Film by Ali Hossaini. Libretto by Donna Di Novelli.

Commissioned by VisionIntoArt; produced by Beth Morrison Projects.

The power of music took over all of us that sunny Saturday afternoon. Live music and performance relies on collective transcendence. We were right in the middle of a modern sacred ritual, just like the Ancient Greeks whose works form the academic foundation here at Columbia. There is a higher calling within a live performance akin to a religious experience that you don’t get from all artistic media. It is an unidentifiable feeling. Our collective, influenced by the music bounced back reverberating and affecting the performers creating an energy that pulsated between artist and audience, pinging back and forth and transforming both groups simultaneously. A Bacchanalian rite.

It wasn’t until my first concert that I fully understood the power of the “live.” My first real concert, Donavon Frankenritter, at the local Santa Cruz, California venue, his black and white pants covered in musical notes and maroon jacket and he sang bathed in bright blue light. It was theatrical. It was an experience of us all breathing that same magical air of the concert hall. It was pure transcendence. I was hooked. The energy, electricity, of a concert keeps you coming back for more. This time it was my college community, the one I will be sad to leave in a month, coming together one last time to celebrate music, our school, and something bigger than us all that we couldn’t quite put our fingers on.

-Rebecca Clark

Participating in the promotion of VIA’s Kickstarter made me see the connection between artists and the community with new eyes. I had often participated in student theater productions, doing numerous bake sales and car washes to fund our performances. People would donate a dollar here and there for a brownie or clean windows, but what I did not see was the devotion to insuring the function of art in our community. Art is essential to life. You do not have to be an artist yourself in order to create, but you can foster an environment in which art takes place. I want to say thank you to all of the supporters of the arts. Artists do not produce art in a vacuum. Artists are only able to make work in a society that says: “We value art, therefore we will support a space for its creation.”

-Rebecca Clark

Among art administrators, it’s a common frustration to seek and hold dearly onto “new audiences”. Grantmakers want us to share our strategies on how we intend to do this, the dwindling audiences have our boards in a tizzy… when quite simply– the standard model is obsolete.

I like to recall a statement I overheard from a frustrated art administrator: “New audiences? I have been trying to find those for 30 years.” Although we all share her pain, we also may be overlooking the obvious – the new audience is the one we’ve had all along.  What’s new is how we connect with them so they keep coming back and, hopefully, support our organizations beyond the ticket price.

Human nature dictates our need to connect.  In the past, to see a performance you’d go to the concert hall, meet some friends, sit down and listen to the music and maybe, if you were lucky, meet the artist afterwards. Nowadays, music is in your pocket, art is on your phone, the newest movie or something like it is on your computer, and if you are fan of someone, you can connect with him or her on twitter or facebook. Some would think this would cause competition, when in fact; it’s proof that audiences want a more personal connection with performing arts. Moreover, what seems to be so isolating –sitting at a computer all day- is actually facilitating an easier and more efficient way to become more involved. What Kickstarter invites fans to do is to take this step further and become involved in projects from the beginning, allowing the fans to be, rightly so, part of the artistic process. These intimate connections provide artistic projects normally not funded in the standard old way- grants and people with large sums of money- to be funded by the entire audience.

On the flip side, beautifully described in Amanda Palmer’s TED talk, is that we shouldn’t worry about making people buy music; we need to let them. To this end, Kickstarter allows our audiences to know what is happening and to be part of the process. For today’s audiences, it’s our jobs as artistic managers and artists not to find these people and present our ideas to them; it’s our job to invite them to the conversation.

(And I invite you to our conversation by visiting our Kickstarter Campaign!! Please RSVP by clicking here! I also invite you to see VIA Artist, Jeffrey Zeigler’s, post on CELLOBELLO about our Kickstarter Campaign.)

When you choose to pursue a life in the arts people will tell you that it is difficult and that so much of that career path is based on luck. You may encounter a “big break” so to speak, but a big break is worthless unless you have put in the work beforehand. As artists it is difficult just to say that you are one. It is hard to own that identity because of the way in which others view a life dedicated to music, theater, film, dance, and so on and so forth. I find that when I start worrying about the future and how to make it as an artist I simply have to look around at my peers. They are my inspiration because they are doing it. Now. They are putting in the work that we will all look back on someday when they finally have their “big break.” They are artists. We are artists.

