The vision for OMW programs

Welcome to the National Sawdust blog. I will be posting often here about our progress and activities. I am proud to be part of helping to manifest the vision and spirit of National Sawdust through an artistic program. I have so many ideas on how this will unfold.

First, are the programs.  We will provide artists with a space that has premiere performance, rehearsal, recording and streaming possibilities.  I intend to program a rich cross section of styles of music, and will house engaging interdisciplinary work. I look forward to working with an array of curators which will enable us to maintain a broad and fully engaged program.

National Sawdust will also commission work, and will be at the forefront of housing work that defies categorization.

I am thrilled that we are planning to provide residencies for some of the most extraordinary young ensembles such as the Talea Ensemble, the Knights chamber orchestra, and ACME.

Partnerships will also be a key element of National Sawdust.  We are pleased that some of these have already been confirmed , and we are actively discussing opportunities with many others. We are beginning National Sawdust by programming a virtual year; these concerts will be at the Greene Space and will inaugurate a partnership  with Q2. We plan to reach far with our residencies and exchanges by partnering with international festivals such as Sound Res in Southern Italy and the Harare International Festival in Zimbabwe, Africa.

Part of my vision for National Sawdust, and one is that is especially meaningful for me, is that we house a powerful engagement program that is not separate from our programming, but instead, goes hand in hand with the work we do. It is time that as an artistic community we think about artists in the integrated way that our society and future need. We create art, we produce art, we engage audiences, children, students of all ages: above all we COMMUNICATE.

And it is with this need to communicate and mentor that I want to begin a Next Steps program: this program will provide mentorship to the most emerging of artists: the artist who does not yet have their footing, and who needs a place to experiment and learn. I would like to create a circular approach to the mission at National Sawdust, so that resident composers in the NEXT STEPS program can work with the resident ensembles, and learn from our partners in our engagement residencies. There will be curating opportunities, commissioning opportunities, and web programming that is available to the widest circle of artists on all topics revolving around “artistic bootstraps”.

We are very fortunate to be talking to several amazing groups about how they would engage our immediate Brooklyn community and use our facility as a portal to a global community.  We will be working with Found Sound Nation. They mix social activism with new practices in technology and music and their work has brought them to Zimbabwe, Haiti, and Mexico, among other locations. We are in discussions with ICE, ETHEL and the New York Philharmonic Very Young Composers program, as well to house their amazing programs.

Lastly, I am very very excited by discussions I have been having with Ruby Lerner about housing part of the Creative Capital professional development sessions for artists at National Sawdust. Ruby and the team she assembles have a treasure trove of knowledge, and I see this as a continuation of our Next Steps program for more advanced artists…after all, emerging is a subjective word, ask any artist!

Having been a twenty-something and now thirty something composer, I know what it means to need mentorship. There needs to be flexibility, and most of all tenacity and passion. I am confident that National Sawdust can contribute in a valuable and unique way to our immediate and global artistic ecology.

As mentioned, we will present unbelievable programming prior to opening this year in live and streamed concerts (by Q2) at the Greene Space and in National Sawdust’s shell, ranging from Erika Harrsch’s kite installation flute concerto to famed improviser Helga Davis; our artists in residence and grammy winning ensembles such as Brooklyn Rider and pianist Alessio Bax and fence bower Jon Rose.  We are asking artists (who will be curators and make part of our groups in residence) to improvise in our space as it progresses, and are commissioning an amazing filmmaker to capture these performances as they illuminate the space in sound. Please stay in touch as we begin to create art prior to our opening.