Selected Press

August 2025

“[Christina Goh] a également présenté une réalisation musicale intitulée Sur les Traces de Balzac aux côtés de la synesthète Mary Bichner, lors d’un événement au Musée des sciences de Boston. Ce projet a également été diffusé en Touraine, région natale de l’écrivain.”
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August 2025

"Prominent Boston-based composer Mary Bichner visited the carillonneurs on Aug. 15 to research a piece she plans to write for the instrument. The sound of the neighborhood carillon was the backdrop to her childhood in Philadelphia. Bichner has synesthesia, which causes her to perceive musical notes as colors and vice versa."
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February 2025

Mary was honored to be interviewed by Mike Kiniry for NPR's "Three Song Stories" -- a weekly radio show in which guests are asked to name three songs that have directly impacted their lives, and to share their personal narratives for each.

(To listen to Mary's episode, scroll down to "Episode 364 - Mary Bichner", under the date "February 24th 2025").
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March 2024

"Jeudi 28 mars 2024 à 19 h, la vocaliste internationale de blues Christina Goh et l'orchestratrice synesthète primée Mary Bichner proposent une rencontre poétique en sons et lumières dans les salons Ronsard, spécialement aménagés pour ce spectacle inédit. […] En effet, Mary Bichner qui est orchestratrice synesthète, 'voit la musique'. Lorsqu’elle compose, la synesthésie lui permet d’associer les notes de musique à des couleurs spécifiques."

October 2023

Biographical article penned by Mary at the invitation of Art et Poésie Touraine for their Autumn 2023 issue, describing her synesthetic composition process and music-related travels in France. (Written in English by Mary and translated into French by Art et Poésie de Touraine.)

July 2023

Video interview about Mary’s 2016-2017 Mount Auburn Cemetery composer residency.

June 2022 (Summer 2022 Special Issue, “The Brain”)

“When Mary Bichner composes music, she’s transcribing the auditory language of the colors around her, something most people’s brains can’t do. […] From 2016 to 2017, she was the composer-in-residence at [Mount Auburn Cemetery]…the environment was ideal for a brain delighted by color.”

April 2022

“[V]ibe out at the Museum of Science for a Parnassian program featuring composers Mary Bichner and Christina Goh as they present musical settings of poems by esteemed lyrical laureates, including Yves Bonnefoy, Emily Dickinson and Phillis Wheatley.”

November 2021

“Mount Auburn has run an artist-in-residence programme since 2014, billed as the first of its kind at an American cemetery. Mary Bichner, a Boston composer, took its second residency in 2016-17. […] In two chamber suites, Bichner captured impressions of flower gardens and dells, autumn foliage and stained-glass windows.”

June 2021

“Le 9 juin [2021], le réseau VIES 37 (Vivre et intervenir ensemble face au suicide) a organisé à l’Institut de Touraine une masterclass avec Mary Bichner, compositrice invitée du projet artistique Ut Fortis. […] Dans ce cadre, une série d’ateliers poétiques ont été menés par la poétesse Christina Goh, initiatrice de Ut Fortis, avec les étudiants de l’Institut. C’est la première fois qu’elles étaient ensemble sur scène en France, réunies par ce projet solidaire de la prévention du suicide.”

April 2020

“‘When I play piano, the individual keys light up in their respective colors,’ [says Bichner]. Ditto for letters and numbers: ‘A typical phrase looks like this’, she demonstrates, typing those words using a kaleidoscopic array of letters.”