Charlotte Mundy: Strange Moving Power

Charlotte Mundy is known for her kaleidoscopic virtuosity as a vocalist and her playful, inventive, synesthetic compositional voice. She has been dubbed a "daredevil with an unbreakable spine" (SF Classical Voice), “mesmerizing” (The New York Times), and is the only awardee of the Jan DeGaetani prize for Contemporary Song from the Joy in Singing Competition. She was also the vocal soloist on the studio recording of Bekah Simms’ 2022 Juno award winning composition Bestiary I & II. 

As a soloist, Mundy’s 2023/24 season will include the world premiere of Newtown Odyssey by Kurt Rohde and Marie Lorenz; premieres of concert works by Francisco del Pino, Alyssa Regent, Lainie Fefferman, and Aida Shirazi; and the debut of a new collaborative multimedia project with Christian Quiñones. Past performances include critically acclaimed renditions of Schoenberg's Pierrot Lunaire, Boulez's Le marteau sans maître, Feldman's Three Voices, George Benjamin’s Into the Little Hill, Iannis Xenakis’ Akanthos, and a set of music for voice and electronics presented by New York Festival of Song, described as "an oasis of radiant beauty" by The New York Times. 

As a founding member of TAK ensemble, “one of the most prominent ensembles in the United States practicing truly experimental music” (I Care If You Listen), Mundy has performed at Lincoln Center and the Library of Congress, premiering works by Tyshawn Sorey, Erin Gee, Eric Wubbels, Brandon Lopez, and Natacha Diels. The ensemble will tour to the UK, California and Thailand in the 2023/24 season, alongside several world premiere performances in New York City. Mundy is also a core member of Ekmeles, described as "beyond expert - almost frightening in their precision” by Fanfare magazine and recent recipients of the Ernst von Siemens Ensemble Prize. Their 2023/24 season includes a European tour, performances of Lang’s The Little Match Girl Passion and Stockhausen’s Stimmung, among others. 

Mundy is a founding member of the creative team for the environmental music theatre work Newtown Odyssey, led by composer Kurt Rhode and visual artist Marie Lorenz, funded by Creatival Capital and the NEA. She has an ongoing relationship with New Chamber Ballet, led by Miro Magloire, in which she memorizes contemporary vocal works and moves as a member of Magloire’s choreography with the company’s trained dancers. She performed in the documentary music theatre work A Star Has Burnt My Eye, written by Howard Fishman, on the BAM Next Wave Festival. 

Her compositions have been performed at Roulette, the University of New Mexico, Resonant Bodies Festival, Chance and Circumstance Festival, Periapsis Music and Dance festival, Fuse Factory, and the Higher Ground festival. They include SWEET FLAG!, whose score consists of homemade rosaries, The Empress Negligee and Leopard Queen Dream for voice, piñata/thurible/shakers, and percussion, and the surround sound/light/wind/smell installation, Light as a Feather, presented by Harvestworks Digital Media Arts. Mundy was a host of WQXR's new music station, Q2music, from 2012–2015 and currently co-hosts, co-edits, and co-produces the TAK Editions Podcast. She has lectured on writing for voice and participated in readings, workshops, and performances of student compositions at Columbia University, Princeton, Yale, Stanford, Cornell, McGill, and Juilliard. 

Mundy studied classical voice at the University of Toronto, contemporary performance at the Manhattan School of Music, and is working toward a DMA at the CUNY Graduate Center, focusing on the contributions of vocalist/composers to 21st century vocal repertoire. She was born and raised in Toronto and resides in Brooklyn.