Marisa Michelson

MARISA MICHELSON is a singer, improviser, and composer of Musicals, Choral Works, and Music-Theatre compelled by the expressive capacities of the human voice. With her ensemble, Constellation Chor || an immersion in voice, movement and spirit, which she founded and directed, she collaborated with Lincoln Center, Spectrum, The Kitchen, National Sawdust, Pioneer Works, Claire Chase, the New York Philharmonic, Harvard Art Lab, Maria Popova, and Paola Prestini and traveled to Greece and Iceland to sing. Her off-Broadway musicals and oratorios include Tamar of the River (two Drama Desk Nominations), One Thousand Nights and One Day and Naamah’s Ark, an oratorio for five choirs. Awards, grants & residencies include: Jonathan Larson Award, National Endowment for the Arts, New Dramatists, Eric Salzman Award for Music-Theater, the Lower Manhattan Cultural Council, National Sawdust, MacDowell, Ucross, Modern Accord Depot, New Dramatists.

Marisa is also an active somatic voice practitioner with many students on Broadway and pursuing other careers in the healing arts. She holds the highest diploma level from the Libero Canto School of Singing and has founded the School of Vocal De-Armoring, a somatic, holistic approach to singing and voice-giving that connects us more intimately with the layered dimensions of Self.

Marisa’s compositions are available on major streaming platforms. She lives, works, and teaches in upstate New York. www.marisamichelson.com

Still Life With Toe Shoes

by Joshua H. Cohen and Marisa Michelson

When a painter visits a ballet class to paint the dancers, the young women start to see themselves through his eyes. Old alliances are broken, rivalries are upended, and one girl falls hard for the painter and must choose to stay in herself, in her own life, or else to fly off after him and become someone new. Still Life With Toe Shoes tells its story through an innovative blend of music, dance, and dialogue.