Upcoming Performances
Mendelssohn Lobgesang, Promusica Chamber Orchestra
Joined by the Capital University Chapel Choir, Music Director David Danzmayr, tenor Daniel Mcgrew and Soprano Julia VanDoren. Mendelssohn’s powerful symphony-cantata, “Lobgesang” (“Hymn of Praise”) will be performed—the composer’s most ambitious symphony achievement - paired with Giya Kancheli’s hauntingly beautiful Midday Prayers. Tickets HERE
Mendelssohn Lobgesang, Promusica Chamber Orchestra
Joined by the Capital University Chapel Choir, Music Director David Danzmayr, tenor Daniel Mcgrew and Soprano Julia VanDoren. Mendelssohn’s powerful symphony-cantata, “Lobgesang” (“Hymn of Praise”) will be performed—the composer’s most ambitious symphony achievement - paired with Giya Kancheli’s hauntingly beautiful Midday Prayers. Tickets HERE
NYC songSLAM
Sparks & Wiry Cries will produce its flagship songSLAM at National Sawdust in Brooklyn, NY. Fashioned after poetry slams and storytelling events, teams of composers and performers compete for $2,000 audience-awarded cash prizes with new art song premieres. Additionally, last year’s commission prize winner, composer Laura Nevitt, will premiere her new cycle. Martha is Co-Director/Founder of Sparks & Wiry Cries along with pianist Erika Switzer.
sparksLIVE presents Meltdown at National Sawdust
Sparks & Wiry Cries will produce its flagship songSLAM at National Sawdust in Brooklyn, NY. Fashioned after poetry slams and storytelling events, teams of composers and performers compete for $2,000 audience-awarded cash prizes with new art song premieres. Additionally, last year’s commission prize winner, composer Laura Nevitt, will premiere her new cycle. Martha is Co-Director/Founder of Sparks & Wiry Cries along with pianist Erika Switzer.
Oxford International Song and Sparks & Wiry Cries Residency at Bard College
Martha will will be joined by Sholto Kynoch, Artistic Director of the renowned Oxford International Song Festival and fellow Co-Director Erika Switzer of Sparks & Wiry Cries for a residency at Bard College and Conservatory of Music.
Oxford International Song and Sparks & Wiry Cries Residency at Bard College
Martha will will be joined by Sholto Kynoch, Artistic Director of the renowned Oxford International Song Festival and fellow Co-Director Erika Switzer of Sparks & Wiry Cries for a residency at Ithaca College Center for Music, culminating in a recital featuring students, guests and faculty of the Center for Music.
Mahler’s Second Symphony, Charleston Symphony
Martha joins Mikhail Agrest, Conductor and the Charleston Symphony Orchestra and Chorus (Nicholas Quardokus, Director) for a performance of Mahler’s Second Symphony. Tickets can be found HERE
Messiah Binghamton Downtown Singers
On Saturday, December 14th, Martha will join three other soloists and the Binghamton Downtown Singers for their annual performance of the Messiah.
NYC songSLAM and sparksLIVE recording: Blue Building
Sparks & Wiry Cries will produce its flagship songSLAM at National Sawdust in Brooklyn, NY. Fashioned after poetry slams and storytelling events, teams of composers and performers compete for $2,000 audience-awarded cash prizes with new art song premieres. Additionally, last year’s commission prize winner, composer Laura Nevitt, will premiere her new cycle. Martha is Co-Director/Founder of Sparks & Wiry Cries along with pianist Erika Switzer.
Mozart Exultate Jubilate, Ithaca College Chamber Orchestra
On November 18th, Martha will sing Mozart’s Exultate Jubilate with the Ithaca College Chamber Orchestra. This is a free event!
Recital Tour with Graham Johnson: Pepperdine University
Martha resumes her longtime collaboration with pianist Graham Johnson for the third of three residencies at major music schools in North America, this one culminating in a recital on Nov. 9th in Raitt Hall. Songs of Schubert, Wolf, Mendelssohn, Hensel, and Loewe.
Recital Tour with Graham Johnson: University of Southern California
Martha resumes her longtime collaboration with pianist Graham Johnson for the second of three residencies at major music schools in North America, this one culminating in a recital on Nov. 8th at Noon. Songs of Schubert, Wolf, Mendelssohn, Hensel, and Loewe.
Recital Tour with Graham Johnson: Boston Conservatory
Martha resumes her longtime collaboration with pianist Graham Johnson for the first of three residencies at major music schools in North America, this one culminating in a recital on Nov. 3rd at 3pm in Suelly Hall. Songs of Schubert, Wolf, Mendelssohn, Hensel, and Loewe.
