Marisa Michelson

Composer/Singer MARISA MICHELSON is a multi-award winning writer of interdisciplinary music-theatre, choral work, and musicals, and is the founder of Constellation Chor | An Immersion in Voice, Movement and Spirit - a vocal performance ensemble whose “sonic expressions, from ethereal sounds to primal screams, animalistic wails and simply breath” have been likened to “vocal innovators like Kate Bush, Bjork, Florence Welch and even Yoko Ono.” (StageBiz). In residence at the historic Judson Memorial Church and Spectrum (BK), the Chor engages at the intersection of voice, movement, healing, and music-theatre. Researching the interaction of mind/body/spirit practices with virtuosic singing, the Chor also explores performer as truth-seeker/shaman, and the performance as an invitation to enter into an intimate relationship with the moment and each other. Marisa Michelson and Constellation Chor performed as the “moving voices” in a commission by Ashley Fure for the New York Philharmonic at Lincoln Center in 2019. In March, they performed at The Kitchen, premiering a new Sarah Hennies commission for Claire Chase, and they were recently called “visceral” and “committed” by the New Yorker, and “astringently captivating” by the New York Times.

Marisa is also a sought-after voice teacher who has worked with hundreds of singers of all ages and levels and genres from beginners to Broadway stars. Most recently, she was the Vocal Coach at Signature Theatre for Dave Malloy’s Octet. Marisa’s perspective is grounded in the Szamosi® path (http://www.liberocanto.org) which she has studied as a singer and pedagogically for fifteen years. The use and training of the voice is at the center of her work as a composer. Singing reaches into every corner of artistic, intellectual, physio-emotional and spiritual life. Being in intimate relationship with singing, and sharing this relationship with others, is at the center of her life’s path and passion.