Megan Schubert
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Alexa Echoes

2/4/2021

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Written and Directed by Amanda Turner Pohan
Composer: Charlie Looker
Choreographer: Dages Juvelier Keates, Amanda Turner Pohan
Performer: Katy Pinke
Vocalists: Daisy Press, Megan Schubert
Flautists: Kelley Barnett, Isabel Gleicher
Dancers: Dages Juvelier Keates, Amanda Turner Pohan


EMPAC presentation

Broadcast 5pm February, 4, 2021
Direct Youtube Link

Press Release
EMPAC and the Center for Curatorial Studies at Bard College present Alexa Echoes, a film in the mode of a chamber opera by visual artist Amanda Turner Pohan in collaboration with composer Charlie Looker, choreographer Dages Juvelier Keates, and performer Katy Pinke.

The first iteration in a series of three performances, Alexa Echoes recasts the relationship between cultural movements and commercial technologies through the history of women’s devocalization and disembodiment. It begins with mythical Greek figures, such as Echo, and leads up to Amazon’s smart speaker and digital voice-based assistant for Alexa, also named Echo. Produced after travel restrictions and social distancing measures were implemented at the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic, the film combines footage shot in the empty spaces of EMPAC with recordings from the collaborators’ homes and remote studios.

In this film, EMPAC is concurrently the site of production, the setting, and the subject that surround three manifestations of the voice: candid, staged, and disembodied. As in much of Pohan’s interdisciplinary oeuvre, the film looks at the body’s complicated relationship to technology as it relates to autonomy, animation, and the melismatic sound of breath. Alexa Echoes incorporates movement, speech, and an orchestral score to abstract the gendered decisions that frame new media technologies, gesturing to the corporate entities which choreograph them.
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The film will be released on EMPAC’s website accompanied by a text version of the project’s script. Alexa Echoes was developed as part of a residency at EMPAC organized by Muheb Esmat, Marisa Espe, Bergen Hendrickson, Ciena Leshley, Ana Lopes, Liz Lorenz, Brooke Nicolas, Elizaveta Shneyderman, and Rachel Vera Steinberg from Bard College’s Center for Curatorial Studies class of 2020, working with EMPAC curator Vic Brooks.


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Gershon Kingsley and friends

5/19/2020

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I waited to take the time to address the loss of my boss and mentor, Gershon Kingsley, and then I lost another elder and close friend of Gershon’s soon after: Anton Coppola.

After working so closely with Gershon for 10 years, and then showing up to an empty studio after his death, keeping the same routine but with nothing but reminders of a brilliant man who suffered in the aging process and the loss of his beloved wife, Lillian, a year prior, I may have had a head-start on a soul-searching quarantine of sorts. It was a battle to turn my energy outwards, after earnestly assuming a supporting role and serving as an extension of Gershon’s slowly failing memory, and trying to make his days tolerable but also not glazed-over with fake positivity. However, towards the end of Gershon’s life, I did start changing the channel to TCM so that he wouldn’t wake up to Donald Trump’s face staring down at him from the giant flat screen TV across from his favorite chair. What a waking nightmare Trump and his enablers have relentlessly sustained--and that's been the backdrop for profound losses only those in their "golden years" understand. Tony (as Gersh used to call Anton Coppola) used to joke about volunteering to assassinate Donald Trump, “because what’s a life sentence when you’re already over 100 years old?” Tony and Gersh lived very full lives, and are missed. I am honored to continue working for both their families. In Gershon's case, I'll be helping to preserve his legacy.

Here are their New York Times Obituaries:

Gershon Kingsley

Anton Coppola


Post COVID-19, public memorials will be planned for both.

​First photo from foreground to background: me, Gershon, and Caley Monahan Ward (Emily Manzo was playing piano)
Second photo, left to right: Gershon, Lillian Bozinoff Kingsley, and Anton Coppola
Third photo, left to right: Gershon, Anton
Fourth photo, Gershon and Lillian (taken by Jocelyn Barranco, the previous three were taken by me)
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September 2019 Update

9/18/2019

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-Launched another production of QUARTET at Lady Fest at The Tank! With Anaïs Maviel's "Be" and my "Late Duck"  with Gelsey Bell and Yoon Sun Choi August 25th! (The pieces were premiered at Roulette earlier this year.)

-Began a new season with Fifth Avenue Presbyterian Church as an alto. Concerts including early music, Mozart and Haydn, and the Verdi Requiem will be happening throughout the year.

