Molly Pease is an eclectic LA-based singer, composer and improviser with experience in a wide range of musical styles including folk, jazz, classical, opera, experimental, contemporary, and improvisatory music. Molly is an avid explorer of extended vocal sounds, in both her performance and composition. She leads experimental rock project ACKLAND and also creates works for voices, strings and other combinations. Her compositions have been performed at venues such as The Sharon Disney Lund Dance Theater, St. Mark’s Episcopal Church, Non de Gen and Monk Space. She was a 2019 composer fellow at N.E.O. Voice Festival.
Molly is an experienced solo performer and improviser, with a passion for theatrical works. Most recently, she performed multiple solo roles in the critically acclaimed experimental opera Sweet Land, produced by The Industry and directed by 2017 Macarthur Fellow Yuval Sharon. Other experimental theatre productions include hell prepared with theatre dybbuk, Gifts of the Spirit with Ron Athey and Katy Cruel with Overtone Industries. Molly recently performed as a featured soloist at REDCAT and completed a U.S. tour throughout the Midwest and East Coast with experimental pop quartet Italian Soda. She’s a member of art-pop collective Hello Forever who just released their debut album Whatever it is.
Molly is also a skilled studio singer, and was recently featured in a small vocal ensemble on the soundtrack for Hulu’s Castle Rock. Other credits include CBS All Access’ Strange Angel and a recording of composer Catherine Lamb’s Pulse/Shade. In 2018, Molly released her self-produced debut album ACKLAND, recorded at California Institute of the Arts with Grammy-award-winning engineer, John Baffa. She has also recorded at Capitol Records with another Grammy-winning engineer Charlie Paakkari, as well as three albums with the American River College (ARC) Vocal Jazz Ensemble at Paradise Studios in Sacramento - two of which won Downbeat Awards.
As a vocal ensemble singer, Molly sings with Tonality, is a member of the Contemporary Choral Collective of Los Angeles, is a section leader and soloist at First Congregational Church of LA, and is part of experimental vocal ensemble HEX. As a vocal ensemble singer, Molly sings with Tonality, is a member of the Contemporary Choral Collective of Los Angeles, is a section leader and soloist at First Congregational Church of LA, and is part of experimental vocal ensemble HEX.
Most recently, Molly performed in a small group of singers with Merrill Garbus’ Tune-Yards at Walt Disney Concert Hall, and had an a cappella solo to open the performance. Molly performed at the 2011 Jazz Education Network Conference in New Orleans with the ARC Vocal Jazz Ensemble and at the American Choral Directors Association National Convention in Chicago with contemporary choir Vox Musica. Molly performed at the 2011 Jazz Education Network Conference in New Orleans with the ARC Vocal Jazz Ensemble and at the American Choral Directors Association National Convention in Chicago with contemporary choir Vox Musica.
An experienced educator, Molly has taught private voice lessons in Los Angeles, New York and Sacramento since 2008. Each summer, she coaches young vocalists at Sacramento Teagarden Jazz Camp along with some of the finest traditional jazz players in the country.
Molly completed her MFA in Jazz Studies at California Institute of the Arts in 2017, and received her BFA at The New School for Jazz and Contemporary Music in New York. Throughout Molly’s musical education, she has studied with such profound teachers as vocalist and new-music composer Theo Bleckmann, pianist and composer David Roitstein, composer and conductor Marc Lowenstein, experimental vocalist Carmina Escobar, jazz singer-songwriter Alicia Olatuja, arranger Kirk Nurock, and many others.
