CONSTELLATION CHOR is a vocal performance ensemble comprising composers, singers, dancers and actors, and founded by music-theatre and interdisciplinary choral composer Marisa Michelson. The ensemble performs internationally and in New York City, and has expanded organically into the NYC new music community, most recently collaborating with the New York Philharmonic at David Geffen Hall, Lincoln Center.

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Founded in 2016, Constellation Chor improvises and performs interdisciplinary pieces composed by Michelson, as well as collaborating with other composers, choreographers, directors, and mindfulness practitioners.

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In residence at the historic Judson Memorial Church, the Chor engages at the intersection of voice, movement, healing, improvisation meditation, storytelling, Oliveros’ Deep Listening, and music-theatre.  Researching the interaction of mind/body/spirit practices with virtuosic singing, the Chor also explores performer as truth-seeker/shaman, and the performance as an invitation to enter into an intimate relationship with the moment and each other.

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In September 2018, the Chor premiered Ashley Fure’s Filament with the New York Philharmonic at Lincoln Center as the 15 “moving voices.”

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Additional projects include: Marisa Michelson’s Desire|Divinity Project (Director Ethan Heard; Choreographer: Emma Jaster) developed with Heartbeat Opera, winner of the Salzman Award for Music-Theatre, and supported by the Lower Manhattan Cultural Council; improvised site-specific pieces with Women Between Arts, Crowded Outlet, Alchemical Theatre, Harpa Opera Center in Reykjavik, Iceland. 

Upcoming performances: Spectrum; The Kitchen; Vovousa Festival in Greece. 

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Constellation Chor’s internationally and vocally diverse array of talent hails from Greece, Portugal, Hungary, Austria, Korea, and the US, and has been seen on stages from New York to Dubai and BAM to Broadway. Chor members include Marisa Michelson, Chad Goodridge, Nikko Benson, Jen Anaya, Tamrin Goldberg, Shawn Shafner, Kalli Siamidou, Luisa Muhr, Sarah Beth Pfeifer and Heath Saunders.  Orbiting members include Chaesong Kim, Raphael Sacks, Sara Serpa, Chanan Ben Simon, Kinga Cserjesi, Marina Pires, Danyel Fulton. 

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*Chor from the Latin Cor meaning: heart, soul, mind; and the Greek Khoros meaning: to dance in a circle, chor is also meant to evoke the core, the center and the essence. Chor is in“chorus” and “choreography.”  The gestures and impulses we are working with might become voice or they might become movement.