanfare for the Common Man
JOHN ADAMS: Chamber Symphony
SAMUEL BARBER: Adagio for Strings

Hope to see you there! 
Some great reviews for Smokestack Arias! “Maria Mannisto’s lovely and pure soprano makes it all touching and absorbing, and her diction is masterful—listening to her, you don’t miss a syllable.” - Gavin Borchert, Seattle Weekly “Also in the pleasure department: the honeyed flow of Mannisto’s voice.” - Paul de Barros, Seattle Times

Some great reviews for Smokestack Arias!

“Maria Mannisto’s lovely and pure soprano makes it all touching and absorbing, and her diction is masterful—listening to her, you don’t miss a syllable.” - Gavin Borchert, Seattle Weekly

“Also in the pleasure department: the honeyed flow of Mannisto’s voice.” - Paul de Barros, Seattle Times

Smokestack Arias premieres next week! Inspired by the notorious labor uprising culminating in the events of November 5,1916 known as the Everett Massacre, Smokestack Arias is a song cycle for soprano voice, piano and electronics. Each song assumes the perspective of a different woman affected by the tumultuous occurrences, giving a personal account of a seminal event in the history of the labor movement in the Pacific Northwest. Wayne Horvitz, composerRobin Holcomb, textMaria Mannisto, sopranoCristina Valdes, pianoDayna Hanson, directorAt ACT Theatre’s Eulalie Scandiuzzi Space. For more information and to purchase tickets, visit http://www.acttheatre.org/Tickets/OnStage/SmokestackArias?date=2%2f4%2f2012 Hope to see you there! 

Smokestack Arias premieres next week! Inspired by the notorious labor uprising culminating in the events of November 5,1916 known as the Everett Massacre, Smokestack Arias is a song cycle for soprano voice, piano and electronics. Each song assumes the perspective of a different woman affected by the tumultuous occurrences, giving a personal account of a seminal event in the history of the labor movement in the Pacific Northwest. 

Wayne Horvitz, composer
Robin Holcomb, text
Maria Mannisto, soprano
Cristina Valdes, piano
Dayna Hanson, director

At ACT Theatre’s Eulalie Scandiuzzi Space. For more information and to purchase tickets, visit http://www.acttheatre.org/Tickets/OnStage/SmokestackArias?date=2%2f4%2f2012 

Hope to see you there! 

After yesterday’s tech rehearsals at Galapagos Arts Space, I can’t wait to perform tonight in the premier of Kocho - a new opera by Garrett Fisher! The set and costumes look absolutely spectacular. Join me, the rest of the Fisher Ensemble, and Beth Morrison Productions tonight at 8pm at the Galapagos Arts Space in Brooklyn, NY!Read more here:http://www.nytimes.com/2011/09/23/arts/music/classical-musicopera-listings-for-sept-23-29.html?_r=1http://newyork.timeout.com/music-nightlife/classical-opera/1960183/kochohttp://www.newyorker.com/arts/events/classical/the-fisher-ensemble-kocho-galapagos

After yesterday’s tech rehearsals at Galapagos Arts Space, I can’t wait to perform tonight in the premier of Kocho - a new opera by Garrett Fisher! The set and costumes look absolutely spectacular. Join me, the rest of the Fisher Ensemble, and Beth Morrison Productions tonight at 8pm at the Galapagos Arts Space in Brooklyn, NY!

Read more here:
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/09/23/arts/music/classical-musicopera-listings-for-sept-23-29.html?_r=1
http://newyork.timeout.com/music-nightlife/classical-opera/1960183/kocho
http://www.newyorker.com/arts/events/classical/the-fisher-ensemble-kocho-galapagos

The Box Is Empty, Seattle’s newest contemporary music ensemble, introduces itself with a performance of two works by the groundbreaking Louis Andriessen. The program offers the rare opportunity to hear Andriessen’s early masterpiece De Volharding (perseverance).  The unrelenting Workers Union completes the program for exciting insight into the music of one the last half-century’s most innovative composers.  Come hear these works that helped to launch Louis Andriessen from composer of the Dutch avant-garde to one of international influence and importance. I’ll be lending my amplified voice to Workers Union. Thursday, August 25, 8pm. The Chapel at the Good Shepherd Center.

