Bach to the Classics

We are delighted to share our rendition of Dvorak’s Humoresque with you! It features in our new program Bach to the Classics, a lively collection of classical masterpieces drawn from the best of orchestral, operatic, piano and tango music. Filmed at the Encore Theater in Silver Spring, MD.

Sakura for Solo Violin

We’ve just released the official video for Sakura, filmed at the historic Maymont Japanese Garden in Richmond, VA! Since 2019, Maria’s creation for solo violin has been part of ABRSM’s violin curriculum which is taught in 93 countries. Want to play Sakura? Buy it at our STORE.

Seven Dreams Premiere on YouTube

Join us on Tuesday, January 17 @ 12 pm EST for the premiere. What is Seven Dreams? Picture Hans Zimmer having a dream about Indian dance, Japanese ceremony, Korean percussion and a flutist & violinist that love to break into dance:

Join us in St. Cloud!

We had a wonderful time chatting with Kelly Cordes on Minnesota’s New Country Radio 98.1. She put together this insightful article on why your family should join us this September 10! Click the pic to check it out (and listen to our interview):

The Fearless Performer Series

Join Maria LIVE on YouTube from August 13 – 19, 2022 @ 1 pm EST as she discusses the 7 essential elements that will make your performances extraordinary! This free series will feature a talk each day followed by a premiere from Maria’s recent Celtic/Classical show with the Victoria Symphony conducted by Sean O’Loughlin.

Adventures in Music + Film

We spent MANY hours in a forest – not a person in sight – taking turns filming, playing (and swatting mosquitoes) to bring you our latest creation. Canada Council for the Arts’ Digital Originals grant – an initiative spurred by the pandemic to help artists, arts groups, and organizations pivot their work for online sharing – enabled us to purchase the equipment we used to film this (and also livestream). We are so grateful.

Watch Sonic Escape Perform for the Flute Center of New York

We had so much fun putting this performance together for you to enjoy! Dozens of livestreams (and our awesome YouTube audience!) have powered us to capture the best sound + video possible in a single, unedited take. This is the culmination of that hard work! We acknowledge the support of the Canada Council for the Arts. Click on pic to watch video:

This is our live show

We performed for a couple-thousand audience members at the Florida Music Education Association’s Annual Conference and, as luck would have it, we found a camera crew willing to fly down the aisles alongside us! We are so grateful to them for capturing our show… and to FMEA and Canada Council for the Arts for making this performance and video possible.

Concerts cancelled… so we come to you from our home!

Our March through May concerts have been cancelled, so we wanted to bring some good cheer to you – virtually – in these shared and dark times. We loved performing for the Crescent City Chamber Music Festival in New Orleans last October – today, we join forces once again to bring you this live-streamed performance (our first)!

Maria’s Violin Solos…

Check out Maria’s virtuosic rendition of tango La Cumparsita, now available in Sonic Escape‘s sheet music store! Also available for purchase is Sakura, which was recently published in a first-run printing of 12,400 copies for the Associated Board of the Royal Schools of Music (ABRSM) and is currently sold in 90+ countries. Maria is the only living composer featured in the publication!

Telling a story with instruments…

Humanity is Maria’s response to hearing the cries of children separated from their parents at the US-Mexico border. She chose the violin & flute to tell the story of a mother and her young son – of hope for a shared future that compels them to run, desperately trying to keep a hold of each other in the face of a world that pulls them apart. Thank you to the Ontario Arts Council for making this composition possible.

Ableton Live in Action!

Making the switch from bulky pedals to Macbook Pro + Ableton Live was a challenge… and Power was the perfect piece to debut our new setup!  Being able to record, loop, stop and reintroduce lines in real time has never been so fun.  Thank you to the New York State School Music Association for featuring us at their Annual Conference.

Awesome live photos

We have discovered the perfect live music photographer – Ashlee Wilcox!  She must’ve been as sweaty as we were, contorting to capture shots from every angle of our show for the National Association for Music Education.  Click the photo for our favorite picks.

Ashlee Wilcox

Our first music video!!!

Of course, the day we decided to shoot our video, it rained!  We took it in stride, though, and even wrested a few dry minutes from the weather gods to whip out the drone!  Frizzy hair, muddy feet, rain-infested instruments… it’s all featured in our collaboration with cinematographer Umit Gulsen.  Without further ado, we proudly present:

Why We Perform

Our Corpus Christi audience’s energy made us giddy with excitement – they have set the bar HIGH for Texas.  What a lovely introduction to this state… and this was just mid-concert!

 

Play Harder Series: Saving the Environment with Music (Entry 6)

Staying passionate about climate change is an uphill battle. Show me an image of starving children, animal abuse or yet another shooting and my heart jolts: “This must be stopped,” my brain (or voice) yells as I see red. But climate change? It’s the reverse – a brain-to-heart process of reminding myself, “Yes, this is what I should get fired up about, this is the biggest threat facing mankind!”

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Play Harder Series: Help Me, I’m an Artist (Entry 5)

I have always made my living as an independent performing artist.  A 9-to-5 job is as foreign to me as waking up early, establishing a routine or even teaching a student regularly. We artists share one thing in common – we need help!  Funding, booking, housing, brainstorming, bartering, watching, listening, feedback, encouragement… our success depends upon asking and receiving.

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Bach in Ireland!

With 3 cameras on hand, Terry Currie did a beautiful job of capturing our performance of Bach in Ireland. Thanks to a long flight from NYC to San Francisco and the availability of an electrical outlet (go Delta!)…

Maria Editing Small

…Maria had a moment to edit together the shots and produce this video that we’re very excited to share with you:

New Season, New Videos!

After a magical summer away (more about that soon) WE ARE BACK!  We’re putting together some videos from our performances and adventures… here’s the first.  The theme from one of Maria’s favorite childhood movies – Tonari no Totoro – with a twist at the end!

2014/15 Season Coming Soon

We’re really looking forward to our line up of concerts, workshops and residencies starting in September 2014 – we’ll be touring the South for the first time in addition to returning to the West Coast, Rockies, Midwest, Mid-Atlantic, East Coast and (way) up North!  Keep an eye on our calendar as we’ll be posting dates over the next few weeks…

Debut of the Skiing Flutist

We’ve experienced a lot of winter storms on the East Coast of late and, rather than grumble about it, decided to pack our skis, flute & camera and head to Vermont!  A few tips:

  1. Downhill speed ≠ getting a sound
  2. Stick to the top octave (preferably with one hand to get in some dance moves)
  3. Below freezing temperatures might get you stuck to your flute
  4. Stop playing and throw the flute if you’re going to crash!

Hope you enjoy the video 🙂

Welcome to sonicescapemusic.com 2.0!

After a happy whirlwind month on the road, we got to enjoy some downtime and design our new site!  Now all those photos, videos and recordings from our travels & concerts have a home!!  We look forward to sharing our world with you… thanks for stopping by.