Mirror Touch by Concetta Abbate

Mirror Touch is a song cycle, the outcome of creative collaboration between a musician/composer and women facing mental health challenges, including their struggles with self-care. In this project, Concetta Abbate used a series of anonymous interviews as a springboard to explore music’s capacity to elicit the most exceptional levels of empathy. The song cycle's title refers to the experience of extreme empathy felt by people with the neurocognitive trait Mirror-Touch Synesthesia. The composition utilizes a simplistic outline of harmony and motif using primarily 5 string violin, drums, and highlights of woodwinds. The timbres and textures of the instruments move together effectively to take listeners on a journey of emotions. Emotions that are raw, complex and as layered as the music’s arrangement. There are moments of dissonance, comfort, solitude and contemplation. This is a clear, sonic representation of a story depicting valiance and bravery through embracing the unknown.

Concetta Abbate is a classically trained violinist/vocalist turned improviser and composer. Grammy.com describes her original performances as a mix of “Violin and delicate vocals that float between the worlds of Modern Classical, Neo-Folk, and poignant and poetic verse”. Her studio albums of her original music span genres of New Classical, Jazz, Experimental and Folk.'

concettaabbate.com