-Participated in a residency at Penn State University for A Marvelous Order September 11-13. We worked on staging and movement (Patrick McCollum) that was gathered as footage for Josh Frankel to use as reference in his animations.

Upcoming highlights:

This weekend, September 21, from 4-6, I'm participating in an outdoor performance (free) of John Hasting's Passages | Pasajes in Dongan Lawn of Fort Tryon Park. 

October 28-31 in Washington D.C., Boston, and Brooklyn
Jonsi & Alex tour of Riceboy Sleeps

November 12, 8pm at Roulette
Neil Rolnick: Journey's End

November 23, 9:30pm at St. Peter's Episcopal Church as part of Blank Forms
Nate Wooley's Seven Storey Mountain VI
(I also wrangled together 20 great singers for this performance)

December 9, 8pm at Roulette
James Ilgenfritz, Anagram Ensemble 



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Come to our show!

2/25/2019

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QUARTET
(Performances by Gelsey Bell, Anaïs Maviel, Megan Schubert, and Yoon Sun Choi)
All world premieres by Gelsey Bell, Anaïs Maviel, and Megan Schubert
Sunday, March 3, at 8pm
at Roulette

Tickets
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In other news, while it's still available, you can check out the livestream of the performance of Steve Reich's Tehillim conducted by George Manahan 2/19/19 with Tactus, and sopranos Amber Evans, Shannyn Rinker, countertenor Luke Paulino, and "mezzo soprano" Megan Schubert.
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An Update

2/11/2019

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2018 Highlights

-Recorded backing vocals on Charlie Looker’s album, Simple Answers (we later performed with full orchestra at the CD release in June at National Sawdust)

-Officially stepped into a new permanent position as a professional chorister with Fifth Avenue Presbyterian chamber choir. (Finally got to sing Bernstein’s Chichester Psalms and Rachmaninoff’s Vespers in their entirety.)

-Returned as a quarter finalist at the American Traditions Competiton in Savannah, Georgia.

-Started workshopping pieces for QUARTET which will all premiere at Roulette March 3, 2019.

-Recorded a small part for the soundtrack, and got a sneak preview during the final editing process of Matthew Barney and Jonathan Bepler’s newest film, REDOUBT

-Revisited Schubert Lieder with pianist Amy Duran, and participated in a master class with Tom Muraco, an event organized by the Art Song Preservation Society

-Performed Louis Andriessen’s De Staat with Nina Faina Mutlu, Jamie Jordan, Mellisa Hughes, Axiom with Jeff Milarsky conducting. The composer was present for the dress and performance.

-Reprised a sneak peek of new material to come for Judd Greenstein’s opera, A Marvelous Order at LPR

-Dave’s Waves

-Submitted a song to three songwriting competitions. Already in the semi-finals for the International Song Competition. Will know if I advance in March 2019.

-Began prepping Gershon Kingsley’s unpublished and unperformed chamber works for distribution.
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an audio garden

7/22/2018

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I've begun recording a few pieces that I'll periodically release on youtube through the remainder of the summer.
​Tonight, I've posted a vocal version of Florence B. Price's "Adoration", and Kenneth Gaburo's "Cantilena One"--a setting of Rabindranath Tagore's thirteenth Vaishnava Song. New(er) releases will also be posted on this youtube playlist. There's no rhyme or reason to this curation of classical music beyond carving out a personal, non-cynical "sharing is caring" space in spite of this current sociopolitical climate. 

(The backdrops are close-ups of my own painting.)
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August +

8/1/2017

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Upcoming highlights:

August 15, 9:00pm 
with Charlie Looker Ensemble and Daisy Press
Union Pool, 484 Union Ave, Brooklyn

September 27, 7:00pm
Solo recital with Bennington faculty guests
Deane Carriage Barn, Bennington College, VT

September 29, 8:00PM 
Annea Lockwood's "Bayou-Borne, for Pauline" with Christian Wolff (percussion), Ross Karre (percussion), Nate Wooley (trumpet), Michael Pisaro (electric guitar), and Jessica Pavone (viola). 
ISSUE PROJECT ROOM, 22 Boerum Place, Brooklyn

November 15, 8:00pm
world premieres of Alison Nowak's "The White Birds" and Tina Davidson's "Spring After Spring"
Deane Carriage Barn, Bennington College, VT

Add. info on Past Spring/Summer '17 Highlights:

In April, I premiered Emiliano Branda's "Queens Anthem" at the Queens Museum as part of "Protest Forms: Memory and Celebration: Part II" for the opening of Marinella Senatore's exhibition.  

