Lee Mingwei's Sonic Blossom brings Schubert Lieder to MAO Turin

At the MAO (Museo di Arte Orientale) in Turin, visitors can receive a live song as a gift through Lee Mingwei's participatory performance Sonic Blossom, on view until June 4. Commissioned in 2013 for the inauguration of the National Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art in Korea, the work finally arrives in Italy thanks to a collaboration between MAO and the Conservatorio Statale di Musica Giuseppe Verdi, with vocal coach Erik Battaglia training seven singers from the conservatory. On alternating days, performers move through the museum's permanent collection to offer a Schubert Lied to a chosen visitor, leading them to the Sala Mazzonis for an intimate one-on-one performance. The piece emphasizes eye contact, compassion, and the Buddhist concepts of gift and impermanence. Singers include soprano Alessia Schumacher and mezzo-sopranos Emma Bruno and Laura Capretti. Lee Mingwei conceived Sonic Blossom while caring for his mother after surgery, finding comfort in Schubert's Lieder as unexpected gifts that helped her recovery and confronted mortality.