Hailed as “a globe-trotter” and “singular harp virtuoso” by L’Union France and the Epoch times of New York, Mélanie Genin is known for her “desire to re-shape and re-invent classical music” (Justine Philippe, L’Union, France).
For this set at NMASS2018 Mélanie will present pieces she has scored for strings and percussion in collaboration with players from Austin, TX.
A native of France, Ms. Genin received her Bachelor’s degree and Master’s from the Conservatoire National Supérieur de Musique et de Danse de Paris, where she studied with Isabelle Moretti. She was then selected as one of only two recipients of a Bruni-Sarkosy Foundation scholarship to study at The Juilliard School in New York with Nancy Allen. She subsequently became the first harpist to ever be admitted into the Artist Diploma program at The Manhattan School of Music, where she studied under the guidance of the late Deborah Hoffman, Susan Jolles and Mariko Anraku. In 2014 she was named the only harpist finalist of the Concert Artist Guild competition and was also a semi-finalist of the Young Concert Artist series in New York.
Art is subjective. It can be empowering, it can be an escape, beauty, ugliness, everything, anything… in that sense it’s not so different from many of the things surrounding us in our society: politics, social media, health care, GMOs, smoothies…
One thing that art should always fulfill is to unite. I believe art is particularly empowering when it is abstract because you come and you connect. You receive what you’re given and you process it through your perception, shaped and chiseled by your personality, your story, your imagination. Because the point is to connect together, to listen, to sharpen our critical sense, to make art – the great gift of humanity – ours and to live in it. – Mélanie Genin
See and hear Mélanie Genin perform at Ground Floor Theatre at 10 PM on Saturday, July 20.