July is overrated so we skipped it. Hello August! Hello folks!

 

July is overrated so we skipped it. Hello August! Hello folks! Photography by Isaac Berliner at the 2019 Eugene O'Neill National Puppetry Conference Hello again! Claris here - I hope you've all had a wonderful summer. Melissa and I have both have had very eventful ones. We found out last week that we have both been nominated for two Barrymore Awards each! Melissa was nominated for Outstanding Sound Design for her work on Hype Man: A Break Beat Play at InterAct Theatre Company and for Outstanding Original Music in Among the Dead at Theatre Exile.   The music Melissa wrote for Among the Dead (which I was also in and received a nom for) is not available, but you can listen to some music she wrote for The Cherry Orchard in 2015 here. I saw this production with my class in school - the only thing I remember was that Susan Sarandon - sorry I meant Mary McDonnell - was in it and Melissa's music and saunter on stage as the violinist! Recent Press! Have you been following along/spotting Melissa in the news?             -   Melissa's alma mater, West Chester University, recently published a profile on Melissa in their Alumni Magazine about how Melissa "really digs composing." I too laughed for way too long when I read the subhead. Check it out here on Melissa's website!             -   Hidden City Philadelphia recently profiled both Matt and Melissa on the artifacts they excavated at the Hannah Callowhill Stage in their podcast, The Boghouse! If you want to go see some pictures of the artifacts you've been hearing about (including Melissa's prized pipkin), check out the profile! Also, as a vocal supporter of the #MeToo movement, Melissa was asked for comment by three local news organizations (ABC, CBS, and NBC) regarding the Philadelphia Orchestra's cancellation of Placido Domingo's appearance at their opening gala. News Some exciting news from underneath many of the hats that Melissa wears, asides from theatre!             -   Come My Tan-Faced Children was one of the recently announced winners of Boston collective Calliope's Call's call for scores!     It will be performed as part of their fall program, Sounds of Unity in the Boston area on Nov 2nd and 3rd.             -   Up Your Cherry rides again!     Melissa and Matt will be appearing on stage during the Philadelphia Fringe Festival for a slam with their puppeteer friends on September 21st at Theatre Exile! Are you excited for the Puppet-delphia Fringe Slam because I am!! Calliope's Call Season Preview Video! New Works All day and all night and every day and every night (seriously I've heard stories of all/half-all nighters that Melissa has pulled to create these pieces)             -   Melissa recently finished Waves of Gallipoli for the Saint Louis Chamber Chorus, and there has been positive feedback from the first read-through! Conductor Philip Barnes called it "a profound, distilled work of unusual power."     The premiere is on October 6th at the Masonic Prince Hall Grand Lodge in St. Louis, and both Melissa and Matt will be there!             -   Melissa is also working on a collaboration with poet Anthony Silvestri for the National Concert Chorus at the Strathmore. They are actively seeking choirs and ensembles for their 2019/2020 season, so submit if interested!     The piece will premiere on April 5, 2020 at the Music Center in Baltimore! Conferences - Past and Upcoming! This summer was a busy time for conferences and meeting people and hyping up fellow composers and being hyped by fellow composers for Melissa!             -   Chorus America went swimmingly!Here is Melissa pictured with composer Kala Pierson at their shared booth! Thank you to everyone who stopped by to chat - it was lovely to meet you all!               -   The National Collegiate Choral Organization is having their national conference outside of DC in November, and Melissa will be there as well!          Katherine Fitzgibbon, conductor of Resonance Ensemble in Portland, is leading a whole session on Melissa's music: “Innovation with a Social Conscience in the Music of Melissa Dunphy.” If you’re attending the conference, stop by for discussion, readings and free scores!             -   Melissa will also be participating in a session focused on female composers at the ACDA East conference in March 2020!     The panel (comprised of Melissa, Kala Pierson, Deirdre Robertson, and Jessica French) was one of 117 interest applications reviewed by a selection committee and recommended by chairs. They believe that the interest sessions they chose, including the one Melissa will be sitting on, "support [their] commitment to present sessions that challenge, honor, and move our profession firmly into the 21st-century." Slightly Off Topic but Important! If you've been following Melissa on social media, you may have seen her post about Chester Hollman III, who was recently released on July 14th, 2019, after having been wrongfully imprisoned for 28 years. In 2017, Melissa appeared in a First Person Arts event and met the sister and father of Chester Hollman III, who had been imprisoned for a murder he didn't commit for over 20 years. At the time, Deanna and Chester Sr. were still campaigning to bring attention to Chester's case, despite a front-page Philadelphia Inquirer story earlier that year. The article revealed witness retractions and police corruption that led to his wrongful conviction. Their story had a major impact on everyone who heard it, as did witnessing the strength and grace with which this family endured an almost unimaginable injustice. Recently Chester was exonerated and released and we're overjoyed for the Hollmans! But we also want to bring attention to their campaign to assist Chester in rebuilding his life after 28 years of it were stolen by a broken criminal justice system. The Hollmans have literally spent their lives and all their resources just getting Chester out of jail, and it's a long road ahead. If you can help out at all, please consider donating to their GoFundMe.  Additionally, if you haven't checked it out yet, check out The Boghouse, Melissa and Matt's podcast about the very very very very old bathrooms underneath their home. Find it on Apple Podcasts, Stitcher, Spotify, or Google Play. Episode 19 is still the most recent episode, which means you have time to catch up on all of the episodes until the rumored SEASON 2 is released! Thank you to everyone who is already listening! Find Out More

