Leaps of faith and other mistakeS
"Almanac’s acclaimed tale of sublime human idiocy, isolationist seafarer cults,
& the absurdity of believing too hard. Breathtaking acrobatics and earnest theatricality
combine with brand new live music. What do people do when they find themselves lost at sea?"
photos by Daniel Kontz
“a haunting, multi-layered soundscape of original music, composed and performed by the extraordinary Mel Hsu, reverberates through the intimate space...””
“She stands behind the action like a sea goddess,
weaving together soundscapes of chimes, cello, drums and ethereal vocals.””
“[Hsu] is a one-woman sound score.””
NPR tiny desk concert
Mac Miller feat. Thundercat
"There was a shift in Mac Miller's boisterous demeanor as he started the third of his three-song Tiny Desk set. It's the first time he's performed tracks from his new album, Swimming, in front of an audience. On '2009,' he rubbed his chin with clinched eyes, looking like a young man who's beginning to crack the code. Backed by a piano loop and a string quartet, he reflected on his journey's peaks and valleys thus far." -Bobby Carter
LETTERS TO THE MOON
Curated, Written and Performed by Mel Hsu
Directed by Cat Ramirez
In collaboration with Visual Artist Bz Zhang
Co-presented by Intercultural Journeys and Asian Arts Initiative
TERCE: A Practical breviary
Created by Heather Christian
Directed by Keenan Tyler Oliphant
Co-Music Directed by Mona Seyed-Bolorforosh and Jacklyn Riha
Produced by HERE Arts and PROTOTYPE Festival
The Chinese lady
Written by Lloyd Suh
Directed by Justin Jain
Produced by InterAct Theater
Afong Moy (Bi Jean Ngo) and Atung (Dan Kim)
Photos by Seth Rozin and Chris Colucci
“Mel Hsu’s music is almost a character itself...”
sgt Jennifer higdon
and her lonely hearts club band
Bearded Ladies Cabaret || Late Night Snacks
An Evening Celebrating Jennifer Higdon and her wife, Cheryl
Photo by: Ray Bailey, in Partnership with Opera Philadelphia
REHEARSING Philadelphia: THE Public Orchestra
Under the Musical Direction of Anthony Tidd
Commissions by Ursula Rucker, Xenia Rubinos,
Sun Ra Arkestra, Ann Carlson, and Ari Benjamin Meyers
"This large-scale public project [produced by Curtis and Drexel] explored how we can come together as a city through musical rehearsal. The traditional musical preparation process focuses on rehearsing as a way to attain perfection, which is then repeated in performance. This is not how we live modern life in a rapidly changing world of social upheaval. The future will be rehearsed, not perfected. Rehearsing Philadelphia re-examines the rehearsal processes which allow people to act together and be empowered to create new realities."
Photos by Conrad Erb
MORE OR LESS
Choreographer, artist, and educator Ilya Vidrin and the New Museum’s Department of Education and Public Engagement present the world premiere of More or Less, a meditative performance investigating social responsibility and communal care. I had the honor of reuniting and collaborating with my childhood friend, Eric Seligman, for this adventure!
Photos by: Grant Hao-Wei Lin
Hound Dog
In Melis Aker’s world premiere play HOUND DOG, a young musician returns from abroad to her hometown of Ankara, Turkey to look after her widowed father. Forced to reckon with the family and community she left behind, an investigation into her grieving parent’s strange pilgrimage to Graceland unravels into a sonic mirage of memory packed with humor, nostalgia and the love we cultivate across generations.
Written by Melis Aker
Music and Lyrics by Melis Aker and The Lazours
Directed by Machel Ross
Left photo by: Danny Bristoll
Right photo by: HanJie Chow
redbone: A biomythography by Mahogany l. browne
"Built upon Mahogany L. Browne's manuscript, REDBONE
unearths the helplessness of domestic violence,
hopefulness of love and unshakeable foundation of women."
Kate Ten Eyck and Mel Hsu sat down with Noah Baerman, Resonant Motion’s Artistic Director, for an extended chat about the process of creating this work of art. Click here to read the interview.
mercy mistress
Mercy Mistress is a TV show based on the memoirs of a
queer Chinese American professional dominatrix in
New York City created by a primarily women-led film team.
shroud presents
our debut EP, you are
Eminem: Revival
Firefly music festival 2018
xoxo moongirl (2018)
ALMANAC CIRCUS DANCE THEATER
"The autobiographically-inspired circus fantasia incorporates breathtaking
aerials and acrobatics to tell the story of a girl in a troubled home
and her flight to the moon to escape and prevail."
“Deep, haunting vocals, cello, and percussion fill the space and add complexity to the movement. While the two women never interact directly, the connection between them is palpable, as though Hsu is a heart, pumping sustaining music into the dance.””
photography by Johanna Austin
Barrymore Awards
Outstanding Original Music
2018: Recipient
2019: Nominee
Fly in Power
Fly in Power follows Charlotte, a Korean massage worker and core organizer of Red Canary Song (RCS): an abolitionist collective of Asian diasporic massage workers, s3x workers, and allies, who base-build through mutual aid. Through her history, we learn how the incarceration system is pitted against Asian migrant women and their survival. Other RCS members, including Khokhoi, a young body worker, and Prof Elena Shih, Brown University, share powerful insights to the myths of trafficking.
Fly in Power is a glimpse into the intimate spaces that connect workers for survival-- a testament to global advocacy of Women's rights to work and thrive. To honor the victims of the Atlanta 2021 shooting, we must listen to the stories of the living. This is the first film to center the narrative of an Asian massage worker in her own words, with her own agency of storytelling and editing.
The Arsonists
A Play by Jacqueline Goldfinger
Azuka Theatre @ The Drake (2017)
Set deep in a Florida swamp, The Arsonists is a lyrical Southern Gothic myth
A father-daughter arson team deconstructing their personal demons.
NAMES OF WOMEN
Names of Women is a short film based on a true abortion story.
The Collective Sex's mission is to use this story as a platform where women can find resources, solidarity and ways to share their stories with one another.
David thompson and the nasty star hermit band
Directed by David Thompson
The Matchmaker
Directed by Abigail Adams
People's Light Theater (2017)
Bulgarian Dance Tunes for Four Cellos
Nicole Johnson's Guest Artist Recital at Hoff-Barthelson Music School
Girls Rock Philly (Oct. 2016)
Sustaining Our Sounds: 10th Year Anniversary Gala
GOING down mt. moriah
Directed by Emily Bate
"Going Down Mount Moriah is choral theater and feminist spectacle. A choir rises up from a murky lake bottom: there’s finger-pointing, navel-gazing, rollerskating, and rattling the bars of the cage. A show exploring the extent to which trauma constitutes personhood, Going Down Mount Moriah will tell you jokes, terrify you and sing you to sleep, not necessarily in that order."
honey and the sting
Directed by Sam Long
The Rock and the redemption
"The Rock and the Redemption is a suite composed by
Noah Baerman as a reinterpretation of the myth of Sisyphus,
as performed by the Noah Baerman Resonance Ensemble."
"Funny bunny" premiere at SXSW Film
Directed by Alison Bagnall
March 2015
"A latchkey trust-funder and a hapless anti-childhood-obesity
crusader bond as they vie for the heart of a troubled animal activist."
"Songs of Migration and Hope"
La Cantina at the Yakima Valley Museum (Yakima, WA)
March 2015
King at bay
The eternal soul child of Jess Best and Mel Hsu
MEL AND JOSH
Take these words, the years inside your skin remind you.
Paint these walls, for they have seen you live.
