Bachtoberfest!

Marisa Curcio is a New York-based soprano whose work spans from the late medieval through new compositions. She was recently featured in Saints at a Disco (Prelude) with The New Consort and Gerard and Kelly through The Met Live Arts, singing both Hildegard and reimagined disco classics. Other solo work this season has included quite a bit of Bach, which Marisa heartily welcomes: Cantata 51 with Amor Artis, Mass in B minor with Music in the Somerset Hills (MISH), and Christmas Oratorio with Princeton Pro Musica.

Marisa’s recent small ensemble work includes a concert celebrating Palestrina’s 500th with Res Facta through the Gotham Early Music Scene (GEMS) and works by Bach and Gibbons with Music in the Somerset Hills (MISH). She is on the core roster of Res Facta and Amor Artis, and is a founding member of the Philadelphia-based choral collective, Convoco, which is in its fifth season. She is in her eleventh season with the Philadelphia Symphonic Choir, the choir-in-residence for The Philadelphia Orchestra. In the past year, Marisa could also be heard with noted ensembles such as The Orchestra of St. Luke’s, The Sebastians Baroque Orchestra, New York Baroque Inc., and Ensemble Altera.

A seasoned church musician, Marisa is a member of the professional choir at St. James’ Madison Avenue and the Lux Choir at The Episcopal Church at Princeton University (ECP). She is featured on the soon-to-be released album with the Lux Choir, A Fragment of the Immortal Air, on Affetto Records. Marisa holds degrees from Westminster Choir College, where she studied with Tom Faracco. She resides in northern New Jersey with her wife and their cat, Regina Cæli.

Recognized by the New York Times for her “vibrant and colorful” singing, mezzo-soprano Kate Maroney enjoys a varied career on concert, oratorio, and opera stages in works that span from the Renaissance to the 21st century. She is also in demand as a voice pedagogue active at music conservatories and festivals in New York and across the country.

Kate is a passionate believer in the deeply transformative, fully humanizing power of music and its ability to foster empathy in the community of performers and listeners alike. She particularly values collaborations with kind and generous colleagues who share this conviction.

Kate has appeared frequently at Lincoln Center, including at the Metropolitan Opera, the David H. Koch Theater, David Geffen Hall, and Alice Tully Hall. As a soloist, Kate has performed with the American Classical Orchestra (Bach’s Mass in B-Minor, C.P.E. Bach’s Magnificat), New York City Ballet and Musica Sacra (Mendelssohn’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream), at Carnegie Hall and Chicago’s Orchestra Hall (Handel’s Dixit Dominus), at LA Opera (Missy Mazzoli’s Song From the Uproar, Philip Glass and Robert Wilson’s Einstein On The Beach), at Carmel Bach Festival (BWV 97 and BWV 199), at Baldwin Wallace Bach Festival (Bach’s Weihnachts-Oratorium and Mass in B-Minor), with New York Baroque Incorporated (Bonaventura Aliotti's Santa Rosalia at Trinity Wall Street), with The Bach Choir of Bethlehem (BWV 42), at The Blue Hill Bach Festival (BWV 147), with TENET Vocal Artists (Handel’s Messiah, Schütz’s Musikalische Exequien, Bach’s Weihnachts-Oratorium, Magnificat, Easter Oratorio, In Darkness Let Me Dwell: Music of Dowland and Contemporaries), with Boston's Chorus Pro Musica at Jordan Hall (Beethoven’s Missa Solemnis), at Greenwood Cemetery for Death of Classical (Pergolesi’s Stabat Mater), with Master Chorale of South Florida (Duruflé’s Requiem), with Brooklyn Art Song Society (Janacek’s The Diary of One Who Disappeared, Ravel’s Hebrew Songs, Webern’s Op. 4 Fünf Lieder nach Gedichte von Stefan George, Schoenberg’s The Book of the Hanging Gardens), with Santa Fe Desert Chorale and Chamber Symphony (John Corigliano’s Fern Hill, Aaron Copland’s In The Beginning, Monteverdi’s Lamento della Ninfa), Monmouth Civic Chorus (Haydn’s Lord Nelson Mass), Bard SummerScape Festival (Michael Gordon’s Acquanetta), with The New York Philharmonic Orchestra and The Crossing (Julia Wolfe’s Fire In My Mouth), with Portland Bach Experience (Monteverdi’s Vespers, Bach’s Magnificat, Mendelssohn’s Elijah), Indianapolis Symphonic Choir (Mendelssohn’s Elijah), at MetLiveArts (David Lang’s the little match girl passion), at Oregon Bach Festival (Bach’s Weihnachts-Oratorium under Helmuth Rilling, Hadyn’s The Creation under Matthew Halls), with Modern Medieval and the Folger Consert on Capital Hill (Music from the Trecento), Fairfield County Chorale (Bach’s B-Minor Mass and Magnificat), with Princeton Pro Musica (Bach’s Weihnachts-Oratorium, Handel’s Israel in Egypt), with Clarion Music Society (Alto soloist in Maxamilian Steinberg's Passion Week in New York, St. Petersberg, Moscow, and London, Dritte Dame in Mozart’s Die Zauberflöte ), with Bach Collegium San Diego (Handel’s Messiah, BWV 170 Vergnügte Ruh, beliebte Seelenlust), with Mark Morris Dance Group (Vivaldi’s Gloria, Bach’s Jesu meine Freude), “A Memorial to Allen Forte” at Yale University with Cantata Profana (Webern’s Op. 4 Fünf Lieder nach Gedichte von Stefan George), with Bach Vespers at Holy Trinity (soloist in all major Bach works and numerous cantatas, over 15 years), at Bard Music Festival, with Anonymous 4 and The Bangor Symphony, with Ekmeles Vocal Ensemble at the MATA Festival, with Experiments in Opera, Yale Choral Artists, Vox Vocal Ensemble at The Guggenheim Museum, American Opera Projects, Beth Morrison Projects, Berkshire Bach Society, Berkshire Choral International, and the Rochester Philharmonic Orchestra.