Copyright © 2019 Mormolyke Press, All rights reserved.

 

Wanna hear more of Melissa's words? Check out Melissa's profile on NewMusicBox's cover! Photography by Molly Sheridan for NewMusicBox Hi! This is not Melissa! This is Claris, Melissa's new assistant! I'm here to help her during these, frankly, bananas time. This week, an interview that Melissa did back in March was published as the cover feature for NewMusicBox! In it, she talks about her composition work and its roots in social justice, and, of course, sweating copper pipe and archaeology. Go check it out! New Releases of Music June also brings a ton of new music in a variety of forms on a variety of different platforms:               LISTEN: In February, Portland’s Resonance Ensemble commissioned and premiered LISTEN: a two-movement SSAA choral work that sets testimony from Anita Hill in 1991 and Christine Blasey Ford in 2018. After two sold-out performances and a successful Kickstarter for the recording, the score is now available for free download on Melissa's website Look out for the release of the album later this month, and keep tabs by clicking the link to the Kickstarter!               A set of SATB songs Suite Remembrance, originally written for the Saint Louis Chamber Chorus, has been published by EC Shirmer and is now available in their Fall 2019 School/Concert catalog:                    A link to the recording of the fourth movement, Mourning into Dancing, is below!                  And last, but not least, in a departure from the norm, Melissa recently arranged a Bob Dylan song: Farewell Angelina was written for soprano Elise Brancheau and is for voice and viola. It’s been cleared by Dylan’s representatives and is available for sale on SheetMusicPlus. E.C. Schirmer, Archival live recording by the Saint Louis Chamber Chorus, Philip Barnes, Director; first studio recording issued on Regent Records, 2020.  Upcoming Concerts June also has Melissa and Melissa's music travelling all over!! Melissa still hasn't quite figured out how to create multiple versions of herself to be in all these places at once, so if you can go in her stead, please click on the links for tickets!           -  American DREAMers makes it overseas for the first time -- it will be performed by Ex Ore Equi at a June 8th concert in the UK.            -  Treble choir, Vox Femina, are performing Wild Embers June 8th in LA            -  Come, My Tan-Faced Children, which was premiered by Lyric Fest last month was arranged for mezzo and string orchestra and will be performed by the Brooklyn Metro Chamber Orchestra on June 9th Photo by Don Valentino               Puppetry Conference performances June 14th and 15th at the Eugene O’Neill Theater Center in Connecticut: Melissa will be performing along with Matt Dunphy and other musicians for puppetry works created during the 8-day conference. Photo by Richard Termine Other Upcoming Events Melissa and fellow composer Kala Pierson are sharing an exhibitor table at the 2019 Chorus America national conference in Philadelphia at the end of this month. If you’re coming to the conference, stop by for scores, recordings, and to say hello:  https://www.chorusamerica.org/conf2019 Additionally, if you haven't checked it out yet, check out The Boghouse, Melissa and Matt's podcast about the centuries old - well - boghouses underneath their home. Find it on Apple Podcasts, Stitcher, Spotify, or Google Play. Episode 19 was a really exciting Q+A, but if you're starting the podcast today, don't skip ahead! Thank you to everyone who is already listening! Find Out More

Copyright © 2019 Mormolyke Press, All rights reserved.