One of my inspirational artists friends is Taylor Simone. She is a talented vocalist who first caught my eye at the annual Columbia spring concert, Bacchanal. She was performing as part of the Columbia University Society of Hip-Hop, which was opening for Snoop Doog. She mounted this daunting task flawlessly getting the crowd of the entire school to sing along with her about being in love with their best friend. From that day I admired her, and that admiration grew as I watched her passionately pursue her dream of leading a musical life. She will be performing this Thursday 02/21 at 7pm at the Underground Lounge at 106^th and West End Avenue. I encourage you all to witness this burgeoning talent so that you too can say you knew her back then.

Sincerely,

Rebecca Clark

I recalled a rehearsal that I sat in for one of VIA’s projects Aging Magician that recently debuted at the Prototype Festival. I watched these professional navigate the terrain of the project with ease as they knew when to lean on each other, when to push, take a step back, or nudge gently for the sake of the work. They each had different responsibilities, but their process together seemed as natural as the ebb and flow of the tide. It was comforting to feel the support of my very own design team all around me: set, lights, costumes, and sound. My teammates. My crew. My collaborators. As we set off on this strange journey into the unknown I knew we would test each other and through that process push each other to grow. The fear was still there, but rather than an obstacle it had become a tool.

“Are you paralyzed with fear? That’s a good sign. Fear is good. Like self-doubt, fear is an indicator. Fear tells us what we have to do. Remember one rule of thumb: the more scared we are of a work or calling, the more sure we can be that we have to do it. Resistance is experienced as fear; the degree of fear equates the strength of Resistance. Therefore, the more fear we feel about a specific enterprise, the more certain we can be that that enterprise is important to us and to the growth of our soul.” ― Steven Pressfield

It’s only fitting we are sending out our new website in the New Year. We have so many exciting programs this year that this blog will keep you posted on. However, for the first blog- which will later be enhanced by our lovely Columbia University intern, Rebecca Clark, I wanted to get a bit personal with you.

When Paola asked me to join the team as Managing Director, I couldn’t have been more thrilled. Finally, with my experience as an opera singer, agent and over 5 years of artistic administration experience, I felt like I had finally reached home. This feeling was cemented when I went to the “stumble thru” (the first go of a performance with no stops) of our upcoming performance AGING MAGICIAN with Rinde Eckert, Brooklyn Youth Chorus, under the deft conducting skills of Diane Berkun and an amazing quintet: Cornelius Dufallo, Courtney Orlando, Ljova Zhorkin and Ha Yang Kim. The music by Paola Prestini was transcending and the amazing (AMAZING) evocations and commitment by Rinde and the musicians was stellar. And this was only the stumble thru!

It is with this excitement that I encourage you to look at our amazing brand new website. Even though I have worked with Paola only these past two months, I can say- and for those of you already familiar with her energy- her artistic momentum is infectious. And it is with this momentum that I encourage you to look through our amazing website designed by Caleb Custer and logo by Smartbomb.

Looking forward to meeting you all in 2013!

The next 21c Liederabend will be held at BAM’s Next Wave festival November 2013! We are thrilled by this, and are actively curating now.

Here are some accolades!

“BEST of 2009″  Time Out NY.

“Beth Morrison Projects, in league with Opera on Tap and VisionIntoArt, REINVENT THE ART OF THE SONG RECITAL for GENERATION Y” -The New Yorker, April 2011

“Producer Beth Morrison (dubbed by Zachary Woolfe of The New York Observer as “the opera lady who likes it crazy”) along with Opera on Tap and VisionIntoArt have created a series devoted to contemporary opera and art song that is continually satisfying — and continually ambitious.”
- The New Yorker, April 2011

VisionIntoArt is thrilled to co-produce (alongside Beth Morrison Projects and Opera on Tap) 21c Liederabend, an evening of 21st century post-classical song featuring “a starry constellation”
(Time Out New York) of living composers.

21c Liederabend is the most ambitious comprehensive art song festival of the NY season, with 20 new pieces of vocal music (and 8 world premieres!) over 3 nights at the Kitchen. It featured an explosive array of styles, and a visual palate of projection design. Newly commissioned films and sculptural lighting design were included.

“The composers involved in this new Liederabend…span New York’s vibrant, inclusive new-music scene. Some…have shaped tastes for decades. Others like Sarah Kirkland Snider, David T. Little and Matt Marks are among the brightest lights to emerge in recent seasons… Joining those composers…is an equally starry constellation of vocalists, actors, stage directors and video artists.”
- Time Out New York, April 2011

Liederabend 2009 and 2011 artists and much more information is listed here below.

www.21cliederabend.com

www.21cliederabend.com

www.21cliederabend.com