Press

“For this Williamsburg neighborhood date, Chen expands on his recent CD of Ligeti’s piano music. For each of the 18 études by the Hungarian master, the pianist has co-commissioned with Metropolis Ensemble a living composer to write a companion piece. (He’ll play all the works — 36 in total — at this concert.) In addition to Ligeti himself, the program includes established figures like Molly Joyce and Nina Young as well as an intriguing coterie of up-and-coming compositional talents.”

Seth Colter Walls, New York Times, September 2023 — read full article

“Perspective complements excerpts from an album of the same name that Joyce released last year on New Amsterdam Records. Guttman advised Joyce on the video component, which is minimal yet effective: white captions appear over a black background, while Joyce’s interview question remains static at the top of the screen. The lingering question invites audiences to consider their own answers while interviewees’ responses flow underneath.”

Hannah Edgar, Chicago Reader, March 2023 — read full article

“Layering spoken interviews about the experience of disability with pulsing minimalist fugues, Perspective is a powerful work of love and empathy that underscores the poison of ableism in American culture…She points her listeners toward a radically simple, if not entirely foregone conclusion: the idea that each person, regardless of their bodily differences, deserves to build their own comfortable and dignified life.”

Allison Hussey, Pitchfork, November 2022 — read full article

“Joyce's new album documents a project that involved her interviewing a wide variety of people living with disabilities about their views of notions like access, control, weakness, interdependence, and resilience. The result is arrestingly original and thoroughly inspiring.”

Steve Smith, Night After Night, November 2022 — read full article

For composer Molly Joyce, disability is no barrier to virtuosity

“Molly Joyce is among of the most versatile, prolific and intriguing composers working under the vast new-music dome…If there’s such a thing as a spirit of entrance, Joyce’s music is suffused with it: It offers everyone a way in. And for young artists with disabilities seeking to define virtuosity on their own terms, it offers a path forward.”

— Michael Andor Brodeur, The Washington Post, December 2020 — read full article

Weekend Roundup: 7 Things to Do This Weekend

“In a 2017 TEDx Talk, Joyce described how composing on this instrument allowed for a creative process that could move beyond the binary of ability and disability. Proof of her breakthrough is abundant throughout ‘Breaking and Entering; the musician’s debut full-length solo album…All those affections can be heard on the album’s opening track, ‘Body and Being,’ in which sustained chords, MIDI tones and her dream-pop vocals work together to produce an airy, liberating sensation.”

Seth Colter Walls, New York Times, July 2020 — read full article

Perceptions of Disability Take Center Stage in ‘Left and Right’

— Grace Bydalek, New York Sun, June 2022 — read full article

Molly Joyce: Strength in Vulnerability

Frank J. Oteri, NewMusicBox, February 2020 — read full article

“Composer and amazing singer Molly Joyce did a number by herself to introduce her collaboration with the Grammy-winning composer Christopher Theofanidis in their piece ‘Form and Flee.’ She worked with a toy electric organ and sang ‘I Was a Figure’ with lyrics by Marco Grosse and herself. Her soprano has great range and she uses it without vibrato, more like an instrument to touch a pitch. The effect was ethereal, eerie, magical. Then, what Theofanidis did against that floating sound was to create a hip, subtle, rhythmic orchestra space that never intruded but always supported with repeated motifs, lots of color and with great style. The result was very seductive. The crowd loved it and gave a standing ovation.”

— Geraldine Freedman, The Daily Gazette, June 2021 — read full article

“Joyce and Slater made for a great team. The exceptional blend of their respective talents made this concert remarkably enjoyable. Both agreed that it is unwise to listen to those ableists who would see disability as being the end—rather than the beginning—of acquiring new perspectives on life and on creativity. Whether we are members of the able-bodied or disabled community or something in between, the lesson we can take away from this performance is the importance of persistence in developing our talents and not listening to those who would have us believe that we cannot accomplish a cherished goal. It is essential to have faith in our abilities and confront our disabilities if we plan to pursue our artistry.”

