Emily Manzo – Time in Water

released on CD and digital, January 23rd, 2026

Time in Water from pianist Emily Manzo documents solo pieces composed by her long-time collaborators Mary Halvorson and Aaron Siegel. Manzo, a longtime fixture of NYC new music and indie rock worlds, brings exacting and thoughtful playing to two early-career selections from Halvorson (Firepinks and Jewelweed) and a new four-part suite from Siegel.

A seasoned veteran of porous experimental sub-scenes, Emily Manzo has performed as a solo pianist and an ensemble member in the Julius Eastman Memorial Dinner, Bill T. Jones/Arnie Zane Company, Till by Turning, Arooj Aftab’s band, and Christy & Emily. She is also an avid composer, having written scores for the work of filmmaker Paul Rowley, and operas for Bayerischer Rundfunk, and Experiments in Opera. She has brought a wide range of music to life on record — from Chopin’s complete Preludes for solo piano, developed as the Hey, Chopin! educational project sponsored by the Lewis B. and Dorothy Cullman Foundation, to The Complete Works for soprano and piano by Anton Webern with Jody Pou on SHSK’H. A passionate collaborator and creative thought-partner, she has premiered works by John Luther Adams, Nick Hallett, Angélica Negrón, and many others shaping today’s musical landscape.

Manzo’s refined technique, ear, and sensibility are in full force in all three pieces. The sound world of the music is rich with resonant harmonies, delicate transitions, as well as thunderous pronouncements. Manzo approaches each of the works on the recording with a keen ear for detail, bringing out the distinctive identities of each of these composers.

Manzo has interpreted Siegel’s work on record and in performance since 2006, including recording his solo piano work A Diminished Thing and performing Book of Notions for piano and vibraphone. Their collaboration has spanned opera, art song, and Manzo’s own song-based albums, and their mutual understanding is on display in this performance of Siegel’s major composition. Manzo and Halvorson have worked together as improvisers, composers, and interpreters since 2004, notably including Jessica Pavone’s song cycle Hope Dawson is Missing.

For Siegel’s new composition Time in Water, he writes that “this piece in four movements is a conversation between a very real set of experiences in, near and around water and the personal and subjective nature of time.” Each of the four movements is named after a different water-adjacent subject: The River, The Bridge, The Pond, and Boat Song. The musical tone ranges from rhapsodic stillness, to chromatic eeriness and then rushing intensity. The collection, taken together, exemplifies a struggle between the control we wish we could exert and the appreciation that time and water are ultimately outside of our domain.  

Halvorson’s two compositions were written during the time of her engagement with the ensemble People, with Kevin Shea and Kyle Forester. They share a musical language that accentuates Halvorson’s interest in large registral shifts, spiky harmonies, and emphatic rhythms. Lurking beneath the sometimes placid exterior of the music are off-kilter rhythms and sub-divisions, giving off the feeling of uneasy bliss.

Time in Water was recorded at The Woods studio in Woodstock, New York on a Steinway B piano by Grammy-winning engineer Damon Whittemore. The album was mixed and mastered by Whittemore. The cover art for this release was created by artist Dana Bell.

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Mary Halvorson appears courtesy of Nonesuch Records