Upcoming Meet & Greets

“Meet the Composer” Sessions for Choral Directors and Administrators:

Sunday, 3/21, 12pm EST  “Meet MBQ & Her Repertoire” Q&A Session for Choral Directors (free): Register: https://us02web.zoom.us/meeting/register/tZwpduiurj4jGNF86FFl1I0uNTCeul2Z5Ho7

Monday, 3/22, 7:30pm EST  “Meet MBQ & Her Repertoire” Q&A Session for Choral Directors (free): Register https://us02web.zoom.us/meeting/register/tZ0ldOurpzouHdOb_1SADQnvm2LG-Pw8WT2O

One on One Informational Meets (free): Calendly

https://calendly.com/mbq/15-minute-one-on-one-with-mbq

The choral music of Michael Bussewitz-Quarm (pronouns: she/her) engages singers and audiences with the leading social and environmental issues of our time. Michael is passionate about effecting change through choral music on topics ranging from the health of the world’s coral reefs to the epidemic of gun violence in the United States to the global refugee crisis. Michael is an active advocate for the transgender community. It is her fervent wish to spread knowledge and understanding of the transgender community through guest speaking and by simply being present in the lives of the talented musicians and artists surrounding her.

More about Ms. Bussewitz-Quarm:

A finalist for the 2019 and 2020 American Prize, Ms. Bussewitz-Quarm’s works are performed by leading professional and educational choral ensembles across North America. Recent collaborations include the west coast premiere of The Unarmed Child by Eugene Concert Choir and Orchestra, I’ll Fly Away at the International Society of Contemporary Music’s New Music Days in Vancouver, BC, and Nigra Sum, performed by The Duke University Chorale on their California tour. Michael’s works have been rebroadcasts on Public Radio East, KMUZ, and WCPE, with performances by Singers of New and Ancient Music, musica intima, the Gregg Smith Singers, the Duke University Chorale, the Esoterics, among other exceptional choral ensembles. Michael is published by Peermusic Classical.

Current projects include Peacebomb, inspired by Laotian families who make jewelry from metal taken from unexploded ordnance, Where We Find Ourselves, a pandemic-proof choral project inspired by the portraits of Hugh Mangum, and The Death and Life of Aida Hernandez: A Border Story, based on the book of the same name that tells the story of an undocumented teen’s harrowing experiences with the U.S.’s militarized immigration system.

Ms. Bussewitz-Quarm attended Ithaca College (BM ’94), for piano performance and music education, and received her MM from the Aaron Copland School of Music, Queen’s College in New York. For more information, visit her website, https://www.mbqstudio.com/.

Bookings:

To Book, contact Michael through email at [email protected] or through Michael’s contact page: https://www.mbqstudio.com/contact/

We (WHS Chorus) were so grateful for the opportunity to have a Q&A session with Michael and Shantel.  To hear the perspective of the composer and lyricist was powerful for my students, and answered many questions we all had about the process.  After the experience, one of my students emailed me to say it was one of the most meaningful events of this school year for her.  We will use the responses and stories moving forward as we continue our work with Identity, personal, and perceived of ourselves and others.

-Christina Flateau and the Woodsville High School Choirs “Where We Find Ourselves” Commissioning Consortium

“Stunned! Absolutely Stunned! …a stunning talent in our midst.” 

-The Rev. Dwight Lee Wolter, Congregational Church of Patchogue on Requiem Dies Magna

“Michael and Shantel’s collaboration on ‘Only Time to Love’, commissioned by the Women’s Voices Chorus of Chapel Hill, NC, is a piece of breathtaking beauty and depth. Rarely have we sung a piece where the poetry and music truly combine to create something approaching divine. These two remarkable people have left a mark on my heart.”

–Shelley Hedtke, Soprano 2, Women’s Voices Chorus of Chapel Hill