Malmgren Concert Series: Each Moment Radiant
Martha joins the Malmgren Concert Series of Hendricks Chapel for a profoundly moving concert on Sunday, October 20th at 4 PM, marking the beginning of Remembrance Week (October 20-26). The event features the world premiere of “Each Moment Radiant,” a newly commissioned chamber work by composer Kurt Erickson and poet Brian Turner commemorating the Pan Am Flight 103 Air Disaster.
Finger Lakes Chamber Music Society
On Sunday, September 15th, Martha Guth will join the Finger Lakes Chamber Ensemble for a program of Schubert and Brahms. Tickets can be found here fingerlakeschamberensemble.com/tickets
Collaborative Piano Institute- Vocal Academy Residency
Martha is a returning faculty member at the Collaborative Piano Institute’s Vocal Academy in Baton Rouge, Louisiana working with the musicians in a short residency.
SONGFEST Opening Recital
Martha joins pianist Javier Arrebola, to give the opening recital at SongFest, this year at Pomona College just outside Los Angeles in Claremont, California, in celebration of their new appointments as Co-Artistic Directors of SongFest. Martha will be in residence with SongFest from June 1st-19th. More information about SongFest can be found HERE.
Mobile Symphony Orchestra
Martha returns to the Mobile Symphony under the Baton of Scott Speck to perfrom the soprano solo’s in Mozart’s requeim with Colleagues Susan Platts, Dann Coakwell, and Kevin Deas. More informatio nand tickets can be found HERE.
Mobile Symphony Orchestra
Martha returns to the Mobile Symphony under the Baton of Scott Speck to perfrom the soprano solo’s in Mozart’s requeim with Colleagues Susan Platts, Dann Coakwell, and Kevin Deas. More informatio nand tickets can be found HERE.
Baton Rouge Symphony Orchestra
Martha joins Maestra Tania Miller as soprano soloist for Haydn’s Creation with the Baton Rouge Symphony Orchestra. more information and tickets can be found HERE.
Songs in Flight
Martha joins as Co-Director of Sparks & Wiry Cries and Co-producer for a repeat performance of Songs in Flight at Wheaton College. Pulitzer Prize-, MacArthur Genius Grant-, and Grammy Award-winning artist Rhiannon Giddens, alongside other internationally acclaimed and award-winning artists soprano Karen Slack, countertenor Reginald Mobley, baritone Markel Reed, and pianist Paul Sánchez will present, award-winning composer Shawn E. Okpebholo song cycle, “Songs in Flight”, commissioned and conceived by Sparks & Wiry Cries. This powerful work is inspired by “Freedom on the Move,” a database spearheaded by Cornell University comprising over 30,000 newspaper advertisements placed by North American enslavers to aid in the capture of runaway enslaved people. The New York Times aptly describes the composition as one that “zeroes in on… the simultaneous presence of good and evil, perseverance and depravity, combining beauty and harshness.” Tickets for this event can be found HERE.
After Dinner Mint: Ithaca College Faculty Recital
Martha is joined by members of the Ithaca College Music Faculty in a recital of vocal chamber music for an After Dinner Mint recital. She will perform Juhi Bansal’s piece Love, Loss and Exile alongside cellist Greg Hesselink pianist/conductor/composer Khyle Wooten.
VIRTUAL EVENT: The Metropolitan Museum of Art
In January 2023, MetLiveArts presented the premiere of Shawn E. Okpebholo and Tsitsi Ella Jaji's groundbreaking song cycle Songs in Flight, based on early US newspaper ads seeking the recapture of self-emancipated enslaved people, now enshrined in Cornell University's massive "Freedom on the Move" database. The premiere, which included a powerhouse team of performers from the opera world's most prominent stages, was praised for "[finding] uncommon power in the humble format of folk and art songs" (The New York Times). Just over a year after Songs in Flight's Met premiere, The Metropolitan Museum of Art will host a special virtual conversation with the team that made the first performance possible: composer Shawn E. Okpebholo, librettist Tsitsi Ella Jaji, countertenor Reginald Mobley, and Martha Guth, co-director of commissioning body Sparks & Wiry Cries. Join them for a discussion of the piece's inspirations, process, and staying power, moderated by The Met's Lulu C. and Anthony W. Wang General Manager of Live Arts, Limor Tomer. To learn more about Songs in Flight, view the premiere performance's program or visit the Sparks & Wiry Cries website. Register for this event HERE.
