Larson Legacy Concert: Daniel Henri Emond (with Livestream)

Jonathan Larson Grant recipient Daniel Emond and a talented cast will perform portions of his newest musical inspired by the women surrounding the father of modern psychoanalysis, Sigmund Freud, titled A Canary in the Mind. Jordon Bolden (The Kill Room) will play Carl Jung; Sylver Wallace (Live from Lincoln Center) will play young Anna Freud, and Dora/Ida Bauer; Jessie Shelton (Hadestown) will play Sabina Spielrein and adult Anna Freud; and Emond will portray Freud himself. Using Emond’s signature rock folk edge, A Canary in the Mind explores the inner workings of Freud’s most compelling and fraught relationships, using the imagery of the Freudian and Jungian dreamspace as the thematic through line, over a musical soundscape incorporating folk, neo-soul, and hiphop. 

Daniel Emond is a Queens-based singer, musician, composer for Musical Theatre, and recording artist. His rock opera Kill the Whale: A Musical Odyssey has seen development in the Polyphone Festival, Yaddo, SPACE on Ryder Farm, Corkscrew Festival, NYU, the Melville bi-Centennial Conference, and Nantucket Theatre Workshop. The project began as a concept album in January 2015, and has taken nine years to complete, and was released as a white vinyl double LP nearly 100 minutes in length, pressed by Gotta Groove Records, in concert at Joe’s Pub in April 2024 alongside the full recording cast. Other composing credits include the multi-lingual score to Neil Bartlett’s The Plague at Hong Kong Arts Festival 2021. In 2022 and 2023 Daniel workshopped a brand new original musical about the Freudian dreamspace, and began work on an untitled autobiographical musical film, as an artist-in-Residence at Culture Lab at the Plaxall Gallery in Queens and at the Good Hart Residency in Michigan, respectively. Daniel has received a 2023 Queens QAF grant. Daniel tours as a banjoist, and writes down every dream he can remember. Music can be hard work, and doing hard work in a warm, dry place is a great privilege.

There will be a reception following the performance for audience and performers.

This event will also be livestreamed for those unable to attend in person.