Spotlight: Mason Bynes

Mason Bynes
composer

Mason Bynes is a New York based composer, vocalist, and multimedia artist from Sugar Land, TX. In a post-modern tradition, she pulls from various stylistic sources, blurring the line between traditionalism and modernism. Her goal in creating music and art is to bridge the gap between genre and sound in order to bring listeners together. She received her Master of Music in Composition from the Boston Conservatory at Berklee, and she also holds a Bachelor of Music in composition from the University of North Texas.

Mason’s musical curiosity fuels her pursuit of collaboration in a myriad of artistic mediums, including film, spoken word, music for acoustic performance, and even the culinary arts. In her latest artistic season, she's enjoyed a variety of premieres and releases of her music, including: her first operetta with Boston Lyric Opera, in collaboration with Boston's Poet Loreate, Porsha Olayiwola, and Castle of Our Skins; the release of her brass quartet piece "For Rosa" on The Westerlies' latest album, Move; and the premiere of her music by Art of Elan for a new film by British-American visual artist, Daniel Dean. The Washington Master Chorale recently awarded Bynes the inaugural Florence Price Prize and premiered her new choral work, "Dust Bowl."

In addition to serving on the film/tv composition team at Raging Cloud Studios, Bynes currently serves as a career coach at New York University after years of coaching emerging artists at Berklee College of Music in Boston. Mason continues to sing and perform with a variety of ensembles, including The Boston Pops' Holiday Pops Singers. This season, she is looking forward to the premiere of the The Invisible Girl for wind ensemble with The Concord Band, and the reprise of her work "The Wanderer's Tethering" with Castle of Our Skins.

FMI: https://www.masonbynes.org/

World Premiere of The Invisible Girl

The Dancer as... the Invisible Girl
original comic book

The Concord Band’s Winter Concert will be held on March 2, 2024, at the 51 Walden Performing Arts Center, presenting the World Premiere of The Invisible Girl, commissioned by Concord Band flutist Ellen Feldman, who wished to create an adventurous composition of modern music “in appreciation of the Band’s expansion of her musical horizons.”

Feldman and Music Director James O’Dell commissioned talented composer Mason Bynes, who holds a Master of Music in composition from the Boston Conservatory at Berklee, to create the new work for symphonic band. After consultation, Bynes based her composition on a comic book that Feldman created, The Dancer as... the Invisible Girl.

Ellen Feldman
comic book creator

The new musical work, titled The Invisible Girl, reflects Bynes' appreciation of minimalist and Copland-esque music, and comprises three movements: “A Struggle Between Friends,” “The Veiled Woman Revealed,” and “Becoming Visible.”

The third movement incorporates a video, also named after Feldman’s comic book, which was created and produced by Nicole Pierce, who performs the main character of the comic. The video was filmed and edited by Guggenheim and Fulbright recipient, Sam Kauffmann.

Mason Bynes
composer

In her notes to the music score, Bynes writes, “These three movements capture The Invisible Girl’s whirling power and agility, Karisma’s [the Invisible Girl’s nemesis] veiled and vengeful soul, and the coming together of two women whose seemingly polar identities encourage one another’s visibility.”

O'Dell selected additional music in keeping with the evening's theme, Dances! The program includes Robert Russell Bennett’s Suite of Old American Dances, Claude Debussy’s Danse—Tarantelle Styrienne, and George Gershwin’s An American in Paris.

The concert and World Premiere will be held at 7:00 pm, Saturday March 2, 2024, at the 51 Walden Performing Arts Center in Concord, MA. The concert admission is free, with a $20 donation requested. The comic book, The Dancer as... the Invisible Girl, will be available for purchase. More information about the concert and premiere is available at www.concordband.org.

The Concord Band is supported in part by a grant from the Massachusetts Cultural Council, a state agency.