VOICES WITHIN
A musical journey through time exploring the connection between cello and voice through the works of remarkable female composers
Personal Introduction
My love for singing began at a very young age, with Puccini’s Madame Butterfly capturing my imagination when I was just three years old. But it wasn’t until I moved to England that choral music took on a deeper, more transformative role in my life. Immersed in the rich English choral tradition, I performed regularly at Canterbury Cathedral and toured internationally with the Crypt Choir, including tours to China and Belgium.
Voices Within is an hour-long program that explores the intimate, organic connection between the cello and the human voice. It features vocal works reimagined for cello and piano, as well as pieces for singing cellist and piano. What has always drawn me to singing is its ability to create moments of stillness, presence, and connection, a kind of magic that reaches deep into the soul. With Voices Within, I aim to bring that atmosphere to life by blending the warmth and vulnerability of the human voice with the resonance and lyricism of the cello.
The program solely features female composers, many of whom remain unjustly underrepresented. Composers of the program include Amy Beach, Clara Schumann, Florence Price, Hildegard von Bingen and sisters Nadia and Lili Boulanger. As a female duo, Viviana and I are passionate about this topic. Through Voices Within, we hope to not only celebrate the incredible contributions of female composers, but also to inspire a more inclusive and diverse musical landscape.
At the heart of this program is a newly commissioned work, a deeply expressive piece for singing cellist and piano, by the phenomenal composer Michaela Catranis. This collaboration is continuing to be one of the most inspiring aspects of the project for me. Collaborating closely with a living composer is incredibly special and Michaela’s ability to write for both voice and cello as one, creates a breathtaking sound world in which the cello mimics, embraces, and amplifies the human voice. Her work not only encapsulates the spirit of Voices Within perfectly, but also gives it a bold, contemporary voice that echoes the timeless emotional power of music.
Performances
Featured Composer
Michaela Catranis
Jeita" by Michaela Rea Catranis, emerged...as something like a musical allegory of the cave, an earthly meditation as a sonorous, moving narration of a single, lonely voice. The immense "TONALi" festival in the Elbphilharmonie ended with such a courageous appeal to the inner world." Hans-Klaus Jungheinrich, Edition Faust-Kultur
"I write about our humanness, our connection to each other and the world around us, both natural and digital worlds. It could be like Laughter or a Prayer, or maybe a Shadow, muscles and sinew rippling, a Kiss. The movements of Love, trembling, electric, or a Scream, life tearing through the flesh of a Mother, a tiny heart beating, new against her chest, both of them still dripping from her wound, washed in blood. The Body, charged up with Soul, spirit-stuff and the ecstasy of the moment. Being. It is all this, a Polyphony of human experience, so brief, sensuous, writhing, soft, dirty, naked, full of rage, of joy, of tenderness. It's a courageous smile and then some silence too. It is how I talk to you, with moonbeams in my eyes; a conversation between lovers." ~ M
With a strong background in classical piano, Michaela Catranis' eclectic tastes have led her to explore experimental music, electronic, jazz and beyond, crafting a highly versatile sonic language. Her multi-media performances have received international acclaim, sound worlds that spin out in a colorful exchange of disciplines, criss-crossing music, art, technology and dance. This process of collective art-making lies at the heart of Michaela’s work, which she feels echoes our shared humanity, a thirst for togetherness born from her experiences growing up in a family of eleven. She derives inspiration from her classical training, playing with the family band, SPACE CATS, as well as non-classical sonorities that she’s collected from her travels and walks in the forest.
In 2018, she won the TONALi18 Composition Prize. The following year, she was awarded the Contemporary Arts Alliance-Berlin Scholarship, commissioned by Ensemble Modern as part of the Composer's Seminar/Cresc. Biennale for Contemprary Music and selected as composer laureate of the Académie Voix Nouvelles - Royaumont. Her works have been performed internationally in concert halls such as the Elbphilharmonie Hamburg, the Berliner Philharmonie, Wigmore Hall and the KKL Lucerne. She has written for the Mivos Quartet, Zafraan Ensemble, RIOT, Ensemble Modern, KNM, among others, and works closely with soprano, Johanna Vargas, and Berlin-based Duo Amabile. Michaela holds degrees in piano performance from the Peabody Conservatory and composition from the Hanns Eisler School of Music.