Mary E. Larew is a native of Iowa City, Iowa USA, where she grew up studying violin and piano at the Preucil School of Music. A 2005 Marshall Scholar, Mary recently finished her PhD in Directing Medieval Music Dramas at the University of York, UK, where she also completed an MA in Ensemble Singing with her vocal quintet Uncloistered, studying singing with Lynne Dawson and Anna Maria Friman. These graduate degrees were supervised by John Potter. Mary graduated with a Bachelor of Music in Music Composition from the Oberlin Conservatory of Music.
In 2006 Mary founded Viriditas, an ensemble of flexible forces specializing in music-theatre from the fringes of the repertoire, medieval to modern. The opening season included productions of Fleury Playbook Image of Saint Nicholas and Herod and the Slaughter of the Innocents, as well as Kurt Weill's The Tsar Has His Photograph Taken. Previously, Mary directed 13th-century Ludus Danielis and 12th-century Hildegard von Bingen's Ordo Virtutum, with performances in York, Oberlin, Cleveland and Boston. She has also performed with the Renaissance wind band Ciaramella and can be found on the Naxos CD Sacred and Secular Music from Renaissance Germany.
Since August 2010, Mary has been based in New Haven, Connecticut.
