Fifth House Ensemble joins the Boulanger Initiative for their upcoming WoCo Fest (June 3-6).
Events:
The Gainfully Employed Composer, June 3, 2:00-3:00pm ET
This workshop is all about the composer’s toolbox: sure you know how to compose a great motet, but how do you run a successful business and home studio? Covering topics from the best equipment and software to invest in, to passive income strategies for sales and rentals as a self-published composer, these are the “nuts and bolts” that keep your business running smoothly. Populated by various case studies of both emerging and established composers who inhabit diverse genders and genres, this workshop also sketches out the variety of related employable skills such as music engraving, audio recording, and web design acumen which can become part of the modern composer’s “portfolio” career. We’ll also trace what professional advancement looks like in terms of growth and income streams for composers building any permutation of entrepreneurial, academic, fine arts, and commercial music careers.
Creating Compositions with Community, June 3, 3:30-4:30pm ET
Composing all alone is fine and all, but what about designing projects in collaboration with a community? This workshop explores the exciting world of public practice art, and the skills composers need to weave musical creation into engaging events for communities as diverse as students, non-arts cultural organizations, or vulnerable populations such as the homeless and incarcerated youth. While composers are often cast as the heroes of classical music, designing musical projects with and for the community requires a shift in defining the arts as a form of service; a shift which likewise requires new skills in guiding group improvisations, activities, musical games, and how to program in dialogue with your audience. Learning how to hold space for others most different than ourselves can be the most inspiring part of a composer’s work!
Fresh Voices from Fresh Inc, June 3, 6:00pm ET
Since 2012, Fifth House Ensemble's Fresh Inc Festival has helped emerging artists envision and launch their own authentic careers in music, rooted in genre-defying collaboration, entrepreneurial thinking, and new dialogues with audiences and community. The festival's Fresh Voices program was created to provide dedicated scholarship support to Fresh Inc festival participants who are female, artists of color, and/or LGBTQ-identified, filling an industry-wide need to amplify voices under-represented by major institutions. It's also a snapshot of the myriad approaches to music-making in today's world, featuring works based on improvisation, electronics, and more - and a chance to empower some of the freshest young voices amongst us.
Fresh Voices is supported by a grant from the Elizabeth F. Cheney Foundation.