Why Adopt a Performing Mindset? The performing mindset transcends the literal act of performing. It’s about presenting ideas and engaging with your audience—be it in a concert hall, during a pitch, or across social media.

The MF Dynamics winter show, Pulse, at ROUNDHEAD BREWING COMPANY in Hyde Park, Boston, presented by DEPARTURE ARTS became a massive celebration of community, neighbors, family, and percussion + lights experiments. Made possible by the Mass Cultural Council, the event featured performances by Emma Terrell, Denver Nuckolls, Maria Finkelmeier, and a light-painting booth by Jess Holz.

This multidisciplinary piece, which lives outside of conventional genre classification, was aptly described by performers Jean Laurenz, Maria Finkelmeier, and Greg Jukes as ‘chamber theater.’ This label perfectly acknowledges the way that all elements of composition, staging, film, performance, and visual effects contribute to the narrative.

A deeper dive into MF Dynamics creation and sales of NFTs along with an inside look at the recent performance at Roundhead Brewery that featured live, responsive visuals and a special NFT gift for attendees. By Elisabeth Sweet, Head of Community at MF Dynamics

My name is Denver Nuckolls, and I am thrilled to have recently spoken with Maria Finkelmeier, creative catalyst and founder of MF Dynamics, in the first of four conversations that we hope will assist audiences and aspiring artists in demystifying the thoughts, processes, and goals of a professional in the field.

Maria’s new work for large, flexible ensemble, the Me you See, premiered on Saturday, April 20 at the Longy School of Music as part of the New Gallery Concert Series’ season finale. The work invited audience members to fully immerse themselves in the theme of the event, to “adopt and adapt.”

On April 30, the New Gallery Concert Series will host its first in-person live event since the pandemic started. The event, titled “Adopt and Adapt” will take place at the Longy School of Music, and will feature performances of original works created for this event by local composers, including our very own Maria Finkelmeier!

DESCENDED is featured in a review by Max Christie in this month’s The Whole Note magazine! Max writes: “Descended is a project that warrants close listening. It’s not an easy collection to categorize.”

MF Dynamic’s fearless leader, Maria, recently took part in a weeklong performance workshop of Tod Machover’s 1987 opera, VALIS, at MIT, led by the composer himself and director, Jay Scheib.

Fittingly, for our first blog of 2022 we are revisiting the subject of our last blog of 2021: FREQUENCIES. Since it was first mounted back in the Fall, “Frequencies” has lit up the night and will continue to do so every night from 5:00 - 10:00 PM through February 28.

The mf team is gearing up to bring some much needed joyful ambiance to the Harvard Ed Portal this Fall. FREQUENCIES is a crowdsourced audio/visual mural that features the sounds and sights of Allston-Brighton, straight from the people who live, work, and play in this vibrant Boston neighborhood. Maria will be collaborating with visual artist, Allison Tanenhaus on this nightly pulsating performance that will run from November 2021 - February 2022.

“Centuries in the Making: Gloucester’s Wives & Fisherman Shine On” is a collaboration bringing mfD back together with Luminartz and Hersch Visuals to honor the 20th anniversary of the unveiling of the Gloucester Fishermen’s Wives Memorial, a contribution to this fishing community by the Gloucester Fishermen’s Wives Association. The project will celebrate the tireless efforts of the women of this organization whose contributions include, “promoting the New England fishing industry, helping to preserve the Atlantic Ocean as a food supply for the world, and assisting active and retired fishermen and their families to live better lives.”

“Threads of Assumption: The Biases We Weave” opens in 2 weeks, and in preparation, Maria and her co-collaborators held a retreat earlier this week to unpack the source material and determine the process for creating this exciting and thought provoking multi-disciplinary installation.

For the past week and a half and through next week, Maria has been hard at work presenting at and directing Beyond Walls: Performance in Public Space. This three-week credit-bearing intensive for college music, dance and theatre students at Boston Conservatory at Berklee is the first of its kind. Participants discover the possibilities, best practices, creative thinking, and practical implementation of large-scale public performance works.

Threads of Assumption: The Biases You Weave is a multidisciplinary exploration of the impact gender based harm has on one’s health, professional trajectory, and interpersonal relationships. Threads is a collaboration by Maria, Sofie Hodara, Martha Rettig, and U-Meleni Mhlaba-Adebo, is made possible by The Boston Foundations Live Arts Boston Grant in Residency at the Goethe Institut, and will be shown in June of 2021. Read more to find out how to become involved in the generation of material for this project.

The Collective Body is a “transdisciplinary audio/video project that proposes to capture the circumstances of life in isolation during COVID-19.” Dancers and musicians participated in a sort of 21st century game of telephone, in which dancers made videos of specific body parts, which the musicians then responded to with recordings, which then is sent back to the dancers for a response, and so on and so forth. Maria was a participating artist on this project, and was thrilled to be a part of the collaboration earlier this. year.

Maria recently sat down for an interview with Annie Lundsten, a co-founder and principal owner of The Experience Alchemists, also know as TEA. TEA is a new organization that creates unique experiences out of collaboration with a roster of diverse creative partners, ranging from visual artists, poets, chefs, musicians, and MF Dynamics! Read on to hear about Maria’s thoughts on inspiration, audiences, her background as a percussionist, and this new organization we are thrilled to partner with!

Nubian Nights is a 3-weekend installation guided by jazz, light, and love, presented by the Roxbury Cultural District, and produced by MF Dynamics and Hersch Visuals at Jazz Urbane Café, Black Market, Nubian Gallery.

The secret it out! We are thrilled to share that we'll be illuminating the DCR Hatch Shell in Boston to celebrate the 20th anniversary of The Esplanade Association - bringing a little joy to a dark New England winter and celebrating the potential of 2021! We hope you’ll join us this Jan & Feb on the Esplanade!

The idea for Project Daydream came to me just as the pandemic was becoming a reality in the US, but before we really understood the long term effects of the virus. I wanted to create a body of work that would encourage calm and imagination for young people. I wanted to introduce the meditative and warm tone of the marimba, and challenge ears and eyes with improvisatory ideas and contemporary sounds.