In 2012, Kate was a recipient of the William G. Blair award in the New York Oratorio Lyndon Woodside Soloist Competition. Kate performed recitals with New York’s Polydora Ensemble (featuring Romantic repertoire for SATB quartet: Brahms’ Op. 52 Liebeslieder-Walzer, Op. 65 Neue Liebeslieder-Walzer) at St. Ignatius Loyola, the German Consulate in New York, CUNY Graduate Center's Elebash Hall, and Opera Grand Rapids, Michigan. Kate also occasionally appears with the Metropolitan Opera Chorus and especially loved being part of the 2021 production of Verdi’s Requiem, which was filmed for PBS Great Performances historically marking both the return to the Met after Covid-19, and the 20-year remembrance of 9/11. In the professional vocal chamber ensemble world, Kate is a regular member of many ensembles, including The Santa Fe Desert Chorale, Seraphic Fire, TENET Vocal Ensemble, Yale Choral Artists, Voices of Ascension, Clarion, The Choir of St. Ignatius Loyola, Spire Chamber Ensemble, and Trinity Wall Street.

Kate is a fervent champion of new music and has longstanding relationships and collaborations with many composers and new music organizations. She immensely values the process of bringing new music to life. She is featured in the vocal quartet recording of David Lang’s the little match girl passion (Cantaloupe Records, 2023). She sang throughout Ireland with the theater company Gare St Lazare Ireland, performing music by composer Paul Clark in a Samuel Beckett pastiche Here All Night. Kate performed Dominick Argento’s Pulitzer-prize winning piece, From The Diary of Virginia Woolf, in a staged adaptation by Håkan Hagegård at the Ordway Theater in St. Paul, MN, as part of the Source Song Festival. Kate was the mezzo soloist (singing texts of Emily Dickinson) in the world premiere of Martin Bresnick's oratorio Passions of Bloom with the Yale Choral Artists and Yale Sinfonia under Jeffrey Douma as part of New Haven's Festival of Arts and Ideas. (Bresnick dedicated the published score to her.) She performed the U.S. premiere of Damon Albarn’s Monkey: Journey to the West at the David H. Koch Theatre during the Lincoln Center Festival in 2013 with Ensemble Signal under Brad Lubman, and the U.S. premiere of Here All Night with Gare St Lazare Ireland as part of Lincoln Center’s 2015 White Lights Festival. Kate worked closely with Missy Mazzoli and Beth Morrison Projects to develop and premiere Song From The Uproar at The Kitchen in 2012 (and is heard on the premiere cast recording on New Amsterdam Records with the Now Ensemble under Steven Osgood). Kate created the role of Brianna in Matthew Welch’s collaborative opera Sisyphus with Experiments in Opera, and she recorded James Adler’s Reflections upon a September morn for Albany Records. Kate sings on many other recordings, including Julia Wolfe’s 2015 Pulitzer Prize-winning and 2016 GRAMMY®-nominated work, Anthracite Fields, with the Bang On A Can All-Stars and The Choir of Trinity Wall Street under Julian Wachner, and Julia Wolfe’s Fire in my Mouth with The Crossing and The New York Philharmonic Orchestra. Kate is the alto soloist on Clarion's 