Damselfly Trio

The Damselfly Trio - Liz Pearse, soprano; Chelsea Czuchra, flutes; and Lindsay Buffington, harp - is a mobile chamber ensemble dedicated to the music of contemporary composers and poets/writers. Continuing the work begun by The Jubal Trio, Damselfly is committed to commissioning, performing, and promoting contemporary chamber music for their unique instrumentation. To this aim, they have worked with a number of composers and poets from both sides of the Atlantic. Founded in 2016, Damselfly Trio is based in the US and Switzerland, conducting concert and educational activities throughout the US and Europe.

In recent seasons, Damselfly Trio has performed throughout Switzerland, Ireland, the UK and the US. Their concert appearances have taken them to a wide range of venues, including: Black Mountain College Museum + Arts Center, the Hugh Lane Gallery in Dublin, Queen’s University Belfast, Irish World Academy, Wild Atlantic Words Festival, Rehmann Museum, the Bank of the Arts in New Bern, NC, and digitally at the University of Liverpool. They have also been heard over the air on BBC Northern Ireland. 

In 2018, Damselfly held a performance residency at Avaloch Farm Music Institute in New Hampshire, USA (where they were inspired by local insect life to name their trio). The trio has given masterclasses and workshops at the University of North Carolina Wilmington, East Carolina University, Maynooth University, Queen’s University Belfast, Ulster University, as well as appearing virtually at the University of North Texas. Since 2018, Damselfly has given outreach concerts in public schools in eastern North Carolina under the auspices of the Carolina Chamber Music Festival.

Upcoming collaborations include projects with Swiss composer Alfred Zimmerlin and poet Ingrid Fichtner, and Korean-Swiss composer Junghae Lee. Damselfly has also enjoyed a long working relationship with Pulitzer Prize nominee Ricardo Zohn-Muldoon, who has created new settings from his cantata Comala for the trio, as well as a new piece inspired by Juan Rulfo's epic text. 

Damselfly’s largest project to-date is Buaine na Gaoithe, a 30 minute song cycle created by the Irish team of composer Ryan Molloy and poet Martin Dyar. After tours in the US, Ireland, Northern Ireland, and Switzerland, Damselfly Trio’s recording of Buaine na Gaoithe was released in July 2021 by the National University of Ireland.

In 2022-2023, Damselfly Trio's planned activities include concert appearances in upstate NY, Toronto, Chicago, Germany and Switzerland. In addition, they will record Zohn-Muldoon’s Songs from Comala. The trio will record their next album in 2022, featuring music by Ursula Mamlok, Ricardo Zohn-Muldoon, Alfred Zimmerlin and Junghae Lee.

Damselfly Trio has received support from an international roster of organizations including Arts Council Ireland, Aargauer Kuratorium, the Dwight and Ursula Mamlok Stiftung, and the Swiss Cultural Fund UK.

www.damselflytrio.com

Liz Pearse, Soprano

Finding joy in variety, Liz Pearse is a musician of many pursuits. Liz began her exploration of the endless possibilities of the voice after a childhood spent playing any instrument she could lay hands upon. As a performer, her uniquely colorful and versatile voice has led to performances of wide-ranging works from medieval to modern, and though she is known as a specialist in contemporary vocal repertoire, she also deeply enjoys a well-aged song. Liz has recently begun a long-term project commissioning and performing works for singer at the piano (though she still enjoys the collaborative process!), and presents her second full-length program of such pieces, a celebration of the 100th anniversary of Poulenc’s La bestiaire featuring newly-commissioned animal portraits, on tour in 2019. 

Liz has a special affinity for music post-1900. As a soloist, her performances include multiple performances of Pierrot lunaire, touring Olivier Messiaen’s Harawi, electroacoustic programming including Philomel, and on-going commissions dedicated to the creation of works for self-accompanying soprano. 

In addition, Liz forms one-quarter of Quince Ensemble, a treble quartet dedicated to the creation and performance of contemporary vocal literature. With Quince, Liz has performed on tours of Morton Feldman’s Three Voices, David Lang’s love fail (including the work’s Polish premiere), and on numerous collegiate residencies and festivals from coast to coast. Quince’s third album, Motherland, was released to critical acclaim by New Focus Records in April 2018, and they head back to the studio to record love fail in 2019. 

In previous seasons, Liz has had the privilege of performing at the Lucerne Festival, singing Berio's Coro under the baton of Sir Simon Rattle. She also performed at soundSCAPE Festival in Italy, where in 2013 she shared the distinction of "Outstanding Performer" with her brother, conductor and percussionist John J. Pearse. Other chamber and solo engagements have included the Toronto Electroacoustic Symposium; (le) poisson rouge; Omaha Under the Radar; Kerrytown Concert House; Baldwin Wallace University; and Constellation Chicago. Her opera credits include Lyric Opera Kansas City, Michigan Opera Theatre, Toledo Opera, and Opera in the Ozarks, in addition to many performances with Indiana University and Bowling Green State University Opera Theatre.  

Liz recently received her Doctorate in Contemporary Music from Bowling Green State University in Ohio. There, her studies included research in the prevalence and incorporation of contemporary repertoire in the collegiate voice studio, and her dissertation “Because there is no basis for comparison”: the self-accompanying singer and Roger Reynolds’ Sketchbook for the Unbearable Lightness of Being” was presented in October 2018. 

Liz's doctoral recitals included Messiaen's Harawi and an electroacoustic program, among a diverse range of art song and chamber music performances. She also won both the Dr. Marjorie Conrad Art Song Competition and the BGSU Competitions in Music concerto competition while at BGSU, and her mentor there was Dr. Jane Schoonmaker Rodgers. Prior to her doctoral work, Liz studied with Patricia Stiles at Indiana University.   

www.lizpearse.com 

Chelsea Czuchra, Flutes

A performer at home in a wide range of genres and repertoire, flutist Chelsea Czuchra is especially drawn to the experimental, quiet, and gorgeous sounds found in the world of new music. She has appeared as soloist and chamber musician throughout Europe and North America, including turns as a scotch tape virtuoso and bull-roarer player.

Chelsea’s most recent collaborative projects have included commissioning, premiering and recording the song cycle “Buaine na Gaoithe” by Ryan Molloy and Martin Dyar, with the Damselfly Trio, and the launch of a project commissioning works for moving/ vocalizing flutist.

An advocate for arts education, Chelsea frequently performs for outreach programs in Switzerland and around the US. Based in Switzerland, Chelsea was raised in eastern North Carolina and is a proud graduate of UNCSA, the NC Governor’s School, Purchase College and CalArts.