— Julia W. Rath, Around the Town Chicago, June 2021 — read full article

“Stark introduced Molly Joyce’s ‘Imperfection’ (2022) as the most obsessive piece from the program “in driving home a single color,” but it also offered many, many intensities and opportunities for dynamic ensemble interplay. Ji took the lead on violin, then Humphreys took over with cello so rhythmic it felt anthemic – I had not thought of the cello as a vehicle for power chords. Something happened I can only think of as a hoedown, and then the doctor was in. If Lanzilotti’s solo viola piece was meditative, Joyce’s string quartet was worrisome – not that the music brought new worries, but rather it offered a new space to work out old ones.”

— Chris King, The St. Louis American, November 2023 — read full article

“Most of the program was embroiled in intricate rhythms and walls of sound that felt concrete: Molly Joyce’s Push and Pull was an inferno of lushness.”

— Lana Norris, I Care If You Listen, September 2023 — read full article

“Throughout each song, Joyce’s lyrics were intriguing, as she sang at times to herself, her hand, and the audience, ever centering on the idea of challenging and examining her experiences, perspective, and the concept of weakness.

Combined with projected music videos showing her moving hands, and a computerized voice reading aloud sound descriptions to promote accessibility and artistry, Joyce crafted an immersive, multimedia listening experience amplifying a subject often overlooked in the field of contemporary music.”

— Daisy Scott, Voice Magazine, July 2022 — read full article

“She worked up a unique ilk of art songs, with electronics-effected and looped vocals floating atop her chosen instrument, a tweaked toy organ, all funneled through laptop treatments. Many of the songs, adorned by on screen texts and videos, poignantly addressed the theme of dealing with — and even celebrating — the disability of her severely limited left hand, damaged in a car crash 20 years ago. The end result: something magical and edgily meditative.”

— Josef Woodard, Santa Barbara Independent, July 2022 — read full article

“the hallucinatory Tunnelvision by Molly Joyce”

— Rudolf Nammensma, Dagblad van het Noorden, April 2022 — read full article

“Molly Joyce’s haunting ‘East River,’ to Christopher Oscar Peña’s text”

— John Rockwell, Financial Times, December 2021 — read full article

“The last work of the afternoon I want to feel alive can Molly Joyce (1992) was beautifully performed by the trio. Penetrating and beautiful, the cellist also sang who turned out to be able to do two things at once.”

— Jeanine Krame, Leeuwarder Courant, December 2021 — read full article

“Composer and amazing singer Molly Joyce did a number by herself to introduce her collaboration with the Grammy-winning composer Christopher Theofanidis in their piece ‘Form and Flee.’ She worked with a toy electric organ and sang ‘I Was a Figure’ with lyrics by Marco Grosse and herself. Her soprano has great range and she uses it without vibrato, more like an instrument to touch a pitch. The effect was ethereal, eerie, magical. Then, what Theofanidis did against that floating sound was to create a hip, subtle, rhythmic orchestra space that never intruded but always supported with repeated motifs, lots of color and with great style. The result was very seductive. The crowd loved it and gave a standing ovation.”

— Geraldine Freedman, The Daily Gazette, June 2021 — read full article

“The FEAR group featured Molly Joyce (Out of a Thought) presenting slow wavering electronics, an increasingly processed panicked voice, and exceptional subtitles that made her music accessible to a D/deaf audience.”

— Lana Norris, I Care If You Listen, January 2021 — read full article

Best of 2020

“Molly Joyce, ‘Body and Being’ – Beach House but make it modern classical”

Deep Voices, December 2020 — read full article

Fifteen Questions Interview with Molly Joyce

“I’m particularly interested in breaking down socially-constructed notions of what human ability is and can be.”

15 Questions, August 2020 — read full article

Weekend Roundup: 7 Things to Do This Weekend

“In a 2017 TEDx Talk, Joyce described how composing on this instrument allowed for a creative process that could move beyond the binary of ability and disability. Proof of her breakthrough is abundant throughout ‘Breaking and Entering; the musician’s debut full-length solo album…All those affections can be heard on the album’s opening track, ‘Body and Being,’ in which sustained chords, MIDI tones and her dream-pop vocals work together to produce an airy, liberating sensation.”

Seth Colter Walls, New York Times, July 2020 — read full article

Video Premiere: Bec Plexus & Molly Joyce, “Think Out Loud”

“The ninth installation of Bec Plexus’ video release spree is Molly Joyce’s ‘think out loud,’ a vivid piece that advocates for a positive mindset. Joyce’s music often explores reverberant electronics, stemming from her instrument of choice — the vintage toy organ. Here, those interests shine through, as rich drones and warm textures color the music with a radiant warmth. Plexus’ voice intersperses between the luscious backdrop; the music is enveloping and entrancing.”

