Week 5 - New Music Every Week!
The concert for my residency will be on August 11th from 3-5 pm at MSS Eagan facility. (3265 Northwood Circle, Eagan, MN, 55121). Looking forward to it!
Joan (above) is rocking out while singing and playing the keyboard. Joan loves performing covers like "Don't Stop Believing". She also sings great improvisations and has started writing some of her own lyrics down on paper.
Shaun from St. Paul (above) is clearly enjoying singing into the microphone.
Mary Kay (above) is recording some of her musings on the keyboard.
New Music
I mentioned this new piece in an earlier post when the St. Paul group wrote their first poem as a collective. Leah and Deb recorded vocals and I sampled some MIDI synthesizer sounds that were played by some other participants. I also added some bird sounds that I recorded while sitting outside at the coffee shop working on this piece. The bird sounds fit with one of the themes of the poem, and I've been listening to a lot of bird sounds while I going walks in parks around Minneapolis.
The group named this piece Hip Hop.
The Apple Valley group listened to Get Out of That Funk and enjoyed it! I love this piece. Seth decided to say "Dad Get Out of That Funk!" into the microphone. He got into it and kept saying it over and over so we made a piece around it. I love the lyric because I love funk music. Also everyone gets into a bad funk every once and a while and it's good to have some one give you a reminder to get out of that funk! Ashley, Matt, Kristen and Myself all recorded MIDI synthesizer parts to go along with Seths vocals.
No Way! Really embodies the playful spirit of the Oakdale group. Hannah and Nick trade "No way! Yes waaay!". They are really cranking out recordings as a group so I'm going to share two from them this week. Mike Cannot Rap is another collaborative piece. Jonathon lovingly pokes fun at his staff member Mike in his vocal performance. Jonathon told me he's dedicating all of his music to Prince which I think is a really great idea. That reminds me, I've got to get to Paisley Park while I'm out here!
Where does the music Happen?
A question Liz Lerman deals with in her book "Hiking the Horizontal" is "Where does the dancing happen?" She writes a lot of dances that are written to be performed in a specific place. Site specific dances. Her dances are written to be performed in public parks, arts institutions, government buildings or even a shipyard.
I don't write site specific music, but where we perform music has consequences. Location, ticket price and other factors can determine accessibility. With CCW I really like performing at the Free Library of Philadelphia on Vine St because it is in a concert setting, it's free, it's in a public space, and it's handicap accessible. In the spring we also put on a concert with CCW in a public park which was really wonderful. The park was filled with family members and staff members and everyone performed with a lot of energy. It was a ton of fun! For MSS we are going to be performing at their Eagan building. We chose this space because it will be easily accessible to the participants. Additionally staff members who need to transport them will already know the location so drop off and pick up from the site is routine. It's best way for us to get as many of our MSS performers there as possible. The concert can't happen with out them!