Canadian Museum of Human Rights
As part of the Dream Big Conference in Winnipeg, Canada, a conference devoted to Collaborative pianists, Martha will join friend and long time musical partner, pianist Erika Switzer as part of a Multi-media evening concert, featuring 50 mini-musical events hosted by Shelagh Rogers, and Dr. Jillian Horton, and curated by pianist Valerie Dueck at the Canadian Museum for Human Rights (the first museum of it’s kind in the world). the CMHR’s galleries will come alive with 40 extraordinary mini‐performances by 40 top classical musicians from around the globe. This event, a collaboration between the Museum and the University of Manitoba, will pair music with specific human rights themes, spotlighting the artistic and tangible impacts music can have on social justice.
Only Voice Remains
Sparks & Wiry Cries will produce its flagship songSLAM at National Sawdust in Brooklyn, NY. Fashioned after poetry slams and storytelling events, teams of composers and performers compete for $2,000 audience-awarded cash prizes with new art song premieres. Additionally, last year’s commission prize winner, composer Laura Nevitt, will premiere her new cycle. Martha is Co-Director/Founder of Sparks & Wiry Cries along with pianist Erika Switzer.
NYC songSLAM
Sparks & Wiry Cries will produce its flagship songSLAM at National Sawdust in Brooklyn, NY. Fashioned after poetry slams and storytelling events, teams of composers and performers compete for $2,000 audience-awarded cash prizes with new art song premieres. Additionally, last year’s commission prize winner, composer Laura Nevitt, will premiere her new cycle. Martha is Co-Director/Founder of Sparks & Wiry Cries along with pianist Erika Switzer.
Handel’s Messiah:
Martha will sing the soprano solos in a holiday favorite close to home in Handel’s Messiah with the Binghamton Downton Singers, More information and tickets can be found HERE
Chorus of Westerly: Bach Magnificat
Martha will sing the soprano solos in the Bach Magnificat close with the Chorus of Westerly, in Westerly Rhode Island in their beautiful George Kent Performance Hall. More information and tickets can be found HERE.
Orchestra 2001
Martha will give the world premiere of Roberto Sierra’s Canciones de Amor with texts by Julia de Burgos in a concert entitled “Conexiones Puerto Rico”, conducted by Mark Loria. More information and tickets can be purchased HERE.
Oxford International Song Festival
Martha is joined by legendary pianist and scholar Graham Johnson and Baritone Stephan Loges for a lecture recital of Schubert songs in 1823 in Europe’s oldest recital hall: The Holywell Music Room. More information and tickets can be found HERE.
London Recital
Martha is joined by renowned pianist Thomasz Lis, for a Recital of Fauré, Copland and Schumann in London at the Brompton Oratory. Tickets can be purchased HERE.
Recital Tour - Peabody Conservatory of Music, Baltimore, MD
Martha is joined by renowned pianist Graham Johnson, for a North American recital and masterclass tour of Colleges and Univeristies.
Recital Tour - Philips Exeter Academy, Exeter, NH
Martha is joined by renowned pianist Graham Johnson, for a North American recital and masterclass tour of Colleges and Univeristies.
Recital Tour - University of Wisconsin Madison, Madison, WI
Martha is joined by renowned pianist Graham Johnson, for a North American recital and masterclass tour of Colleges and Univeristies.
Recital Tour - University of Toronto, Toronto, Canada
Martha is joined by renowned pianist Graham Johnson, for a North American recital and masterclass tour of Colleges and Univeristies.
sparksLIVE: Songs in Flight
Sparks & Wiry Cries will partner with the Philadelphia Chamber Music Society to produce the second performance of ‘Songs in Flight’ at the Kimmel Center in Philadelphia. Artists include Rhiannon Giddens, Karen Slack, Will Liverman, Reginald Mobley, Howard Watkins, Shawn Okpebholo, Tsitsi Ella Jaji, and Edward Baptist. Martha is Co-Director/Founder of Sparks & Wiry Cries along with pianist Erika Switzer.
sparksLIVE: 7th Annual songSLAM and songSLAM Commission
Sparks & Wiry Cries will produce its flagship songSLAM at the DiMenna Center for Classical Music. Fashioned after poetry slams and storytelling events, teams of composers and performers compete for $2,000 audience-awarded cash prizes with new art song premieres. Additionally, last year’s commission prize winner, composer Shawn Chang, will premiere his new cycle. Martha is Co-Director/Founder of Sparks & Wiry Cries along with pianist Erika Switzer.