Vanessa Ague, The Road to Sound, July 2020 — read full article

“I can’t say enough about how great this is and will leave you with one caveat: prepare to be obsessed.”

Jeremy Shatan, An Earful, June 2020 — read full article

Molly Joyce finds endless exploration on Breaking and Entering

“The music she creates on Breaking and Entering is lush, combining the twinkling sound of the vintage toy organ with the echoing reverb of electronics. Her voice is another mechanism within the fold, pulsating as harmonies grow and change. The result is mesmerizing, music that envelops you with its vibrancy.”

Vanessa Ague, The Road to Sound, June 2020 — read full article

“virtuoso solos…from percussionist David Cossin, who brought hallucinatory beauty to another premiere, Molly Joyce’s Purity.”

Richard Fairman, Financial Times, May 2020 — read full article

“It’s a powerful response to something (namely, physical disability of any kind) that is still too often stigmatized, but that Joyce has used as a creative prompt.”

New Sounds, Weekly Music Roundup, April 2020 — read full article

Molly Joyce: Strength in Vulnerability

Frank J. Oteri, NewMusicBox, February 2020 — read full article

“Herman, who bills himself as ‘an interdisciplinary artist, primarily working in dance,’ is a snazzy performer with hemiplegic cerebral palsy which has caused him to devise ways to work balance and propulsion differently. His energy in the space is wrenching, surprising and always thrilling. Composer/musician Joyce, disabled in an accident, often moves with Herman, sings high and sweet, and plays a vintage toy piano set up in the middle distance between far-off Taylor and the audience. Their textures are so different, they make me think of their performance space as a painting canvas generous enough to make room, at once, for the roughest impasto and a silky brush.”

Eva Yaa Asantewaa, InfiniteBody, November 2019 — read full article

“These two artists treat disability as creative opportunity. In ‘Breaking and Entering,’ they explore their struggles and their transformations together—Joyce with ethereal vocals and an electric toy organ, Herman with his body in motion. Each performance is followed by a dance party.”

Brian Seibert, The New Yorker, November 2019 — read full article

“The four songs of Molly Joyce are the only ones that truly form a unity, a cycle. ‘Conform’, ‘Deform’, ‘Reform’ and ‘Transform’ all have a relationship with Joyce’s personal tragedy: she still experiences the physical consequences of a car accident. An event that turns things upside down and makes you think about who you are and how you relate to your environment.”

Ben Taffijn, Nieuwe Noten, March 2019 — read full article

“Joyce inhabited similar territory, relating sonic immobility to certain constraints of physical disability. She sang thin, keening vocal lines over static, nasal synth clusters, most of them confined to a stratospheric ringing, with occasional low notes providing the moody, effective harmonic shifts.”

Brin Solomon, National Sawdust Log, February 2019 — read full article

“Joyce deployed a pleasing variety of inventive sounds in the orchestra—for example, opening the score with glints of bowed vibraphone, piano strings hammered by mallets, and violin harmonics…her vocal characterization was strong, giving each singer ample ways to distinguish his or her role.”

Charles T. Downey, Washington Classical Review, January 2019 — read full article

“During Monday’s 20-minute set, the addition of Ms. Joyce’s vocals made me eager to hear a full song cycle of similar material. Another hint of this performance style’s serene power can be heard on an excerpt, posted on Soundcloud, from her collaboration with the percussionist Jop Schellekens.”

Seth Colter Walls, New York Times, June 2018 — read full article

“Head to Toe by Molly Joyce is a short, playful piece that combines bright, ringing mallet-driven pitches from a glockenspiel with five specifically pitched desk bells. It glistened in the church’s acoustically bright auditorium.”

Jim Farber, San Francisco Classical Voice, January 2018 — read full article

Best Of 2017: Classical – Chamber Explorations

“Molly Joyce – Lean Back And Release: This EP got a lot of people excited earlier this year and rightly so. Joyce shows a versatile and confident touch on these two pieces for solo violin and prerecorded electronics, each one developing from minimal material into something deep and involving. The performances by Adrianna Mateo and Monica Germino are highly persuasive and I suspect we will be hearing much more from Molly Joyce in the future.”

