What names come to mind when you think of German Romantic composers? Schumann? Mendelssohn? Schubert? If you mean Robert, Felix, and Franz, you may want to think again.
In German Romantics, The Pleiades Project presents three miniseries based on the Lieder of German Romantic composers Clara Schumann, Louise Reichardt, and Fanny Mendelssohn. For our first installment, join us for German Romantics: Clara, where we follow our protagonist as she reconciles with the end of a relationship. Through her vibrant fantasies, she considers the good, the bad, and the romantic in life.
The Pleiades Project is challenging how we define the “German Romantics” by insisting that we not forget the women.
In German Romantics, The Pleiades Project presents three miniseries based on the Lieder of German Romantic composers Clara Schumann, Louise Reichardt, and Fanny Mendelssohn. For our first installment, join us for German Romantics: Clara, where we follow our protagonist as she reconciles with the end of a relationship. Through her vibrant fantasies, she considers the good, the bad, and the romantic in life.
The Pleiades Project is challenging how we define the “German Romantics” by insisting that we not forget the women.
German Romantics: Clara
While public interest in the life and works of composer Clara Schumann has increased over the past few decades, she still does not get the recognition that she rightly deserves.
Clara Schumann was a virtuosic pianist, composer and piano pedagogue. From the age of eleven, she maintained a sixty-one year concert career, touring throughout Europe. Her success as a concert artist secured essential income for her family, including her husband, the renowned composer Robert Schumann, who suffered from mental illness, and their eight children. She began composing as a child, and her compositions later included solo piano pieces, chamber music, choral works and Lieder.
For German Romantics: Clara, The Pleiades Project reconceptualizes the three Lieder of Clara Schumann’s Op. 12, which was originally part of a collection of twelve songs jointly published by Clara and Robert to poetry by Friedrich Rückert. In 1841, soon after their marriage, Robert urged Clara to collaborate on a project together. Clara began to work on the songs of Op. 12, although she found the compositional process challenging. As the set took shape, Clara was at the beginning stages of pregnancy, and was generally ambivalent about composing Lieder.
While these songs may have marked the beginning of Clara and Robert’s union, our protagonist navigates Op. 12 as she copes with the end of an important partnership. As she comes to terms with the conclusion of this cherished chapter of her life, her imagination travels to vibrant fantasy worlds of the past. In becoming the heroine of her own story, our protagonist reaches closure and enters a new world of possibilities.
Clara Schumann was a virtuosic pianist, composer and piano pedagogue. From the age of eleven, she maintained a sixty-one year concert career, touring throughout Europe. Her success as a concert artist secured essential income for her family, including her husband, the renowned composer Robert Schumann, who suffered from mental illness, and their eight children. She began composing as a child, and her compositions later included solo piano pieces, chamber music, choral works and Lieder.
For German Romantics: Clara, The Pleiades Project reconceptualizes the three Lieder of Clara Schumann’s Op. 12, which was originally part of a collection of twelve songs jointly published by Clara and Robert to poetry by Friedrich Rückert. In 1841, soon after their marriage, Robert urged Clara to collaborate on a project together. Clara began to work on the songs of Op. 12, although she found the compositional process challenging. As the set took shape, Clara was at the beginning stages of pregnancy, and was generally ambivalent about composing Lieder.
While these songs may have marked the beginning of Clara and Robert’s union, our protagonist navigates Op. 12 as she copes with the end of an important partnership. As she comes to terms with the conclusion of this cherished chapter of her life, her imagination travels to vibrant fantasy worlds of the past. In becoming the heroine of her own story, our protagonist reaches closure and enters a new world of possibilities.
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How does Invision work?When you go to the INVISION page, you will be asked to sign up for a plan. One of the plans is free and ALL Pleiades content is available under the free registration. Note, that all Pleiades content is available in The Box, it's the blackbox digital space within INVISION.