The Box Is Empty, Seattle’s newest contemporary music ensemble, introduces itself with a performance of two works by the groundbreaking Louis Andriessen. The program offers the rare opportunity to hear Andriessen’s early masterpiece De Volharding (perseverance).  The unrelenting Workers Union completes the program for exciting insight into the music of one the last half-century’s most innovative composers.  Come hear these works that helped to launch Louis Andriessen from composer of the Dutch avant-garde to one of international influence and importance. 

I’ll be lending my amplified voice to Workers Union. Thursday, August 25, 8pm. The Chapel at the Good Shepherd Center.

My high school friend Tomo Nakayama has asked me to perform with his band Grand Hallway. I’ve been a huge fan of Grand Hallway for years, so naturally the answer was yes! We just finished a weekend of shows in Seattle and Portland promoting the new album Winter Creatures, and I’m very excited for a summer of concerts with them — Capitol Hill Block Party, Bumbershoot, Reverb Festival, etc. More updates soon!Learn more about the band and purchase the gorgeous new album at www.grandhallway.com. 

My high school friend Tomo Nakayama has asked me to perform with his band Grand Hallway. I’ve been a huge fan of Grand Hallway for years, so naturally the answer was yes! We just finished a weekend of shows in Seattle and Portland promoting the new album Winter Creatures, and I’m very excited for a summer of concerts with them — Capitol Hill Block Party, Bumbershoot, Reverb Festival, etc. More updates soon!

Learn more about the band and purchase the gorgeous new album at www.grandhallway.com. 

Music Made When Reason Sleeps

I’ve been working seemingly non-stop the past weeks to prepare for my upcoming performance of George Crumb’s Madrigals (Books I-IV) with the UW Contemporary Group. The hardest part, aside from learning the notes, has been making something so primitive and unconventional feel natural in my voice. It has been a fun and often frustrating project, and I invite you to come and hear the result this Wednesday at 7:30pm at the UW Meany Studio Theater!

“The Madrigals are, like all of Crumb’s music, more about meaning than technique. Dark and disquieting, they are music made when reason sleeps.” -Michael Walsh, Time Magazine music critic. 

More info here: http://www.meany.org/tickets/?prod=4442

I’m very excited to perform Luciano Berio’s spectacular and ambitious Circles! Written in 1960 for Berio’s wife the American mezzo soprano Cathy Berberian, Circles is a setting of three poems by e.e. cummings. It was written after the landmark composition Thema (Omaggio a Joyce), in which Berio deconstructed Berberian’s voice through the use of innovative electronic manipulation. Throughout Circles, Berio explores similar sound textures while limiting himself exclusively to acoustic means.  Berio writes, “I had no intention of writing a series of vocal pieces with harp and percussion accompaniment; rather, I was interested in elaborating the three poems in a circular way so that a unified form resulted, where the different levels of meaning, the vocal action and the instrumental action would strictly condition each other, even on the plane of phonetic qualities. The theatrical aspects of the performance are inherent in the structure of the work itself which is, above all, a structure of actions: to be listened to as theatre and to be viewed as music.”Tickets can be purchased here: http://www.meany.org/tickets/?prod=4705See you Friday!


I’m very excited to perform Luciano Berio’s spectacular and ambitious Circles! Written in 1960 for Berio’s wife the American mezzo soprano Cathy Berberian, Circles is a setting of three poems by e.e. cummings. It was written after the landmark composition Thema (Omaggio a Joyce), in which Berio deconstructed Berberian’s voice through the use of innovative electronic manipulation. Throughout Circles, Berio explores similar sound textures while limiting himself exclusively to acoustic means.  Berio writes, “I had no intention of writing a series of vocal pieces with harp and percussion accompaniment; rather, I was interested in elaborating the three poems in a circular way so that a unified form resulted, where the different levels of meaning, the vocal action and the instrumental action would strictly condition each other, even on the plane of phonetic qualities. The theatrical aspects of the performance are inherent in the structure of the work itself which is, above all, a structure of actions: to be listened to as theatre and to be viewed as music.”

Tickets can be purchased here: http://www.meany.org/tickets/?prod=4705

See you Friday!