Mary Elizabeth Mackenzie, Soprano
10.12.11 | Review of Ekmeles concert
Mary and mentor Lucy Shelton were specifically mentioned in Bruce Hodges' review of the Ekmeles concert at Issue Project Room:
"I was most struck with Pascal Dusapin’s Two Walking, performed with rhapsodic exactitude by Mary Mackenzie and Lucy Shelton, often circling each other in hard-to-sing microtones."
05.02.11 | Review of Continuum's 45th Anniversary Concert
Mary recently appeared with the Continuum Ensemble in the final concert of their 45th season, premiering three new works: Ileana Perez-Velasquez's Idolos del Sueño, Carman Moore's SHE, and Wang Jie's A Longing for Spring.
"Mary Elizabeth Mackenzie, an agile soprano with a lively, flexible interpretive personality, was the communicative soloist in the vocal works. The first, Carman Moore’s “SHE (An Appreciation)” cycle, is a 2010 cradle-to-grave paean to women that demands much of a singer. The text moves from the random syllables of infancy through teenage narcissism and motherly maturity to the wisdom of age, and the music evolves similarly, with touches of energy and theatricality giving way to intense lyricism and a touch of frailty.
“A Longing for Spring” (2011), Wang Jie’s setting of an eighth-century poem by Tu Fu, in both Chinese and English (with artful projections showing the texts in both languages), uses the voice lyrically, sometimes with a florid, even athletic chromaticism that lets it gracefully wind through the colorful violin, clarinet and piano scoring. And Ileana Perez Velázquez in “Idolos del Sueño,” for the same instrumentation with cello added, had Ms. Mackenzie sing with an otherworldly quality mirrored in the accompaniment and sounding like a musical expression of the Latin American literary form magical realism."
01.26.11 | Mary appears with Da Capo Chamber Players!
NYT Review: Mary recently appeared with the Da Capo Chamber Players, singing Samuel Adler's Primavera Amarilla and CantoV.
12.08.10 | Talea Ensemble Boulez Celebration Reviewed in the NY Times!
Mary had the opportunity to perform again with the Talea Ensemble, but this time, Pierre Boulez was there to coach the group on the pieces they were to perform.
The concert was a great success and received an excellent review in the Times:
"And in the first two of Mr. Boulez’s three “Improvisations sur Mallarmé” (1957) the soprano Mary Elizabeth Mackenzie sang the angular vocal line with an alluring agility against a backdrop laced with mildly exotic percussion timbres."
To read the entire review, click on the link below!
12.08.10 | Boulez Review from MusicWeb International
"Soprano Mary Elizabeth Mackenzie seemed close to ideal in the two Improvisations sur Mallarmé, in which Boulez sets the great poet’s enigmatic texts to (at the time) equally enigmatic sounds. (The two here would eventually find their way into Boulez’s longer Pli selon pli—“fold by fold.”) Filling each syllable with an icy sensuality (not as oxymoronic as it might seem), Mackenzie melded with the musicians in a precise, intelligent performance that had many in the audience cheering." - Bruce Hodges
10.18.10 | Cracked Orlando Review
After three sold-out performances, Jonathan Dawe's Cracked Orlando received an excellent review online at Musicweb.
04.20.10 | New York Times Review of M is for Man, Music, Mozart
Mary's performance of Andriessen's M is for Man, Music, Mozart with the American Contemporary Music Ensemble was reviewed in the New York Times!
"The second half of the program was devoted to “M is for Man, Music, Mozart” (1991), Mr. Andriessen’s whimsical soundtrack for a 30-minute film by Peter Greenaway. The film, shown during the American ensemble’s performance, is a weird but beautifully imagined fantasy on how the creation of man led inevitably to Mozart, and Mr. Andriessen’s score, for woodwinds, brasses, piano, bass and soprano, illuminates it perfectly. With Jeffrey Milarsky conducting, the ensemble gave the punchy, intricate score a tight, viscerally powerful performance, and Mary Elizabeth Mackenzie offered a lovely account of the jazz-inflected soprano line." - Allan Kozinn
03.17.10 | Hypermusic Review from CultureLab blog
03.09.10 | Article about Hypermusic in The Huffington Post
Our artist/director, Matthew Ritchie, writes a great article about our journey!
10.07.09 | Mary Reviewed in the New York Times!
Mary's recent performance of Harrison Birtwistle's Three Settings of Celan with the Juillard School's AXIOM Ensemble received an excellent review from the New York Times!
"Mr. Birtwistle’s “Celan” songs, though far simpler and more transparent, require a soprano of extraordinary agility and concentration. They had one here in Mary Elizabeth Mackenzie, whose performance extended well beyond her strong, appealing singing to inhabit her eyes and other features. When her voice struck a common tone with one of the two clarinet lines that coiled around it, the results induced shivers." - Steve Smith
Click the link below for the full review of the concert.
03.16.09 | Cosi Reviews are in!
Madison Opera's production of Mozart's Cosi fan tutte received great reviews from three Madison papers.
"As the saucy soprano chambermaid, Despina, Madison native Mary Elizabeth Mackenzie is no less than adorable, sneaking chocolate while Dorabella rages and frequently throwing her feather duster over her shoulder in surprise or disgust. A versatile, charming singer, Mackenize adds a “sh” lisp and a bleating, nasal tone when posing as the quack Dr. Mesmer to amusing effect." - Lindsay Christians, 77 Square
"Mary Elizabeth Mackenzie had the most comical role as the headstrong, flighty maid Despina. Brilliant voice, funny doctor and notary costumes. The traditional nasal voice for those disguised characters probably can’t be avoided." - John Aehl, Wisconsin State Journal
Visit the Madison Opera Blog for links to the full reviews!
03.11.09 | Interview with Madison Magazine Arts Blog
"Maid in Madison"
Katie Vaughan, an associate editor, spoke with Mary about growing up in Madison, and the process of preparing for Despina.
01.22.09 | Mary reviewed in the Chicago Sun-Times
On her performance of Danielpour's Sonnets to Orpheus: "Soprano Mary Mackenzie (in an ivory gown that had a hint of classical Greece about it) was the radiant soloist who delivered immensely varied and expressive renderings of the cycle's six songs."
Click on the link to read about the entire concert.
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