AnEarful, December 2017 — read full article

“The standout works on Artéfacts contain ties to history and stories, compositions based upon retold accounts…Molly Joyce’s ‘Sit and Dance’ builds layers of cello melodies atop of a ground bass (a perpetually repeating bass line) taken from the 17th century. The recontextualization of the ground bass amidst the modern lines make it all the more haunting, almost like a ghost murmuring from the Baroque era.”

Andy Jurik, PopMatters, September 2017 — read full article

Live Photos: Celebrating Composer Molly Joyce’s Album Release in New York

“Energetic, heady and blisteringly emotive, the tracks skitter and sway through bold violin arrangements with electronic flourishes.”

Sarah Midkiff, Paste Magazine, March 2017 — read full article

“intense, acerbic…all the more impressive considering that this is Joyce’s debut release.”

New York Music Daily, February 2017 — read full article

Molly Joyce “Lean Back and Release” Interview

WKCR-FM, Columbia University, February 2017

Interview: Indie-Classical Composer Molly Joyce Explores Hidden Collaborations

“With ‘Lean Back and Release,’ Joyce’s music will likely receive even more acclaim.”

Michael Hamad, Hartford Courant, January 2017 — read full article

Featured track – “Another winner is Molly Joyce’s ‘Rave.’ The work starts out sounding anything but exultant, sporting motifs that seem emotionally mismatched. (In the score, Joyce’s description of a tempo as “controlled but on the edge” seems appropriate.) As the composition develops, Joyce’s lines achieve an odd syncopation, and ultimately a sense of balance strong enough to suggest a club-influenced feel.”

Seth Colter Walls, Pitchfork, November 2016 — read full review

“[Fresh is] done with good technique and pleasant ideas, especially a rhythmic violin ostinato.”

Pablo Bardin, Buenos Aires Herald, July 2015 — read full review

“In Lean Back and Release, Molly Joyce combined live acoustic violin with distorted violin loops to superb effect.”

Chris Woolfrey, The Wire, April 2015 — read full review

“Ms. Joyce’s ‘Fresh,’ commissioned as part of the Youth Symphony’s valuable First Music Program for young composers, made an impression too.

About nine minutes long, it opens with a snare drumroll that gives way to a pulsating dance rhythm at disco tempo. That rhythm slowly and stealthily infects the orchestra, thumping away in high strings at the end.

‘Fresh’ teems and boils, its textures grimy in the low strings and brass at one moment, glinting the next.”

David Allen, the New York Times, May 2015 — read full review

“Listen to work by composer and adjunct faculty member in composition at NYU, Molly Joyce, featuring voice, toy organ, electronics, from her debut record, Breaking and Entering, which makes use of the vintage Magnus electric toy organ. This toy organ’s unique design of chord buttons on the left and keyboard on the right is ‘made for her body, made for her form, made for her deform.’ Joyce was involved in a car accident at the age of seven that impaired her left hand”

— John Schaefer, New Sounds, August 2022 — listen to episode

“And substantial works by Molly Joyce and Richard Belcastro — all richly interpreted by NakedEye — round out this adventurous recording.”

— Seth Colter Walls, New York Times, August 2022 — read full article

Perceptions of Disability Take Center Stage in ‘Left and Right’

— Grace Bydalek, New York Sun, June 2022 — read full article

“Joyce initiates a process towards a penetrating conclusion”

— Het Parool, February 2022 — read full article

“Molly Joyce’s East River, with a libretto by Christopher Oscar Peña, had Bennett pleading against minimalist piano repetitions, as if (it seemed) the river were beckoning her to jump in and end her sadness, Eimold vocally echoing her repeated ‘why’…East River was one of the strongest pieces of the night”

— Kurt Gottschalk, Bachtrack, December 2021 — read full article

“There’s also work by Pittsburgh-bred Molly Joyce featuring voice, toy organ, electronics, from her recent record, Breaking and Entering, where she harnesses the capability of a vintage Magnus electric toy organ. She finds that the toy organ’s unique design of chord buttons on the left and keyboard on the right is ‘made for her body, made for her form, made for her deform.’ Joyce was involved in a car accident at the age of seven that impaired her left hand.”

