Founded by Artistic Director Amanda Keil, the early music company Musica Nuova brings new perspectives to Baroque music by heightening the dramatic qualities intrinsic to the repertoire. Through staging and storytelling, Musica Nuova weaves storylines based on the meaning of the songs. The goal of the company is to create performances that transcend the standard concert experience of early music, providing a framework to engage newcomers and offer a new level of understanding to experienced listeners.
 
Musica Nuova takes its name from the revolutionary book of songs Le Nuove Musiche, published in 1602 by Florentine composer Giulio Caccini. The book marked a new way of singing that brings out the meaning of the words through ornamentation, varied rhythmic textures, and expressive harmonies. These dramatic songs heralded the beginnings of opera, and marked a turning point in the development of solo song. Taking these songs as a starting point, Musica Nuova expands their stories into timeless narratives.
 
During its initial years in Boston, Musica Nuova was presented on concert series with the Society for Historically Informed Performance (SoHIP), Bates College, MIT Chapel, Boston Early Music Festival Fringe Concerts, and Newton Library, and was Ensemble-in-Residence at the Amherst Early Music Festival. In July 2012, Artistic Director Amanda Keil and harpsichordist Gabriel Shuford travelled to the International Early Music Festival in Riga, Latvia, on the invitation of the U.S. Consulate. 2011-12 marked Musica Nuova’s full debut season in New York, including its first full-length opera, Il Ballo delle Ingrate.



photo credit: Corey Weaver

Mezzo-soprano Amanda Keil sings repertoire that spans over 800 years, from medieval
chant to contemporary opera, Baroque monody to operatic mainstays. She has performed
with companies such as Dicapo Opera, Boston Camerata, Guerilla Opera, Oregon Bach
Festival, and on tour with Musica Nuova in the Northeast and abroad. Ms. Keil created the
roles of Hillary Clinton and Gwen Ifill in the world premiere performances and recording
of Say it Ain’t so Joe, by Curtis K. Hughes, an opera based on the 2008 vice-presidential
debates. As an arts journalist she writes a column on entrepreneurialism for Classical
Singer magazine, reviews for Bachtrack.com, and writes regularly for OPERA America, and
her blog, thousandfoldechocom.
 
As founder and artistic director of Musica Nuova, Ms. Keil curates unconventional
programs of early music and produces performances in unexpected venues. Musica Nuova
has been Ensemble in Residence at Amherst Early Music and was featured on the Society
for Historically Informed Performance Summer Concert Series. Ms. Keil holds a masters
degree in voice and historical performance from Boston University and a bachelors degree
in French horn from The Hartt School.

Soprano Maeve Höglund was last seen performing at LPR with Gotham Chamber Opera at their yearly Orientale in September. Other performances this season include Daphne in Apollo e Daphne with Pocket Opera, Rose in The Clever Mistress, Lucrezia in My Last Duchess and her debut with Gotham Chamber Opera in Mozart’s Il sogno di Scipione. During the 2010-2011 season, Maeve was a soloist for Mozart’s Requiem with American Classical Orchestra and Wynton Marsalis’ Mass with the Jazz at Lincoln center Orchestra. In addition, she sang on the professional recording of Stefan Weisman’s Darkling, released by Albany records as well as the songs of Victor Herbert released on New World Records. Maeve’s upcoming engagements include the role of Atilia in Cavalli’s Eliogabalo with Gotham Chamber Opera and will appear as a soloist for the première of Paul Moravec’s The Blizzard Voices at Carnegie Hall.

Hailed by Opera News for her “best all-around performance” in Handel’s Ariodante (Princeton Festival), soprano Marcy Richardson recently made her Carnegie Hall debut singing Kurt Weill and Mozart selections in the Best Buddies Benefit Concert, sang Handel’s Messiah in Galway, Ireland, premiered the role of Ani King George in the burlesque new music opera “The Enchanted Organ” at Dixon Place in New York, and sang the role of Fiordiligi in the premiere of Jonathan Dawe’s “Cosi Faran Tutti” at the Italian Center at Columbia University. She has performed with the New Composers Alliance Summer Festival, New York Festival of Song (NEXT-New Songs Series), Opera On Tap, Toledo Opera, Baltimore Opera, Central City Opera, Opera Vivente, St. Petersburg Opera, Vertical Player Repertory, OperaMission, Orlando Opera, Lyrique-en-Mer in Belle-Île, France, the Lucerne Festival, The Mimesis Ensemble, MidAmerica Productions at Avery Fisher and Alice Tully Hall, and has won awards from the Kurt Weill Foundation, Gerda Lissner Foundation, and the Metropolitan Opera National Council. She is originally from Grosse Pointe, MI and a graduate of the Indiana University Jacobs School of Music. Please visit www.marcyrichardson.com

Stage Director Beth Greenberg is renowned for her work at the New York City Opera. For the Lincoln Center company she’s directed original mainstage productions of Tales of Hoffmann and Turandot, as well as revivals including Der Rosenkavalier, Tosca, La Traviata, Intermezzo and La Boheme. Across the river, aboard an oil tanker moored in Red Hook, Brooklyn, she recently directed the site-specific Il Tabarro.
 
Beth Greenberg has earned a solid reputation for her collaborations with contemporary composers. Upcoming new productions include the professional World Premiere of Lori Laitman’s The Scarlet Letter for Denver’s Opera Colorado, starring Elizabeth Futral.
 
She earned a Fulbright to Germany where she apprenticed with Gotz Friedrich at Berlin’s Deutsche Oper. As an educator, she’s been a Mentor Director for the SDC (Stage Directors and Choreographers) Foundation, and has taught Master Classes at Mannes and Malibu’s SongFest. She is a graduate of the University of Michigan School of Music and Brooklyn College.