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"A
spellbinding performance...Nancy Knowles [sang] a set of medieval
and Sephardic wisdom songs with astonishing presence and breath
control that were equally present in her soulful playing of a
reed flute from India. Her soprano voice resonated as if
she were singing in a medieval cathedral." The
Falmouth Enterprise,
October
2004
NEW!
Enjoy
Knowles' poetry, singing, and visual art at her DAILY
WEBLOG. Click here to hear Nancy sing Amor
es Voluntad by Juan Vasquez, with Frank Wallace accompanying
on vihuela de mano.
Aside from the
beauty of her voice, audiences and critics comment most about
Nancy Knowles' engaging presence on stage. Listening to her sing,
it comes as no surprise that she's a poet and natural linguist,
given her obvious passion for the words, both their meaning and
the emotional colors conveyed by their sound. Whether as a singer,
poet, visual artist or teacher, a grace and a playfulness emerge
in her work as a result of the counterpoint of her technique and
her down-to-earth humor. Going against the tide of overspecialization,
the multiplicity of Knowles' talents and art forms only serves
to enrich each one. As a soprano Knowles performs concerts of
contemporary and renaissance repertoire as Duo LiveOak
with guitarist/baritone/composer Frank
Wallace. Knowles also performs her own solo shows, ranging
from dramatic works combining her masks, original poetry, and
unaccompanied songs from many traditions, as in her theatrical
memoir The House of Fools, to her
current program Voice of
the Rose, the sacred feminine,
featuring the unaccompanied songs of medieval Spain, with
frame drums, haunting flutes and stories. [Click
to hear flute improvisation, Ondas do Mar]
Knowles has toured
widely throughout the U.S. and Europe for over
25
years, performing at festivals such as the Holland Festival, the
Regensburg Festival, Musica en Compostela, the Boston Early Music
Festival, and the Guitar Foundation of America Festival. She can
be heard on seven recordings (Titanic Records, Musical Heritage
Society Centaur Records and Gyre). Her most recent CD, released
in 2004, is Duo LiveOak's album Woman
of the Water, songs by Frank Wallace.
Nancy
Knowles began her life on stage as a teenager, acting and singing
in Shakespeare plays, which set the background for many years
of performing medieval and renaissance music. In the 1980's and
90's she toured throughout the U.S. and Europe and recorded with
her early music ensemble LiveOak (Trio
LiveOak and LiveOak and Company). Knowles has studied with
Marleen Montgomery, Marcy Lindheimer, Dagmar Apel, Carl Stough,
and Roland Seiler. A performing poet for almost thirty years,
[read her poetry] in her performances
with Duo LiveOak Knowles now has the joy of singing her poems
in songs written by Wallace as well as collaborating with him
in choosing song texts from other poets for his song cycles. In
addition to this ongoing process, she is currently working on
a book of her poems and photographs as well as a CD of her solo
program Voice of the
Rose, which she will record
in the summer of 2006.
Having grown up in an
artistic family (her mother, Phoebe Knowles, is a painter, her
brother is sculptor/painter James Knowles), Knowles' life in the
arts began with visual art, particularly photography,
which she continues as a hobby. A wonderful collection of her
photographs grace the covers of the Frank Wallace Editions of
music on Gyre
Publications. Knowles became a photographer as a young
Peace Corps volunteer in Peru (1967-69). For a number of years,
she was also a weaver of fanciful landscape tapestries, spinning
wool (from sheep she raised) which she dyed with local plants.
The principal outlet for her visual skills, however, has been
in support of her performing: making masks, sets and costumes
for dramatic productions, and doing design
work for LiveOak's many enterprises over the years. Nancy
Knowles teaches voice at the Two Rivers Music Studios in Peterborough
NH, and directs Halcyon, a women's vocal ensemble. She lives with
her husband Frank Wallace in a 1789 farmhouse in the historic,
scenic Monadnock region of New Hampshire. They have two grown
sons.
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Please
click on image to view
Knowles'
photo essay
Jardín
de Calla:
Peru
Revisited
(2005)
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