Misha Penton
Vocalist · Composer · Poetic Sound Worlds
“My work exists at the edges—in a landscape of shadow and light, darkly luminous, and ever-transforming…”
A dear friend once called me a Beauty-Bringer—I hope to make the world more beautiful, one song at a time.
I am a singer-composer, recording artist, director, writer, and filmmaker. My creative works take many forms: live performances, vocal compositions, video works, site-specific installations, visual art, lyrics, and essays.
My chamber electronica is a blend of futuristic art song, synth atmospheres, and avant-spoken word. I compose multi-layered vocal and electronic sound worlds as a solo artist and in collaboration with other musicians. I’m inspired by myth, dream, ritual, and the sacred texts of the Western canon, and I draw from fairytales and cosmologies, from poetry, seasonal rhythms, and celestial time.
From a spider-silk thread of tone to a shimmering, cascading wail, I use my full vocal range and expressive palette to explore the uncharted territory of embodied vocality.
I make my home in Houston, Texas where the dystopian beauty of spiraling highways and cathedral-like concrete underpasses shade wildflower-lined bayous, and the luminous glass and steel of the metropolis reflect grackles in flight. My journeys have taken me from Beijing to Brunei and Bangkok to Berlin, and am most in love with the energies of ancient archeological sites, cathedrals, ruined abbeys, forest, ocean, and mountains…
My recent projects include:
—Strange & Beautiful, a Sculpture Month Houston performance residency with my ensembleMisha Penton Collective.
—Blessings of the Moon, a 3-music video EP.
—Last Cicada, an urban-pastoral music video funded in part by the Houston Arts Alliance and the Mayor’s Office for Cultural Affairs.
—Earthshine, a music-dance and media performance celebrating the winter solstice in partnership with Sawyer Yards Arts Complex.
—Threshold, asite-specific music-video work inspired by myth and ritualcreated for the cavernous Silos at Sawyer Yards in Houston.
—Anecdote of the Spirit,a contemplative performance at the Rothko Chapel.
—The Medusa Project, a multi-version monodrama in film, installation, and text, including a version for the 35-foot-high highMediaWallat Bath Spa University, UK.
—This is our universe, a new monodrama based on Virginia Woolf’s writings.
—Siren on the Sabine, a Homeric music-dance work premiered at The Menil Collection.
—Creation Stories,a cycle of lunar-themed micro-operas inspired by sacred cosmogonies, part of an ongoing series.
— The Morrigan Project, a vocal meditation on war, a world out of balance, and fragile peace, premiered at Houston’s 5th Annual Contemporary Music Festival.
I made my directorial debut with Houston Grand Opera in their Star Cross’d web opera series, also performing a principal role in a new opera workshop with the company.
Guest artist highlights include The Juilliard School, Concordia University Montréal, University of Regina (Canada), University of Houston Honors College, Sam Houston State University, Texas A&M, and Lone Star College. I am a voting member of the Recording Academy.
My voice mentors include legendary opera pedagogue Lois Alba; Katherine Ciesinski and Kathleen Kaun of Rice University and Eastman School of Music; and Richard Armstrong of the Roy Hart tradition and NYU’s Experimental Theatre Wing—each encouraging the my unconventional vocal and artistic journey. I currently coach with composer and touch guitarist Trey Gunn.
I hold a BA in Music from Skidmore College, an MFA in Interdisciplinary Arts from Goddard College, and a PhD in voice and composition from Bath Spa University, UK. My disseration, ‘Vocality as / in Composition, explores new postopera through solo and collaborative creation, guided by composer James Saunders and performance studies scholar Pamela Karantonis (Goldsmiths University of London)
My work has been presented at the Museum of Fine Arts Houston, Dallas Museum of Art, The Menil Collection, Rothko Chapel, DiverseWorks, University of Houston Center for Creative Work, SPARKFEST Digital (UK), Classical:NEXT (EU), and others.