Dark the Virgin

“It is in the utmost darkness that a flame shines brightest.”
On this extraordinary evening, composer and Splendormusician Thomas Myrmel returns to the power of the voice. After a hiatus from music-theater a decade ago, Thomas returns to this form, deeply affected by the increasing turbulence of the post-Covid era, turning his attention to the raw, vulnerable expression of sound and human emotion.

Drawing from a wealth of experiences—from artistic and scientific research in Antarctica to the seismic social upheavals of recent years, including the tragic murder of George Floyd—Thomas has been carefully amassing a meticulous repository of sonic research, human emotion, and harmonic enmity. This program presents the fruits of that labor, exposing an intimate dialogue between composer and world, reflecting on the themes of pain, resilience, and hope.

Each piece sows a seed for larger music-theater works in development, but together they weave a shared narrative—a narrative that teeters on the razor’s edge between devastating uncertainty and optimistic obliteration. Through the alchemy of voice and electronic manipulation, Thomas' work casts light into shadowed places, offering both discomfort and the possibility of transcendence.

The evening will feature the powerful voices of Arnout Lems, Kelvin Chan, and David Whitwell, each of whom will bring their own unique presence to Myrmel’s intricate compositions. With additional works by Morton Feldman and texts by Franz Kafka, this concert promises to be an exciting and haunting exploration of art song, sonic experimentation, and a fearless confrontation with the human condition.

Above all, it is an invitation to experience the joy of existence itself—no matter how fragile or fleeting.

Performer Bios:
Arnout Lems completed a master's degree as a baritone at the Royal Conservatory in The Hague. He soon specialized in contemporary music theater but also performs Schumann on electric guitar, for example. He has performed with Silbersee, Noord-Nederlands Orkest, Klangart Berlin, Neue Vocalsolisten Stuttgart, HYOID voices, Slagwerk Den Haag, AskoSchönberg, and Duda Paiva Company. He has participated in numerous new operas and music theater performances with Silbersee, Muziektheater Transparant, Hollands Diep, and Holland Opera. In Ahmedabad, India, he sang the title role in a Dutch-Indian adaptation of Monteverdi’s L’Orfeo.

Kelvin Chan is a Netherlands-based Chinese-American music theater artist committed to cultivating human connection through the arts as a singer-actor, director, dramaturge, and producer. Combining a wealth of theatrical experience with a notable resume of classical vocal training and performance, he continues to explore a variety of theatrical styles and disciplines in pursuit of his ideal of whole-body expressiveness. He is a former member and music director of the award-winning physical theater company Song of the Goat Theatre (Teatr Pieśń Kozła) and has appeared with Paul Dresher Ensemble, New Amsterdam (NYC), New Dramatists, concert:nova (Cincinnati, OH), the Tri-Centric Foundation, Opera Theater of Pittsburgh, Schlüterwerke (Vienna, Austria), Ostrava Days, S.E.M. Ensemble, New York City Opera’s VOX Festival, Opera Moderne, and HGOCo. Kelvin is the Founder and General Director of Vital Opera (NYC).

David Whitwell is a countertenor alongside his artistic practice on the trombone. He made his Carnegie Hall solo debut in 2017 with the premiere of Girolamo Deraco’s 8 Songs for a Drag Queen. Additionally, he has integrated his countertenor voice into performances throughout Germany, Italy, and the US, as a soloist with the Dedalo Ensemble in Brescia, Italy, in a solo faculty performance at Columbus State University, and recently in the Hallenbad in Wolfsburg, Germany.

Thomas Myrmel, Arnout Lems, Kelvin Chan, David Whitwell