Seattle, Portland, Kansas City, Brooklyn: I can't be four places at once this weekend, so I need you!

 

Do you live on the East Coast?  Or the Pacific North-West?  Or NYC? Come hear some music! Click to listen to the premiere of Come, My Tan-Faced Children (lyrics by Walt Whitman), commissioned by Lyric Fest and performed brilliantly by Raehann Bryce-Davis, Laura Ward, Min-Young Kim and Tim Ressler at the Academy of Vocal Arts in Philadelphia last month. This month has been, frankly, bananas. Good bananas. In addition to designing sound for Hansol Jung's Among the Dead at Theatre Exile in Philadelphia (runs though May 26), my compositions have been racking up so many performances I can barely keep track. May I brag at you? Let me brag at you. Special shout-out to O Oriens, which received three (!) performances in the Philadelphia area just last week from three very different ensembles: Wissahickon High School Chamber Singers, Philadelphia Voices of Pride, and Ensemble Companio. So proud! It's not even Advent season! A work I wrote for the Saint Louis Chamber Chorus, Alpha and Omega, was sung across the pond by the St. Pancras Church choir as part of the London Festival of Contemporary Church Music. American DREAMers was performed in full by both the Temple University Singers (click here to watch the video) and the Southern Connecticut State University Choir, and excerpts were performed by several church choirs. It's strange about stars... was given its Australian premiere by the Melbourne Women's Chorus, which of course is a huge deal for me because although I'm from Australia, I didn't start composing seriously until I came to America, and having my music make it all the way back home is the kind of thing that could really go to my head if I'm not careful. But this coming weekend takes the cake: seven (!) performances of four different works in four different cities spread out over the continental USA. Tomorrow I'm flying to Kansas City, and if you're nearby I'd love to see you this Sunday. But I'm heartbroken to be simultaneously missing performances in Seattle, Portland, and Brooklyn (the first time my work has been performed at BAM). This is where you come in. If you can make it to any of these concerts to hear my music and support these amazing organizations, or you can help me get the word out to friends who live in these cities, I will love you forever! (I already do, but for the purpose of this e-mail, let's pretend my undying love is something you have yet to earn.) Links to all of this weekend's performances below: BROOKLYN: Mezzo Linda Collazo will perform my song cycle Hervararkviða (The Incantation of Hervor) with the Brooklyn Metro Chamber Orchestra at BAM on Saturday, May 18. SEATTLE: The Esoterics will be performing a program which includes my choral work Together in the Seattle area in three concerts over the weekend. PORTLAND:  Resonance Ensemble commissioned LISTEN from me earlier this year; the work sets testimony from Anita Hill and Christine Blasey Ford, and it enjoyed a sold-out premiere in February. This is the repeat performance of that program and ... well look at that, it is sold out again. WOW. I'm told that if you show up at the venue on the day, you might be able to grab a seat if there are any no-shows or cancellations, but no guarantees. You could also throw some bucks at the Kickstarter they recently launched for the album recording. KANSAS CITY: And last but not least, Musica Vocale are performing American DREAMers this weekend in Kansas City, and I'll be in attendance to give a pre-concert talk on Sunday. There's also a performance of the same program on Monday night in Lawrence, KS. Oh yeah, I'm still doing amateur archaeology and a podcast. Have you listened to The Boghouse yet? The story is ongoing; as of this e-mail, my home is once again covered in privy dirt from a new dig. Subscribe to the podcast on Apple Podcasts, Stitcher, Spotify, or Google Play. We are averaging 6,000 to 8,000 downloads per episode at the moment and regularly charting on Apple Podcasts, which is pretty amazing for such an indie production (it's literally just Matt and I doing everything in our home). All credit to our listeners and fans who have been spreading the word. Next month, Matt and I will be at the National Puppetry Conference at the Eugene O'Neill Theater Center in Connecticut, and after that I'll be attending Dish Camp (an archaeology workshop) in Historic Eastfield, and I am splitting a booth with fellow composer Kala Pierson at the Chorus America National Conference in Philadelphia, so it's going to be somehow even busier? Do not ask me how that's possible, I'm trying not to think about it. Did I mention I'm slightly exhausted? But this is the most fortunate problem for a freelancer to have, so I'm not complaining. Well OK, that is a lie, I am complaining some, but not too much. Thanks for following along with this wild ride and for all of your support! Melissa Dunphy

Copyright © 2019 Mormolyke Press, All rights reserved.