OUR MISSION
Hybrid Vigor Music is a 501(c)(3) not-for-profit organization whose mission is to develop, produce, and proliferate new musical works that reach beyond the confines of the concert hall and collaboratively engage communities.
OUR NAME
In the world of biology, hybrid vigor is the vitality that results from the combination of two separate genetic groups. Hybrid offspring are more viable and vigorous than their purebred cousins. Hybrid vigor is a vivid, breath-taking phenomenon.
Hybrid Vigor Music applies this principle to the musical world by connecting two populations with differing perspectives: the vision of the creative artist and the real-world needs of the arts organization. Artists bring a passionate need to realize their aesthetic vision with all the craft and energy they can muster. Organizations bring a deep commitment to their mission, a community of loyal supporters, and institutional resources.
OUR WORK
Under the leadership of artistic directors Geoffrey Hudson and Alisa Pearson, Hybrid Vigor Music brings these two populations together. We provide not just new ideas, but also project design and oversight. If ideas are seeds, our process of sustained interaction with our partner organizations insures that those ideas are sown on fertile ground. Hybrid Vigor Music builds creative partnerships with existing arts organizations, allowing bold new ventures to take root.
Artistic Directors
Alisa Pearson
Alisa Pearson is a soprano, librettist, and climate activist. As a singer, her repertory spans music from the 17th century to the present; her performances include title roles in Pleyel’s Die Fee Urgele and Mozart’s Zaide, to appearances in Peter Maxwell Davies’ Resurrection in Amsterdam, Antwerp, and Glasgow, Steve Reich’s Tehillim at the Styriarte, Ars Electronica, and Innsbruck festivals, and the premiere of Bernhard Lang’s der blutige Ernst at the Vienna Burgtheater. She wrote the libretto for The Bug Opera, praised by the San Antonio Express News as “charming, funny… [and] appealing to audiences of all ages”. In addition to her musical work, Alisa is active in local politics and community organizing around the climate crisis.
Geoffrey Hudson
Composer Geoffrey Hudson’s music has been performed across the United States and in Europe. His Quartet Project, a six-volume collection which starts with simple pieces for beginning string quartets and gradually grows more complex, has been recorded by leading American ensembles like the Chiara, Jupiter, and Parker quartets. Brooklyn Rider calls The Quartet Project, “a great idea at the right time,” and the Borromeo Quartet celebrates it as, “a wonderful resource… filled with vivid colors and characters.” Other works include The Bug Opera (2006), an opera for young audiences which was hailed as “clever and well-crafted, reminiscent of Bernstein or perhaps of a light-hearted avuncular Stravinsky”. A conductor as well as composer, Hudson directs Pioneer Valley Cappella, Quabbin Valley Pro Musica, and the chorus at Greenwood Music Camp’s junior division.
Volunteer Board
Sarah Metcalf, President
Sarah is a writer, climate activist, and lifelong singer in choirs. She holds degrees from Brown University and the Iowa Writers’ Workshop.
Sally Robinson Bagg, Secretary
Sally Robinson Bagg is the mother of 5 and the grandmother of 7, all of whom love classical music and most of whom play a classical instrument. She is a graduate of Smith College, and for many years was Director of Greenwood Music Camp’s Junior Division. Sally has a private studio of cello students in Northampton, MA.
Lisa Ruch, Treasurer
Lisa Ruch, a native of the Philadelphia area, now makes western Massachusetts her home. She grew up in a musical household, and has sung in choirs since she was four years old. Lisa works at Bay Path University, where she is the Assistant Dean of Liberal Studies. When she’s not there, she’s singing with the Pioneer Valley Cappella, and caring for her and others’ horses.
Edith Allison
Edith is delighted and honored to work with musicians and to do so in support of our planet home. She and her partner, Don, moved from the DC area to western Massachusetts in the 1980’s, in part to spend time in the out of doors with their four children. Edith loves to paint watercolors, and be with her family, including grandchildren and animals and friends. She believes that joining the creative arts, community, and planet support is inspirational and has the potential to impact us all. Groups she is involved in include Mothers Out Front and Sustain Our Island Home, in the Episcopal Church. She loves to light candles and hear funny stories.
John Hanold
John is a life-long choral singer, spanning 30 years in Minneapolis and 14 years in Albuquerque before retirement in the Pioneer Valley in 2002. His interests include town government in Montague MA , especially financial health and municipal sustainability. Service on the HWM Board allows him to add contemporary music (and its creation) to his love of traditional choral music, and to provides alternative to financial concerns.
