Music portfolio : : 2024

AUDIO

The Rivers are our Brothers

ELECTRO-ACOUSTIC SONG CYCLE “I am a mountain” is from The Rivers are our Brothers (2021, rev. 2023). Originally commissioned and released as an album by Musica Sierra, this new version for vocals, synths, and electric cello (Felix Fan) was re-recorded in Sept 2023 (Electrical Audio, Chicago). Recorded/mixed by Matt Walsh. (Unreleased.) Stream the album.

RADIOLAB

RADIOLAB In 2018-19 I wrote and performed music for 5 episodes of the Radiolab series, “Gonads,” including “Ballad of the Fish.” This song opened the series, and was created in a single solo improvisation for voice and electronics at the WNYC Studios. Recorded by Alex Overington. Stream the album.

Childworld

ELECTRONIC “He was dying” is from EP Childworld (Open Ocean, 2022). Written and performed by Majel Connery; released by art-rock duo Sky Creature in a version for vocals, vocal synthesizer, synths and bowed baritone guitar. Recorded/mixed by Matt Walsh. Stream the album.

Orphea

“Of music” is from the song cycle, Orphea (2019), a female perspective retelling of the Monteverdi opera, l’Orfeo. Written and performed by Majel Connery with mixed Baroque/modern ensemble (theorbo, lute, banjo, viola da gamba, alto flute, harp, Rhodes piano, and drums). Arrangements by Doug Balliett. Recorded and mixed by Ryan Streber at Oktaven Audio. Stream the album.

COLLABORATIONS

SKY CREATURE I write and perform work with my art-rock duo Sky Creature (with baritone guitarist Matt Walsh). This video is the single from my EP Childworld (Open Ocean, 2022), which Sky Creature toured nationally in 2021-22. Filmed in a silo in Oneonta, NY by Noah Kalina.

HAE VOCES From 2017-19 I wrote and performed with Bay Area violin/vocals duo Hae Voces, with violinist Kristina Dutton. “He was dying” (2019) is from an unreleased electro-acoustic EP called Fear of Dying. This video was filmed at the Institute of Advanced Uncertainty in San Francisco by The Understory.

ORACLE HYSTERICAL Composer-performer collective Oracle Hysterical released the album Hecuba on NAXOS/National Sawdust Tracks, in 2017. The single, “Helen” was co-written and performed by Majel Connery, Doug and Brad Balliett, Dylan Greene, and Elliot Cole). Recorded and mixed by Chris Botta and Elliot Cole. Filmed by Four/Ten Media. Stream the album.

Opera Cabal

WELLESLEY As Mellon Visiting Artist at Wellesley, Opera Cabal and I commissioned Aeolus, an opera based on the umbrella protests in Hong Kong, from Rome Prize-winning composer Ken Ueno. At right, a workshop of a scene with set by Hong Kong architect Thomas Tsang (High Concept Laboratories, Chicago). The full opera debuted with FLUX Quartet in the Wellesley College Department of Music and at National Sawdust (Brooklyn) in April 2017.

STANFORD As part of a Mohr Visiting Artist residency at Stanford in 2016-17, Opera Cabal and I commissioned “Contriving the Chimes” from Pulitzer Prize-winning composer Caroline Shaw. Premiered with the Saint Lawrence String Quartet at Stanford Live, with stage direction by Christopher Alden.