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Meet our leading lady
Noelle mcmurtry
Noelle McMurtry, soprano, is interested in the intersection of music and theater, particularly through art song, new music, early music, and cabaret to explore diverse and underrepresented perspectives. An avid recitalist, Noelle is most interested in innovative, thematic programming to create new contexts in which to experience the “canon,” particularly highlighting feminist perspectives and the marginalized works of historic female composers. Examples of her original programs include Ophelia and Her Sisters, Femme en fleurs, and The Heavenly Banquet, performed at various concert venues throughout NYC. Through her affiliation with The Cantanti Project, a classical singer-lead collective in NYC, Noelle has also performed on The Little Ghost, Ophelia Transformed, and Her Story, all programs focusing on the perspectives of women through song. To further her programming methodology, Noelle is pursuing a Doctorate in Musical Arts at Peabody Institute with an expected graduation date of 2021. As part of her Doctoral studies, Noelle created Portraits, a chamber concert exploring projected portraiture with works by Élisabeth Jacquet de la Guerre, Barbara Strozzi, Francis Poulenc, and Lacy Rose.
A frequent collaborator in new music, Noelle performed at The New Music On The Point Festival, premiering works by composers Sarah Grace Graves and Aaron Wyanski. In 2017-2018, she performed with Peabody’s Now Hear This Ensemble, presenting works by Scott Ordway and Kate Soper, most notably on the Millennium Stage at The Kennedy Center. In the 2019-2020 season, Noelle performed selections from Kaija Saariaho’s Émilie with Now Hear This!, as well as presented Kate Soper’s Here Be Sirens with IN Series (DC) at their inaugural Women Composers Festival. She also co-curated the Women Composers Festival Gala Concert, performing works by Louise Talma, Jessica Krash, and Caroline Shaw. In 2021, with New Alliance for Music Theatre and The Phillips Collection, Noelle will premiere a TBD-titled piece for soprano and alto saxophone, created by composer Jessica Krash and librettist Claudia Rosales, in conversation with the painting Canyon by Helen Frankenthaler.
Noelle currently serves as Director of Live Content at The Pleiades Project, a production platform for female-identifying artists through digital and live performance opportunities with a focus on vocal classical repertoire and opera. Through this collaboration, Noelle premiered as a soloist in Come down angels, a program exploring North and South American folk songs and spirituals from female perspectives, at the Multi- Cultural Sonic Evolution Festival (NYC) and the Alchemical Theatre Laboratory (NYC). In 2020, Noelle will make her film debut in German Romantics: Clara, interpreting Clara Schumann’s Op. 12 in collaboration with The Pleaides Project and IN Series.
In 2015, Noelle created an original cabaret show, Queen of Hearts, with comedian Emma Tattenbaum-Fine, exploring female perspectives on love through story and song. In 2016, Queen of Hearts was awarded a Career Development Grant from Peabody Institute to further develop its artistic and theatrical scope with subsequent performances at The Duplex Theater (NYC), with Inception to Exhibition (NYC), and Stillpointe Theater (Baltimore).
Highlights of her operatic credits also include Calisto in La Calisto, Drusilla in L’incoronazione di Poppea, Fairy in The Fairy Queen, Papagena in Die Zauberflöte and First Witch in Dido & Aeneas. In 2018, Noelle covered the title role of Krystyna Zywulska in the premiere of Jake Heggie’s Out of Darknesss: Two Remain with Peabody Chamber Opera. Noelle has also performed as a member of the Young Artist Program in Boston Early Music Festival’s production of Almira, shadowing the role of Edilia.
The breadth of Noelle’s artistic experience extends beyond her interests in performance and programming as well. She has a background in arts non-profit administration through her work as a grant writer and Interim Daily Manager at The Actors Theater Workshop (NYC) and Assistant to the Director of Manhattan Girls Chorus (NYC). In 2019, she was Assistant Director to Timothy Nelson in the IN Series production of Handel’s Serse. A student of Ah Young Hong, Noelle resides in Washington DC.
A frequent collaborator in new music, Noelle performed at The New Music On The Point Festival, premiering works by composers Sarah Grace Graves and Aaron Wyanski. In 2017-2018, she performed with Peabody’s Now Hear This Ensemble, presenting works by Scott Ordway and Kate Soper, most notably on the Millennium Stage at The Kennedy Center. In the 2019-2020 season, Noelle performed selections from Kaija Saariaho’s Émilie with Now Hear This!, as well as presented Kate Soper’s Here Be Sirens with IN Series (DC) at their inaugural Women Composers Festival. She also co-curated the Women Composers Festival Gala Concert, performing works by Louise Talma, Jessica Krash, and Caroline Shaw. In 2021, with New Alliance for Music Theatre and The Phillips Collection, Noelle will premiere a TBD-titled piece for soprano and alto saxophone, created by composer Jessica Krash and librettist Claudia Rosales, in conversation with the painting Canyon by Helen Frankenthaler.
