September 13, 2013
Hello again!
I've
been closing a lot of circles since I resigned from the Detroit
Symphony Orchestra (DSO) in January. I began with DSO as a substitute,
became a member thru bizarre circumstances and now I'm closing that
career as a sub again: full circle, matching bookends, whatever you
wanna call it. Now I'm on the road half the year and staying with
friends I haven't seen since high school, then those circles close too.
The most important circle however began in 1994, when I learned of Magic of Music
initiative by the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation. It was an
intensive investment to leverage change in American orchestras for
engaging their wider communities to build new audiences. Recently, they
have been able to open up such community-engagement investments to
artistic enterprises such as CutTime®. And we are delighted, among 55
other entities, to have won $30,000 from the Knight Foundation for expanding the effective services which CutTime has developed. The big circle is closing.
The Knight Foundation grant and matching funding will produce a year of our Classical Revolution Detroit series (CRD),
3 times each month with paid musicians, marketing and other
professional services. This will empower us to go much further into
places where people discover other great music and demonstrate how
classical mirrors us all. CutTime's 3 ensembles will be the house band for half of these open jam format events, often performing actual symphonic music.
This
project can begin shortly after matching funds from local foundations,
corporations and donors are deposited with the sponsoring non-profit
fiscal agent, The Miami Foundation. The time to find matching funding
now begins. On budget of $73,000, we will need $38,000 to begin
services. We will set up a convenient online crowd-funding campaign this
fall. But please contact me directly if you are interested to become a
major sponsor or donor. Oh HAPPY day... when we have generous friends who want to help us change the world! (Press release)
In other exciting news, the string sextet CutTime Simfonica will have a debut in Washington DC November 6 noon at the National Gallery of Arts
with a program of black American composers, including two of my own
works. Other performances around that will have us at 2 churches, 2
schools and at least one club. Watch for details at the website, which
will be upgraded at end of this month.
I've been chosen to speak at the 2nd SphinxCon
on February 22nd, during the annual Sphinx Competition. SphinxCon is a
new event for national discussion around issues of diversity in the
arts. The title of my speech is Beyond Dumbing Down. Watch the calendar for the exact time. I also look forward to playing in the Sphinx Competition Orchestra.
I am still subbing a lot with Grand Rapids Symphony. The GR chapter of Classical Revolution
we started last year continues to grow, as the public, GRS musicians,
staffers and even its music director take notice and participate! Our
hope is to find funding for more consistent events around more of this
vibrant city (full of craft beer). Our next event is Sept. 25 (W) 7p at
the Speak EZ Lounge.
Recent classical music festivals in Lake George and Rochester, NY were also very successful artistically. I led 6 Art Attack
events in the Lake George tourist district and a Simfonica concert was
broadcast from the deck bar thru the restaurant system and out to a
beach with our own PA system. An Art Attack is like a flash mob or a Random Act of Music, but less stealthy. Classical works almost anywhere with the right context.
This summer's New Center Park series
by Midtown Detroit was a mixed success. We had light turnouts for the
12 programmed, one-hour events. The weather was pleasant, but the winds
and traffic noise were at times problematic despite excellent
amplification! Fortunately the lessons learned here are fueling
improvements for the immediate future.
We'll be finally launching a new website
via Wordpress by the end of this month. It will feature a cleaner look,
embedded videos and some very thought-provoking questions we've been
trying to answer for specific stakeholders.
Many other concerts, tours, workshops and projects are in development. Watch this space in coming months as they become solid.
Life is short... make it count!
Cheers,
Rick
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