OUR HOUSE, JONI’S HOUSE

MUSE/IQUE opens the door to Joni Mitchell’s world
with fresh arrangements, stories and songs

Joni Mitchell’s house became our house at the opening night of Defiantly Joni.

Effie Passero

Saturday night at the Mark Taper Forum, MUSE/IQUE opened the doors to an intimate and loving “house concert” featuring Joni’s most beloved songs—as well as songs by several of her friends and Laurel Canyon housemates—all creatively reimagined in the MUSE/IQUE way.

Chris Pierce

The concert was a showcase for vocalists Effie Passero, Chris Pierce, and the DC6 Singers Collective, accompanied by a tailor-made ensemble of the MUSE/IQUE Orchestra and guided by Artistic & Music Director Rachael Worby.

DC6 Singers Collective

Passero cast a spell over the audience with a warm introduction of “California,” and she lifted the room with “Both Sides Now,” recast as a defiant anthem. Pierce brought his soulful vocal chops and harmonica to bear on redefining interpretations of “The Circle Game” and “Help Me.” And a quartet from the DC6 Singers Collective wrapped their harmonies around these familiar songs and gave them new emotional meaning.

MUSE/IQUE

Brand-new charts by MUSE/IQUE’s superstar house arrangers Michael Valerio (also on fretless bass), Jamey Tate (percussion), Gabe Witcher (fiddle), and Vincent Oppido painted all of these classic tunes and many others in astonishing new colors, a unique palette made for guitars, woodwind chorus, and percussion powerhouses Sidney Hopson and Mona Tavakoli.

MUSE/IQUE

It was an evening of painting as much as music, filled with portraits, photographs, and stories of Joni Mitchell’s defiant journey—with Maestra Worby drawing laughs and gasps with her deeply woven tapestry of anecdotes and insights. The already intimate Mark Taper Forum was transformed into Joni’s house, inviting a sold-out audience to sit around the hearth and get lost in Joni’s genius.

Sidney Hopson

On Saturday, MUSE/IQUE proved that Graham Nash’s words from 1970 remain true: Joni’s house is a very, very, very fine house.

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photos by Haoyuan Ren

Defiantly Joni: A Singer-Songwriter Bares Her Soul
MUSE/IQUE
Mark Taper Forum in Los Angeles
reviewed July 11, 2026
for future performances, visit MUSE/IQUE

for more shows, visit Theatre in Los Angeles

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