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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." The Falmouth Enterprise,
2004
Enjoy
Knowles' poetry, singing, and visual art at her BLOG.
Click here to hear Nancy sing Amor
es Voluntad by Juan Vasquez, with Frank Wallace accompanying
on vihuela de mano.
Mezzo-soprano
and poet Nancy Knowles has a longstanding reputation
for her skillful interweaving of song, poetry and drama both in
concert with LiveOak and in her own solo shows. " Knowles'
exceptionally beautiful soprano carried the evening in song and
declaimed poetry..." -The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette. 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, actress or teacher, a grace
and a playfulness in her work reflect the counterpoint of her
technique and her down-to-earth humor.
As
a mezzo-soprano Knowles performs concerts of contemporary song
as Duo LiveOak
with guitarist/baritone/composer Frank
Wallace. Knowles also performs her own solo shows,
ranging from dramatic works, as in her theatrical memoir The
House of Fools, which combines her masks, original poetry,
and unaccompanied songs from many traditions to her concert of
medieval song, 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'
current production in development is SYZYGY: notes
from a far hill, the second in a trilogy of solo
dramatic works called A Point of Time which began
with The House of Fools.
This multi-dimensional solo dramatic piece celebrates the healing
power of art. In it Knowles combines singing, live painting,
dance and poetry to tell the story of a woman who paints her way
with spirit and humor through multiple tragedies well into her
nineties. With original score (sixteen songs with 10-string classical
guitar or chamber ensemble) by Frank Wallace.
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.
A
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. From the late 1970s through the 1990's Nancy Knowles
specialized in music of the 12th to 16th centuries, recording
and touring throughout the U.S. and Europe with the ensembles
LiveOak (Trio
LiveOak and LiveOak and Company). Knowles has studied
with Marleen Montgomery, Marcy Lindheimer, Dagmar Apel, Carl Stough,
and Roland Seiler.
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.
Her current work in abstract photography grace the covers of the
Frank Wallace Music Editions on Gyre
Publications. Knowles became a photographer as a young
Peace Corps volunteer in Peru (1967-69). 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. 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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THE
HOUSE OF FOOLS (2002)
a
theatrical memoir
Please click on image below
to
view a slide show of a scene in Knowles' one woman show.
Photographs by Elsa Voelcker
Mask by Nancy Knowles
PHOTOGRAPHY
(2005)
Please click on image below
to
view Knowles' photo essay
Jardín
de Calla:
Peru
Revisited
(2005)
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