2017 GRAMMY®-nominated recording of Maximilian Steinberg's Passion Week, and sings on Clarion’s recordings of Rachmaninoff’s All-Night Vigil, Kastalsky’s Memory Eternal to the Fallen Heroes, and Ethel Smyth’s The Prison with the Experiential Orchestra, a 2020 GRAMMY®-winning recording. She is a soloist on the recording of Frank La Rocca’s Mass of the Americas with the Benedict XVI Choir and Orchestra, released on Cappella Records in 2022. She is a soloist with Acronym Ensemble and TENET Vocal Artists on a recording of Schmelzer’s Le Memorie Dolorose, and is also a soloist on Seraphic Fire’s 2021 recording of Hidegard von Bingen’s Ordo virtutum. She is the mezzo soloist in Jacob Cooper’s Stabat Mater Dolorosa with The String Orchestra of Brooklyn released on New Focus Records. She has recorded with Yale Choral Artists (works by David Lang and Han Lash) for Naxos Records. She recorded with guitarist Dieter Hennings on the album John Eaton: The Son Juana Project. She has worked closely with and premiered works by composers Philip Glass, Julia Wolfe, Martin Bresnick, Eve Beglarian, Amy Beth Kirsten, Daniel Felsenfeld, Daron Hagen, Dominick Argento, David Lang, John Eaton, Han Lash, Paola Prestini, Missy Mazzoli, Ted Hearne, Alex Weiser, Olga Bell, Lisa Bielawa, Haralabos [Harry] Stafylakis, Christopher Cerrone, Jacob Cooper, Michael Rose, Ola Gjeilo, Jake Runestad, Jocelyn Hagen, Reena Esmail, and Scott Wheeler.

From 2012 to 2015, Kate was featured worldwide in over 75 performances of Einstein on the Beach with the Philip Glass Ensemble. With her Einstein on the Beach family, Kate performed for audiences at major opera houses in Montpellier, Paris, London, Brooklyn, Toronto, Reggio Emilia, Amsterdam, Hong Kong, Melbourne, Berkeley, Mexico City, Los Angeles, Berlin and Gwangju, South Korea. Being part of this historic tour and piece of living art was a profound and transformative experience for which Kate is incredibly grateful. She also learned how to sing numbers really fast.

Kate holds a a D.M.A. from Eastman in Voice Performance and Literature with a Minor in Voice Pedagogy, as well as degrees in music from SUNY Purchase and Yale. She has written and contributed to articles published in The Washington Post, The Middle-Class Artist, The Journal of The New York Singing Teachers' Association ("Reflections from the Beach: Einstein on the Voice") and an entry on singing Webern for the Society of Music Theory Performance and Analysis Interest Group.

In addition to performing, Kate teaches voice and vocal pedagogy at Mannes School of Music (The New School) and Yale University.

When not singing, traveling, and teaching her heart out, Kate loves being home in Fort Greene, Brooklyn with musician and composer husband Red Wierenga, son, Ossian, and their two cats, Misha Mengelberg and Albert Ayler. She has Irish citizenship and often fantasizes about moving “home” someday to live in Sligo, where her grandfather was born. She studies French actively with the hope of becoming fluent in five years, and she is otherwise focused on reading literature she missed along the way. Recommendations welcome!