This event was postponed twice due to the Covid 19 Pandemic. We will update the event once we have re-scheduled.

The Mysterious Life of Amy Thomson McKean is a one-woman, one-act stage play with live music based on the real life story of a twice-institutionalized New York-based composer whose music has not been heard since the 1930s. Starring Kelly Morris Rowan (Voices of Liberty, Mad Cow Theatre) and written by Charlie Griffin, the play aims to bring Amy to life on stage by imagining what she would say for herself if she could. Just before the death of Amy’s daughter in 2018, Orlando artist Jamieson Thomson Thomas (McKean’s grand-niece) recovered a trove of Amy’s handwritten and published scores, which composer Mark Piszsczek has painstakingly and lovingly transcribed or arranged as vocal songs, piano works, and wind quintets.

This is an ambitious and emotionally compelling project. Amy’s story and compositions give the audience a rare look into the perspective of a female composer active during some of the most turbulent and fascinating years in our nation’s history. The resulting performance paints a picture of New York during her lifetime and recounts her story as it may have been through the voice of her past self as it would be told today.

7-7:30 pm Video and Art Exhibit

7:30-8:30 Play and Music Concert

8:30-9 pm Discussion

The performers are Kelly Morris Rowan (actor/singer) as Amy Thomson McKean; pianist Kristine Griffin; and a woodwind quintet drawn from the Alterity Chamber Orchestra.

Tina Edelstein, flute
Beatriz Ramirez, oboe
Jessica Hall Speak, clarinet
Matt Tavera, horn
Christian Eberle, bassoon