Selected scenes from Grey Grant's Michigan Trees: A Guide to the Trees of Michigan and the Great Lakes Region. Audio from live premiere performance, August 29, 2019, at the Historic Ypsilanti Freighthouse, in Ypsilanti, Michigan.

About the show:

Michigan Trees: A Guide to the Trees of Michigan and the Great Lakes Region is a new folk opera for classical and folk vocalists, steeped in mythos and Michigan, all the while remaining relevant to the present-day experiences of trans folks. In the opera, we follow the journey of Orna, a trans-woman, as she grapples with self-acceptance. She travels to the north of Michigan, guided by the Mother of Trees, to transform into the white pine that sits upon Chapel Rock at the edge of Lake Superior, overlooking it all.

Creative Team:

Grey Grant - Composer, Librettist

Karl Ronneburg - Director, Music Director, Dramaturg

Peter Littlejohn - Sound Design, mixing, mastering

Grey Grant - Cover Art

Cast:

Allison Prost - Orna, As She Sees Herself

Grey Grant - Orna, As She Feels She is Seen

Kate Moss, Kara Huckabone, Samantha Kao - Mother of Trees

Musicians:

Converge New Music: Meg Rohrer, Malhar Kute - violins; Ryan McDonald - viola; Hanna Brooke Rumora - cello

Danielle Gonzalez, Sofia Carbonara - percussion

Produced by Fifth Wall Performing Arts, supported in part by the School of Music, Theater, and Dance Meta Weiser EXCEL Fund

Part 10 - Finally, upon the rock, overlooking it all. / The Second Transformation

short songs to sing aloud
by Grey Grant

1. Fall Variation, September 22, 2018

Leandra Ramm, Vocalist & Piano

Fall Variation, September 22, 2018

short songs to sing aloud
by Grey Grant

2. Summer Variation, June 16, 2018

Leandra Ramm, Vocalist & Piano

Summer Variation, June 16, 2018

short songs to sing aloud
by Grey Grant

3. Spring Variation, March 20, 2019

Leandra Ramm, Vocalist & Piano

Spring Variation, March 20, 2019

short songs to sing aloud
by Grey Grant

4. Mild-Winter Variation, December 21, 2018

Leandra Ramm, Vocalist & Piano

Mild-Winter Variation, December 21, 2018

Three Months In by Grey Grant
Performed by Leandra Ramm, voice and piano 

Written in response to the COVID-19 Pandemic, Three Months In, expresses the emotions of living alone during the isolating time of the first three months of quarantine. This piece and performance was premiered by The Yonder Window Theater Company Creative Crusade in the summer of 2020. The prompt was to compose a piece that is your “story of solitude”. The authentic and honest emotions expressed in this piece can relate to many who have had their lives abruptly changed because of the Pandemic. 

Written in a musical theatre style, this premiere performance is sung and self-accompanied by mezzo-soprano Leandra Ramm from her home in California.

Three Months In

Orchestral reading of "In a Midwest Field in January, Just to Get Out of the House," composed for Annika Socolofsky, by Grey Rose Grant.

Program note:
Memory outlives kindnesses, outlives cruelties, outlives regenerative actions, outlives destruc- tive actions, outlives joys, outlives sadnesses. Memory outlives death, until memory dies. We will die at least twice. Until then, we preoccupy ourselves with creation. Many thanks to everyone who I have been in conversation with throughout the duration of this composition process. Special thanks to Annika for your friendship and musicianship and to Professor Chambers for your guidance throughout this compositional process and throughout the past (nearly) 10 years. - February 2022.

Words:
and the hands that were held will be held again,
and the lake-tides will swell with the wind’s returning,
and the body knows to build itself back,
and the bodies below will someday bloom,
and the almanac knows when life resumes.

No, no, no you do not understand,
these are queer hearts and queerer hands;
homeowners of tender-button-tongues 
singing praise to the summering-sun.
No, no, no, there is nothing to end,
these gardens return again and again.
Lichen and blueberries will always rise,
remember, memory often lies.

and the hearts in the hands of distant friends,
and the friends with the hearts holding on by the end of a thread,
and communities know how to go and regrow,
and gathering places whither and wane,
so we forego gathering, convinced we’ll be the same.

No, no, no, there’s nothing wrong here
aside from the simmering, soon-to-come fear.
Renters lose and landlords win,
and municipal codes deem housing a sin.
No, no, no, there is nothing but ends,
usually frayed, too tangled to mend.
Parents die and children grow,
and we don’t know what we don’t know.

In A Midwest Field In January, Just to Get Out of The House for voice and orchestra

Contemplative chamber concerto for violin and ensemble. 2021

Tune For Entering November

I Wore My Mother's Dress

4/28/19

Stones from Lake Superior

Leandra Ramm, mezzo-soprano
Jonathan Keplinger, pianist
Dana Kaufman, composer
Tom Swift, lyrics
Katty Verse, audio mastering

The Kardashians have achieved collective fame through their often scandalous endeavors, a family which is truly “famous for being famous.” Their various achievements include deceased patriarch Robert Kardashian’s questionable involvement in the O.J.
Simpson trial; Kris Jenner’s marriage to, and divorce from, Olympic athlete Caitlyn—then Bruce—Jenner; myriad plastic surgeries and subsequent risqué photo shoots; Kim Kardashian’s all-time best-selling sex tape and marriage to Kanye West; Bruce Jenner’s
 gender transition to Caitlyn Jenner; and their popular show Keeping Up With The Kardashians, along with its multitude of spinoffs. Fame, accumulated.

Kardashian joy (i.e., a collaboration with a fashion designer) and Kardashian tragedy (i.e., the hospitalization and demise of an addict in the family) receive equal airtime and marketing; all is entertainment. But while the Kardashians are known for glitz, glamour, their aggressive social media presence and affinity for plastic surgery, they are much more than their “Botoxiness.”Beyond this “Botoxiness” lie intricately woven narratives and a dark dramedy of divorce, sex, gender dysphoria, betrayal, complex conceptions of femininity and sexuality, the relatively new art form that is reality TV and the benefits and perils of fame.
 
Cycle Kardashian is comprised almost entirely of quotes by three members of the Kardashian clan: Kim Kardashian, Kris Jenner and Caitlyn Jenner. The text of “Kim” is taken from interview excerpts regarding the armed robbery of her Paris apartment in October 2016—while also implying that she has a perpetually captivated and trapped audience—and references a racially-charged photograph in which she balances a champagne glass on her behind. “Kris” uses Kris Jenner’s comments on an article about ex-husband 
Caitlyn Jenner in Vogue, referencing a relationship she sees as damaged by Caitlyn’s gender transition and the couple’s divorce. Finally, “Caitlyn” is comprised of quotes by Caitlyn Jenner regarding gender dysphoria and her transition; the movement is composed for a
gender-neutral voice.

Ultimately, I aim to depict one of the world’s most powerful families, which has captured the attention of the general public; the song cycle centers on family, the human condition and the universality of the issues the Kardashians face—or, perhaps, craft.
-Dana Kaufman

Cycle Kardashian - III. Caitlyn

I write music, and I do some singing, and some dancing. It's real fun.

In A Midwest Field In January, Just to Get Out of The House for voice and orchestra

Grey Rose Noise

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