— John Schaefer, New Sounds, August 2021 — read full article

“Joyce and Slater made for a great team. The exceptional blend of their respective talents made this concert remarkably enjoyable. Both agreed that it is unwise to listen to those ableists who would see disability as being the end—rather than the beginning—of acquiring new perspectives on life and on creativity. Whether we are members of the able-bodied or disabled community or something in between, the lesson we can take away from this performance is the importance of persistence in developing our talents and not listening to those who would have us believe that we cannot accomplish a cherished goal. It is essential to have faith in our abilities and confront our disabilities if we plan to pursue our artistry.”

— Julia W. Rath, Around the Town Chicago, June 2021 — read full article

For composer Molly Joyce, disability is no barrier to virtuosity

“Molly Joyce is among of the most versatile, prolific and intriguing composers working under the vast new-music dome…If there’s such a thing as a spirit of entrance, Joyce’s music is suffused with it: It offers everyone a way in. And for young artists with disabilities seeking to define virtuosity on their own terms, it offers a path forward.”

— Michael Andor Brodeur, The Washington Post, December 2020 — read full article

“Molly Joyce’s ‘Out of a Thought’ mixes horror tropes: strobe lights, the camera diving into the blackness of an open box, grinding drones, scouring wails.”

— Zachary Woolfe, New York Times, January 2021 — read full article

“Composer Molly Joyce finds inspiration in the washed out sounds of the Cocteau Twins and her lived experiences as a person with left hand impairment. Breaking and Entering features the enveloping sound of her beloved vintage toy organ paired with reverberant electronics; each song weaves the narrative of her life and her music. It’s a quietly explosive album.”

Vanessa Ague, The Road to Sound, December 2020 — read full article

Unstoppable: How Rising Music Star Molly Joyce Has Transformed Her Disability Into A Creative Source

“I don’t view it as a limitation, I view it as freedom. My limitation has opened a unique way of being and living in the world, and I cannot imagine life without it.”

Yitzi Weiner, Authority Magazine, October 2020 — read full article

“Unable to pursue the studied perfection of routine technique, Joyce has discovered the means to meet her own expressive needs, transforming involuntary constraints into a liberating condition…on Breaking and Entering Joyce is not simply performing music; she is making art that is irreducibly her own.”

Julian Cowley, The Wire, August 2020 — read full article

“Unwavering. The standard repertoire for voice, electronics, and vintage toy organ consists almost entirely of music by Molly Joyce. After injuring her left hand, Joyce found ways to adapt to her disability, which has become an organizing principle for her enveloping soundscapes. National Sawdust, always a home for such sensitive sound sculptors, presents a live all-Joyce online program.”

Justin Davidson, Vulture, July 2020 — read full article

“Composer-performer Molly Joyce celebrates the recent arrival of her newest infectious release on the New Amsterdam label, Breaking and Entering, with an online release party, featuring performance and conversation.”

Steve Smith, A few short notes from the end run…, June 2020 — read full article

A Thoughtfully Enveloping Debut Album From Innovative Composer/Organist Molly Joyce

“At low volume, this is soothing, enveloping music: played louder, its edges reveal themselves.”

delarue, New York Music Daily, June 2020 — read full article

“But far more present was the collective’s progeny: the milky repetitive vibraphone of Molly Joyce’s ‘Purity’”

Zachary Woolfe, New York Times, May 2020 — read full article

Bec Plexus’s New Album Is a Digital Confession Booth

“Listen to how four composers adapted their visions to a singer’s avant-electronica production style.”

Seth Colter Walls, New York Times, April 2020 — read full article

“The tone’s deliberate, Joyce here wishing to draw attention to ongoing erosion within Badlands National Park; the musical design’s as deliberate, the composer structuring the piece to emphasize transitions that see geologic formations eroding before one’s ears.”

Textura, April 2020 — read full article

“…it was the contemporary works that seemed to thrive most in this setting…Molly Joyce’s ethereal ‘Light and Dark,’ for flute and percussion.”

