Judith Mok, photo: courtesy of the artist
Saturday, June 16, 2012 at 7 pm
Symphony Space – New York , NY
The 31st annual Bloomsday on Broadway celebration of life, love, and language, in James Joyce’s Ulysses will be a very special selection, “Music in Bloom”. The show begins at 7pm and ends after midnight, featuring actress Fionulla Flanagan, soprano Judith Mok and many others.
Each of the 18 episodes of Joyce’s Ulysses celebrates a different organ of the human body and a different art. The SIRENS episode, which takes place in the Ormond Hotel bar and dining room is devoted to the human ear, and the art of music. Before turning to writing, young James Joyce’s ambition was to become a concert tenor. ULYSSES is filled with music and songs, especially in the SIRENS episode, where Leopold Bloom is having his lunch, and listening to the men in the barroom flirting with the two barmaids (sirens) and singing great operatic selections and Irish songs. The evening will consist of a reading of the entire text of SIRENS, interspersed with full performances of some of the music central to the episode’s drama, ranging from the tenor aria “M’a parri” from MARTHA, to the Irish revolutionary ballad, “The Croppy Boy.” Broadway star David Margulies (Angels in America) will perform the role of Mr. Bloom and director-host Isaiah Sheffer will narrate.
Judith Mok
Alban Berg once said to George Gershwin, when the latter was reluctant to play his works for the Master, “music is music” This is how Judith Mok feels about music. Her fascination with different types of music has always been in her life. Popular, rock, jazz and chansonniers/ singer songwriters were a big part of her musical interests during her teenage years spent studying classical music and singing at the Royal Conservatory in the Hague where she was allowed to work with people like John Cage, Stockhausen, Bruno Maderna, Frank Zappa, Ligeti, Kurtag and Louis Andriessen as well as the great masters of Baroque Music interpretation like Nicolaus Harnoncourt., Ton Koopman, Philippe Herreweghe etc. After winning prizes at International Singing Competitions and obtaining grants she went on to sing a vast soprano repertoire and traveled the world working in Opera, Chamber and Contemporary music. Expanding her acting skills to short performances in Feature Films and singing Film Soundtracks. More recently Judith Mok widened her musical experience by performing with various renowned rock artists. She has been working for years on her extended vocal techniques, experimenting with her voice and presentation. This also led to her deepening her interest for Sephardic (Jewish) music which she is now mainly focused on performing worldwide. . Her love and involvement with literature and her desire to combine this with music led to the creation of her one woman show “MOLLY SAYS NO” about Molly Bloom the heroine of J Joyce’s Ulysses. Judith Mok’s books of poetry, novels and short stories have been published in Dutch and English.