​In May, I had the opportunity to revisit curation for an evening at St. Lydia's Church in Brooklyn for Angela Morris's Brackish Series. which happens monthly. All the short sets were centered on text and the voice, dance, and music. I had the great good fortune of working with and presenting these wonderful artists:

First Set: improvising with Dafna Naphtali (voice, Max MSP), Sarah Bernstein (voice, viola), Martita Abril (dance) --all original texts by each of the musicians (and yours truly), in addition to Adrienne Rich's "What Kind of Times Are These"

Second Set: Jasmine Wilson (voice, composition, text), Anjna Swaminathan (Carnatic violin), Maria Grand (saxophones), and Martita Abril (dance).

Third Set: Sasha Zamler-Carhart (voice, texts by Afro-Panamaian poets), Jesse Greenberg (glockenspiel), and Quilan Arnold (dance).

Fourth Set: Anaïs Maviel (voice, percussion), Asiya Wadud (spoken word, text), and Shantelle Jackson (dance).

In June, I was involved in 6 dance pieces as composer and/or performer in the culmination of Wally Cardona, and Jennifer Lacey's 5-year project, THE SET UP in collaboration with master dancers I Nyoman Catra (Balinese Topeng) Proeung Chhieng (Cambodian), Junko Fisher (Okinawan), Saya Lei (Mandalay-style, classical Burmese), Jean-Christophe Paré (French baroque), Kapila Venu (Indian Kutiyattam) and Heni Winahyuningsih (Javanese refined) on Governor's Island. 



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Spring Highlights

4/8/2017

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Recent: 
February: First go at American Traditions Competition in Savannah Georgia

3/18 8:30pm at The Stone: Denman Maroney's "Claudius Smith" with Lisa Karrer, David Simons and Ratzo Harris

​Upcoming:
4/9 4:00pm at The Queens Museum: Opening for Marinella Senatore's Protest Forms: Memory and Celebration Part II

4/14 8:30pm at The Knockdown Center: Charlie Looker's "What Dawn is This" 

4/17 10:00pm at 65Fen: Trio with Andie Springer and Devin Gray

5/3 6:30pm at Williams Club: Screening and talk for A Marvelous Order (Schubert plays Jane Jacobs)

5/6 7:00pm at National Sawdust: Sophia Subbaya Vastek's CD release

5/18 8:00pm at St. Lydia's Church, Brooklyn: Angela Morris' BRACKISH SERIES, curated evening of collabs with musicians, poets and dancers

JUNE: RIVER TO RIVER FESTIVAL TBA dates and times on Governor's Island for Wally Cardona and Jennifer Lacey's THE SETUP with Jonathan Bepler
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Face(book)ing Trump

1/25/2017

 

My choice to leave Facebook wasn't to become an internal emigre or to escape "political discussion", but that I knew that this baseball card collection & ad platform of my friends family and acquaintances was not enhancing my sense of community or bettering my relationships. And it finally became too saturated to continue being a useful networking tool for my work as a musician (averaging 20+ invites a day).

—> Never mind the constant changes on privacy settings without consent, never mind the limited choice on how my life is displayed in this internet scrapbook with facial recognition, never mind the increased labor/interaction required to successfully curate the experience, never mind the ethically questionable social experiments Facebook has conducted, etc. But now the proliferation of fake news and a board member like Peter Thiel make it clear that I made the right choice back in September.

I stay active on twitter, more for amplifying voices I believe in, and will focus on resisting in less watered-down, performative ways. 

Since I pay for this ad-free space, I would like to say the following.

Donald Trump is not a legitimate president. I choose to post this publicly on my website in solidarity with all the dissenters, especially those standing with #blacklivesmatter, those for reproductive freedom and sex workers' rights, and the safety of immigrants, Muslims (#NoBanNoWall), and the LGBTQA community, and those who rally around the support of climate science, those about to lose healthcare, and just a growing list of groups and individuals this administration targets.

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September News

9/27/2016

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Photo with Ralf Buschmeyer, Minsoo Sohn, and Laura Reid right after our Canadian premiere of David Lang's "death speaks" in Calgary, Alberta as part of the Honens Festival and Bison Noir. Also performed F. Schubert's Death and the Maiden and E. E. Cummings settings by yours truly.

"This You" by Tino Sehgal wraps up 9/29/16 in City Hall Park as part of the Public Art Fund's exhibit "The Language of Things".

Taking part in the Robert Rauschenberg Artists Residency for the beginning of October at Captiva Island, Florida to continue work on The Setup.  ​

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