Noelle currently serves as Director of Live Content at The Pleiades Project, a production platform for female-identifying artists through digital and live performance opportunities with a focus on vocal classical repertoire and opera. Through this collaboration, Noelle premiered as a soloist in Come down angels, a program exploring North and South American folk songs and spirituals from female perspectives, at the Multi- Cultural Sonic Evolution Festival (NYC) and the Alchemical Theatre Laboratory (NYC). In 2020, Noelle will make her film debut in German Romantics: Clara, interpreting Clara Schumann’s Op. 12 in collaboration with The Pleaides Project and IN Series.
In 2015, Noelle created an original cabaret show, Queen of Hearts, with comedian Emma Tattenbaum-Fine, exploring female perspectives on love through story and song. In 2016, Queen of Hearts was awarded a Career Development Grant from Peabody Institute to further develop its artistic and theatrical scope with subsequent performances at The Duplex Theater (NYC), with Inception to Exhibition (NYC), and Stillpointe Theater (Baltimore).
Highlights of her operatic credits also include Calisto in La Calisto, Drusilla in L’incoronazione di Poppea, Fairy in The Fairy Queen, Papagena in Die Zauberflöte and First Witch in Dido & Aeneas. In 2018, Noelle covered the title role of Krystyna Zywulska in the premiere of Jake Heggie’s Out of Darknesss: Two Remain with Peabody Chamber Opera. Noelle has also performed as a member of the Young Artist Program in Boston Early Music Festival’s production of Almira, shadowing the role of Edilia.
The breadth of Noelle’s artistic experience extends beyond her interests in performance and programming as well. She has a background in arts non-profit administration through her work as a grant writer and Interim Daily Manager at The Actors Theater Workshop (NYC) and Assistant to the Director of Manhattan Girls Chorus (NYC). In 2019, she was Assistant Director to Timothy Nelson in the IN Series production of Handel’s Serse. A student of Ah Young Hong, Noelle resides in Washington DC.
#PleiadesClara Competition
To celebrate the premiere of our digital miniseries German Romantics: Clara, we invited artists to get in on the Clara Schumann excitement! We asked they submit any art work, song, visual, anything that was inspired by Clara Schumann.
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We were happy to award Andrea Walker $200 for her winning entry Ihr Bildnes. She played and sang this piece by Clara Schumann and our judge was particularly impressed by how completely "she embodied the essence of Clara Schumann."
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Meet our judge-cree Carrico
Soprano Cree Carrico is “a notably versatile performer” and “sensational actress” who is continuously praised by critics for her “crystal clarity at the center of every note” making it “hard to watch anyone else when she’s on stage.” As a lead interpreter of 20th and 21st century works, Carrico collaborates closely with a number of composers and librettists and performs in many premières of contemporary pieces, including the New York première of Jake Heggie’s monodrama At the Statue of Venus. More recently she has created the roles of Zegner Daughter, Littler in the world première of Missy Mazzoli and Royce Vavrek’s Proving Up with Opera Omaha and subsequently at The Miller Theater in New York, and made her Fort Worth Opera début as Rosemary Kennedy in the world première of David T. Little and Royce Vavrek’s JFK, with subsequent performances with Montreal Opera. This season, Carrico performs as Anna in Tintypes with Artistree’s Music Theater Festival, and as Mabel in Pirates of Penzance with Opera Tampa. Additionally, she will perform as a soloist in Stray Bird with New Chamber Ballet at The Philips Collection in DC, and as a solist with the St Louis Philharmonic. Last season, Carrico reprised the role of Beatrice in Three Decembers with Nashville Opera, sang Adele in Die Fledermaus with Opera Tampa, the role La Fee in Cendrillon with Opera Company of Middlebury, Musetta in La bohèmewith Union Avenue Opera, and performed My Fair Lady: in Concert with the Utah Symphony. Say hello at www.creecarrico.com !