Jeremy Eichler, The Boston Globe, December 2019 — read full article

“In the short film ‘Body and Being,’ Herman walks pensively among fallen leaves before sending his torso into lush spirals against Joyce’s celestial music. The two have reunited to create ‘Breaking and Entering,’ a live performance that challenges narratives of disabilities. Presented by Danspace Project, the work draws from the experiences of these two artists — Herman with cerebral palsy, and Joyce with an impaired hand resulting from a car accident — which they use for creative stimulant, as embodied in Herman’s fluid physicality and Joyce’s stirring soundscapes.”

Brian Schaefer, New York Times, November 2019 — read full article

“Joyce’s ethereal vocals, vintage toy organ, and electronic soundscapes created an exquisite expansiveness.”

Alyssa Kayser-Hirsh, I Care If You Listen, June 2019 — read full article

“Downtown, the dynamic and fertile Metropolis Ensemble hosted ‘Soloicity,’ one performance event of a four-part series curated by contemporary composer/performer Molly Joyce…completely inviting–refreshingly relaxing, and eclectic.”

Xenia Hanusiak, Operawire, March 2019 — read full article

“For this concert, SFCMP included Molly Joyce’s Blue Swell, for solo violin and prerecorded material. Played with rapturous intensity by Hrabba Atladottir, Blue Swell is positively oceanic in its depth and surges, with the violin gradually overcome by the recording.”

Lisa Hirsch, San Francisco Classical Voice, January 2019 — read full article

“[Melissa Barak] opened the program with her latest piece, ‘Cypher,’ an intriguing exploration of classical movement to an exotic recorded score by Molly Joyce. Using pulsing rhythms, Joyce combined piano, glockenspiel, cymbals and kick drum, to which Barak devised urgent and crisp movements, often contrasting thrusting legs with flowing and sculpted upper bodies.”

Laura Bleiberg, Los Angeles Times, July 2018 — read full article

“Molly Joyce fused vintage organ with DJ samples and melancholic, psychedelic vocals to create the ideal soundtrack for a road trip night shift.”

Lana Norris, I Care If You Listen, June 2018 — read full article

“…Molly Joyce’s sparky Push and Pull. In an upbeat manner, Joyce plays with the idea of the musical downbeat — pushing and pulling the pulse. It was a burst of poster-paint bright optimism, with sassy saxophone and horn solos. I liked it a lot.”

Rebecca Franks, The Times of London, January 2018 — read full article

“Also memorable are Joyce’s ‘Sit and Dance,’ which darkens its classical baroque sonorities with the cellist’s intense wail and the subterranean rumble of electronic pulsations…”

Textura

October 2017

read full article"

Interview: Molly Joyce On Releasing a Debut EP

“Few other emerging composers embody the spirit of blooming creativity so well as Molly Joyce. Talented and exacting, open-minded and committed to her craft, Joyce is laying the foundation for a supremely interesting career.”

Elizabeth Nonemaker, 21CM.org, July 2017 — read full article

“Molly Joyce‘s 11 minute Rave begins deceptively antithetical to the title’s implications, but builds into first real peak experience of Aorta. This moment captures Chow’s breathless virtuosity complimented by a fascinating use of real-time overdub to insinuate (impossibly) many instances of this performer all at once simultaneously playing the gamut of the instrument, completing as though by metamorphosis, through its use of pedal tones, a transformation into a piano/organ hybrid.”

Gavin Gamboa, I Care If You Listen, February 2017 — read full article

“arresting…multiple listens are needed to absorb and appreciate everything.”

Textura, February 2017 — read full article

“…intoxicating, deepening experience. I am blown away by this compelling occurrence.”

Das Klienicum, January 2017 — read full post

“…Molly Joyce’s run-for-your-life ‘Rave’…”

Richard Gehr, Village Voice, December 2016 — read full review

“Molly Joyce’s ‘This River’ had a refreshing touch of Broadway that was accentuated by the performance”

Joseph Dalton, Albany Times Union, June 2016 — read full review

“Particular kudos go to the cellist Rachel Young, who played in all five pieces, including a solo turn in “Sit and Dance, for Baroque Cello and Electronics,” an impassioned…piece by Molly Joyce.”

Anne Midgette, The Washington Post, April 2016 — read full review

“Built of musical and sonic juxtapositions and contrasts, [Molly Joyce’s Luminescence] offered a musical contemplation of craving, or reaching for, light.”

Elaine Schmidt, Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel, March 2015 — read full review