Description
WE’RE THRILLED TO INVITE YOU TO...
Please join this quartet of world-class performers for an evening of adventurous, varied, and beautiful music. The Moss Ensemble is thrilled to return to the LTV for our third year. Featured in this year's concert is a highly-requested repeat performance of Marshall Coid’s beloved Medieval Fantasia, along with works by well-known composers, Bach, Purcell, Mozart, Faure, and Shostakovich, as well as contemporary composers Chris DeBlasio and Douglas Anderson. As always, the ensemble will share observations and insights throughout to help illuminate the music— all of which we hope will excite and move you.
About the Musicians
Each of these musicians relates to each other not only through their love of music, but through their long histories working in NYC. “I’ve crossed paths and worked with these performers for many, many years,” said Elizabeth. “Marshall and I go way, way back. And I can’t remember the first time Darcy and I crossed paths. We’ve been on the same programs for years, and enjoyed each other’s work! But it wasn’t until the Memorial that we all four performed on the same piece and felt the pull to work as an ensemble.”
Marshall continues, “we’ve all worked together quite a bit. There’s a commonality among us in being very serious and curious about getting deep into the music. With Darcy, not only does she always deliver a stunning performance, but there’s lots of thought behind her choices and her material.”
Marshall Coid – Counter-tenor, Violinist, Composer
Marshall Coid, of Andes/NYC, has been described by The New York Times as “astonishingly versatile” for his multidisciplinary career as a counter-tenor, violinist, actor, director, conductor, composer, writer, and educator. Since graduating from The Juilliard School, he has been featured in live TV broadcasts from the Kennedy Center and Lincoln Center and has appeared solo at such prestigious venues as the United Nations, Library of Congress, National Cathedral (DC), St. John The Divine (Artist-in Residence 1990-1996), MOMA, Metropolitan Museum of Art, Morgan Library, Guggenheim Museum, Steppenwolf Theatre, Spoleto Festival USA/Italy, Oxford University, International Performers Festival (Belgium), and many more. Four decades on Broadway include roles in Barnum (where he played violin on the high wire), Ghetto, Rags (six characters) and Chicago (onstage violin soloist since 1996).
Marshall’s long collaboration with Mimi Stern-Wolfe culminated in a 2019 NY Philharmonic recital performance curated by Academy Award winning composer, John Corigliano. Marshall’s award-winning music for film, dance, opera, concert and theater has received critical acclaim since the 1980s and will be featured in a Composers Concordance NYC/Live-Streamed performance this spring.
Darcy Dunn - Mezzo-Soprano
Darcy Dunn sings chamber opera, classical music and new works in NYC and is a founding member and featured performer of the Magic Circle Opera, as well as a graduate of Magic Circle training, under Ray Evans Harrell. She has performed leading roles with Chelsea Opera, Bronx Opera, Encompass Opera, Opera Manhattan, and Downtown Music Productions, and has been a featured soloist at the Windham Chamber Music Festival. Darcy and her husband, Mark Singer, have a long-standing connection with the Catskill Mountain Foundation: together, with musical director Julia Mendelsohn, they were the Catskill Mountain Foundation’s first live performers in 1998, giving a concert in the Red Barn at its opening.
Performing regularly at CMF in its early years, they helped create CMF’s Mountaintop Celebration of Song, which included original musical reviews by Mark, with musical arrangements by Julia, including: “A Little Bit in Love”, “Headliners and One-Liners”, “Weill’d About You”, “They’re Playing Your Song”, and “Ain’t We Got Fun”. Darcy, Mark and Julia will return to the Doctorow this season on November 15 for a revival of their Catskills show, “Headliners and One-liners”. And in February, 2025, the trio will present, “All Mankind Has Lost its Reason” in NYC – a new show about Weimar Germany, written by Mark, and told through the music of the period.
Elizabeth Rodgers – Pianist
A born-and-bred New Yorker, like Mimi, collaborative pianist Elizabeth Rodgers is in demand as a recitalist with singers and instrumentalists, including the distinguished soprano Judith Raskin, and in chamber music, orchestral, choral, and operatic repertoire. She performs regularly with Downtown Music, Music Under Construction, American Chamber Opera, New York Gilbert and Sullivan Players, American Landmark Festivals, and Libero Canto. Her teaching experience includes Manhattan School of Music, Bard and William Paterson College.
A strong advocate of performing the works of living composers, she has premiered music by Miriam Gideon, Marc-Antonio Consoli, Wendy Griffiths, Tom Addison, Carolyn Lord, Joelle Wallach, Robert Dennis, Justine Chen, and Melissa Shifflet. She has recorded with Opus 1, Grenadilla, CRI, Musical Heritage, New World, and Albany.
“I knew Mimi for over 30 years,” said Elizabeth, “and not only was she a conductor and an entrepreneur, but she was a fabulous pianist. When she was conducting a large piece that included piano, she asked me to play. The piano is how we related to each other.”
Mary Wooten – Cellist
Cellist Mary Wooten moves with agility among musical styles from classical, to jazz and pop improvisation, to commercial, to the avant-garde. A founding member of the Soldier and Sirius string quartets, Ms. Wooten is a pioneer who helped propel the classical string world toward new ventures in improvisation and electronically-altered instruments. As quartet cellist she has premiered new music at Lincoln Center, Minneapolis’ Walker Art Center, the LA County Museum of Art, and on John Shaffer’s New Sounds series for NPR. Collaborations with John Zorn, Elliot Sharp, and Douglas Cuomo leading to performances at new music locales and jazz festivals in New York, Montreal, Amsterdam, Vienna, Cologne, Berlin, and Tokyo.
Mary plays in Broadway orchestras and has performed at the New York Shakespeare Festival with Meryl Streep. Her studio recording credits include many TV commercials, movie soundtracks, and sessions with Billy Joel, Sheryl Crow, Joe Jackson, Kenny Werner, Jane Ira Bloom, and David Bowie, among others.
“My fellow Moss Ensemble members are such wonderful musicians, artists and colleagues”, said Darcy. “It is such a joy. We love working together, we love the music, and it feels very special to me to be included in this group. And very special to be back at the CMF as well.”
