Mezzo soprano Misha Penton's diverse performing career includes opera and multidisciplinary performance projects. Most recently, she sang the role of Leah in Ofer Ben-Amots' contemporary multimedia chamber opera, The Dybbuk, presented by the Jewish Community Center Houston's Maurice Adamo Music Foundation Residency. She has also created the roles of Isabelle and Brooklyn in the world premieres of The Masque by Roger Keele for Lone Star Lyric Theater Festival and James Norman’s opera Wake… with Opera Vista; and Marguerite in Norman's Incline, O Maiden, a monodrama for mezzo soprano and chamber ensemble, with Audio Inversions, a new music ensemble, of Austin, Texas. Upcoming engagements include future performances of The Dybbuk, and performances in Divergence Vocal Theater's 2009-10 season in Houston, Texas.
Ms. Penton is the founder and artistic director of Divergence Vocal Theater, a Houston-based opera and interdisciplinary performing arts company. In 2008-09, she sang Ottavia in Divergence Vocal Theater’s inaugural production, The Ottavia Project, Sapho in The 10th Muse, and was a featured soloist in Autumn Spectre, a multimedia evening of staged arts songs, piano works, and dance. Upcoming Divergence Vocal Theater projects include the world premiere of new dramatic song cycles by composers James Norman and Eliot Cooper Cole, both with words by Ms. Penton; and several opera/multidisciplinary projects slated for 2010. She has also sung in Mercury Baroque’s productions of Pygmalion and Armide; and is a member of the Houston Grand Opera Chorus, as well as a Teaching Artist with Houston Grand Opera's Educational Outreach community engagement wing, HGOco.
As a interdisciplinary performing artist, Ms. Penton has released original music recordings and composed music for contemporary dance performances at DiverseWorks Arts Space (Houston), the University of Houston Center for Choreography, and for New Orleans contemporary dance company, Happensdance. She has spearheaded projects such as her adaptation of George MacDonald's children's classic, At the Back of the North Wind, a fusion of music, dance and text, which appeared in Houston’s Big Range Dance Festival. She is a featured guest artist on the 2007 release of On the Strings of the Rain with pianist and composer Roger Keele and members of the Houston Symphony and Houston Grand Opera Orchestra.