This project builds connections, creates conversation, and engages various communities through a program of music inspired by mythology which combines many different traditions: ancient Greek myths through the ears of early 20th century French composers, a legend of Charlemagne as transcribed by a Venezuelan-born composer living in the United States, and an Argentinean composer reflecting on Andean myths of the Inca.

When Elizabeth and Weronika rehearse as a duo, they often end up mimicking the swing of a pendulum to find the right flow in the music. This workshop explores why the properties of a swinging pendulum matter so much in governing musical tempo and energy, and helps the audience connect more deeply with the music of French composer Claude Debussy. Through games that connect musical sounds with our daily experiences of pendulums, explore new ways of listening to music –  the third movement of Debussy’s Sonata for Violin and Piano, transcribed for flute and piano by Marvento Duo.

What do melodies and frogs have in common? They both leap! This interactive workshop and live performance explores the leaps and steps that create melodies in Aaron Copland’s Duo for Flute and Piano. 

What goes up must come down! Have you ever wondered how composers create energy in a piece? “Deconstructing Climaxes” is a workshop and live performance of the first movement of Sergei Prokofiev’s Op. 94 Sonata for Flute and Piano. Through games based on Prokofiev’s rhythmic motives, participants discover how Prokofiev builds climaxes.

Marvento Duo celebrates music by women composers both past and present, and considers their legacies today. The program introduces legendary teacher Nadia Boulanger through her Three Pieces for Cello and Piano transcribed for flute and piano. Boulanger taught dozens of well-known composers, including Aaron Copland, whose Duo for Flute and Piano became part of the “American sound.” We also bring to life a seldom-played Suite by Clemence de Grandval, who played a major role in supporting new music in late 19th century Paris. In Jhula Jhule, Reena Esmail honors her grandparents through the Indian folk songs they taught her, while Emily Doolittle’s Palouse Songbook explores the birds of the palouse prairie of the American northwest. These composers are creating and influencing current generations of musicians.

Explore how images and stories inspire composers and listeners, and what happens when they don’t. Through listening and movement activities, discover different ways of listening to music as we dive into two works by Lowell Liebermann, Gargoyles, Op. 29 for solo piano and Sonata for Flute and Piano, Op. 23.

What is it like to be in your twenties? What do you know and not know? Was it different to be a twenty-something in the 1770s and 1790s and 1990s and 2010s? What kind of music would you write? This is a concert of music by three 20-somethings plus one 31-year-old who survived his twenties and lends another perspective: Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, Martin Kennedy, Nadine Dyskant-Miller, and Ludwig van Beethoven.

Marvento Duo celebrates music by women composers both past and present, and considers their legacies through the music of composers they influenced. The program opens with Shulamit Ran’s dramatic East Wind. In Jhula Jhule, Reena Esmail honors her grandparents through the Indian folk songs they taught her, while Kaija Saariaho’s Tocar explores what happens when the sounds of two instruments touch. These three contemporary composers have already influenced our generation of listeners, performers, and composers, and we hope that the late 20th century and early 21st century will be remembered as the time when the works of women composers are equally represented in the classical music canon.

Nineteenth century pianist and composer Clara Schumann influenced many musicians throughout her life, including her husband Robert Schumann and their close friend Johannes Brahms. To honor Clara Schumann’s legacy, Marvento shares her Three Romances and Johannes Brahms’ Op. 76 Capriccio which he dedicated to her. The program ends with a trio of early 20th century composers: Lili Boulanger, the first female winner of the Prix de Rome prize in composition (1913), her older sister and brilliant composition teacher Nadia Boulanger, and American composer Aaron Copland, who planned on studying only one year with Nadia Boulanger but stayed for three.

Marvento Duo has partnered with Multiverse Concert Series for the multi-year Reef Music project. The plight of coral reefs around the world is often overlooked – these beautiful ecosystems exist far from our everyday environments, but are suffering nonetheless from our continued use of fossil fuels. In 2018, we collaborated with Dr. Sarah Davies of Boston University to produce a concert highlighting the secret life of corals, the destructive process of “coral bleaching” that occurs when ocean temperatures rise, and the complicated future that coral reefs face in the anthropocene climate.

Black Anemones by Joseph Schwantner evoked the movement of plants and animals in the ocean’s currents.