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June 20, 2025
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( Photo credit: Dave Jamrog )

It's the first day of summer, and what better way to celebrate than with some new videos from Mary Bichner and Christina Goh's "Rencontres Poétiques" concert at the Boston Athenaeum earlier this year! 

Filmed and produced beautifully by videographer Dave Jamrog, the videos were captured during the fourth edition of "Rencontres Poétiques" (a poetry-focused international concert series created by composers Mary Bichner [USA] and Christina Goh [France]), which took place at the historic Boston Athenaeum of Boston, MA, USA on April 10th 2025. The concert featured musical settings composed by Bichner and Goh for classic poems in both French and English; inspired by the works of Yves Bonnefoy, Phillis Wheatley, Emily Dickinson, Ovid, and more.

First up is the gorgeous Christina Goh composition "Trouveur", an homage to the troubadours of the High Middle Ages (which has already recieved over 20,000 views on Christina's Instagram account!): 

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Next is Mary's composition "Á la seine", a musical setting of excerpts from the Marceline Desbordes-Valmore poem of the same name, performed by Mary and Christina as a duet:  

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The concert also featured the premiere of Christina and Mary's collaborative composition "Nostra vita (éternelle clarté)", a new a cappella work inspired by the first and last twelve lines of Dante Alighieri's "La divina commedia":

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Additional videos from the fourth edition of "Rencontres Poètiques" can be found on Mary and Christina's YouTube channels.

Thank you so much to Dave Jamrog for the beautiful videos, to the Boston Athenaeum for collaborating with Mary and Christina on such a wonderful concert, and to everyone who attended and/or gives the videos and look and listen!

Wishing everyone a lovely summer, and talk to you soon!