DO YOU SEE WHAT I HEAR / Mario Morono
PERFORMANCE
MAY 8, 2026
DO YOU SEE WHAT I HEAR?
Mario Moroni
An interdisciplinary performance centered on the interaction between reciting voice and pre-recorded electronic and digital music.
Beginning in 2006, Mario Moroni has collaborated with composers and musicians to develop performances that experiment with the recitation of poetry alongside live and pre-recorded sound, as well as digital and multimedia environments. These works explore how poetic language can be activated in space, moving beyond the page into a performative and acoustic experience.
Moroni’s early work in experimental poetry sought to question and subvert conventional language and communicative structures. Over time, his practice expanded toward a more accessible form of poetic writing, while simultaneously deepening its engagement with interdisciplinary methods. This evolution led to a sustained exploration of how poetry can exist in dialogue with music, technology, and performance.
Central to this work is the idea that music and other media do not serve merely as accompaniment or embellishment to the poetic text. Instead, they function as parallel and responsive systems. Voice, sound, and structure interact dynamically, forming a complex conversation in which each element influences the others.
In this context, the poetic text operates as a kind of verbal score. The reciting voice moves through variations in tone, rhythm, and repetition, shaping the text as a performative act. Through this process, the work seeks to dramatize language, to extend it into space, and to reconsider what constitutes a “text” when it is experienced through sound and presence.
The performance will begin with brief opening remarks and continue as a continuous 50-minute presentation, accompanied by pre-recorded audio played through speakers. Moroni’s voice will be amplified throughout. A short Q&A will follow.
/about
Performance
FRIDAY, MAY 8, 2026
TIME
Doors: 6:30PM
7-8PM
LOCATION
1548 Burden Lake Road, Averill Park, NY
Mario Moroni
/bio
Mario Moroni was born in Italy and moved to the United States in 1989. He has taught at Yale University, Colby College, and Binghamton University. He is the author of twelve volumes of poetry and was awarded the Lorenzo Montano Prize for poetry in Italy in 1989. His work has appeared in numerous journals and anthologies of contemporary Italian poetry.
As a literary critic, Moroni has published three volumes on modern and contemporary European and Italian literature and has co-edited three collections of essays on Modernism and the avant-garde.
His interdisciplinary work brings together poetry, music, and digital media. In 2006, he released Reflections on Icarus’ Lands, a DVD combining poetry, electronic music, and computer imagery in collaboration with composer Jon Hallstrom. In 2016, he released Reciting the Ashes, a CD/DVD for reciting voice, piano, and soprano voice, created with composer David Gaita. In 2017, he released Recitativi, a CD of music and poetry in collaboration with composer James Glasgow.
Moroni has presented his interdisciplinary performances in numerous festivals and venues across Italy, the United Kingdom, Spain, France, Brazil, Iceland, Sweden, and the United States.
/media
/documentation (coming soon)
/online material
