I just received news that my grant proposal that I’ve been working on for 4 years is in the final stages of getting approved by the Office of Arts & Culture, in conjunction with the City of Seattle, to create and fund a Studio Orchestra in Seattle. It has been a dream of mine to create an opportunity for Seattle musicians to come together and collaborate on music at the highest level. With the approval of this grant, I’ll be able to establish a number of things: 1. A studio orchestra featuring some of Seattle’s best musicians coming together to rehearse, record, and perform original material, as well as, arranged orchestrations for personal and commercial use. 2. The grant will help fund the cost of operation and help pay each musician and hired staff for their time in rehearsals, recording studio sessions, and performances throughout the year. 3. There will be live performances within the orchestra’s season, which will last a couple of months in one given year and will feature the orchestra’s hired musicians, as well as, any guest artists. 4. Besides rehearsing, performing and recording music throughout the year, the orchestra will be giving back to the community as much as possible. A goal of the orchestra is to help raise funds for schools and youth programs that are in risk of having their music programs cut. We’ll also be able to fund /provide free weekly or bi-weekly music lessons to kids that can’t afford this type of after-school education and they will be instructed by select orchestra members. This type of opportunity will be a very positive addition to the city of Seattle and hopefully inspire others to see the importance of art in our schools and community. 5. The orchestra and the various styles of music we’ll be playing (R&B, Pop, Classical, Soundtrack, Soul, Funk, etc.) will be a very educational experience for the musicians and opportunity for music teachers/educators to come in to a rehearsal and/or recording session and get firsthand experience as to how these sessions are run. The knowledge that they attain from a given session can be used to apply in a classroom environment. 6. The orchestra will be recording an album of original material every year and strive to release music of the highest quality and support many talented composers and arrangers, as well as, recording studios and engineers as part of the yearly process. The ultimate music goal/achievement would be to win a Grammy. I’ve been incredibly inspired by the success of a group by the name of Snarky Puppy. Don’t be fooled by the name, but they are an incredible band out of New York and just won a Grammy for Best R&B Performance for the song, “Something”. I envision our business model and approach to recording an album would be similar to theirs. These are just some of the many opportunities the orchestra provides for the city of Seattle and its wonderful musicians. I wish I can go into detail about this project more, but it would be too much for me to post on Facebook. I’m appreciative of all the support throughout the years in my passion for music and hope this dream of mine comes to fruition. I believe the city of Seattle deserves more funding for the arts and even more support for the hard working musicians that make this city a great place to be a musician. Happy Monday!
Posted on: Tue, 04 Mar 2014 01:00:41 +0000
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