Over four seasons, Emerald City Music has delivered groundbreaking classical music shows to audiences in Seattle, Olympia, and Bellingham WA. Now, the chamber music organization leverages its platform during this time of great need to re-imagine what it means to be a community of music-lovers.
“Emerald City Music searches for the silver linings and takes this as an opportunity- an opportunity to shift our focus to serve our community. This Fall is our celebration of bringing music to the next generation of future listeners and musicians. We are taking down dividing lines in our cities to partner with organizations that strengthen one another through innovation and creativity. All of us at Emerald City Music believe in the sheer power of music. We believe that we are living in times when music can serve to heal, empower, and rejuvenate humanity more than ever.” –Kristin Lee, Artistic Director
FALL 2020 HIGHLIGHTS
A 10-part digital series of concerts and discussions hosted by Emerald City Music’s resident artists.
A city-wide festival called This Is Beethoven, presented in collaboration with twenty area arts organizations of varied disciplines.
An in-school program in Olympia, teaching artists engage with 5th grade students to create a composition to premiere on the ECM stage.
A partnership with Project: Music Heals Us, using classical music to bring hope to doctors, nurses, and those affected by COVID-19.
A focused outreach and engagement strategy, bringing classical music to transitional housing shelters, drug treatment centers, and family support services.
A collaboration with Seattle Youth Symphony Orchestras to build up the next generation of musicians.
THE ARTISTS
For the first time ever, Emerald City Music audiences will get to know Emerald City Music’s artists like friends as they experience an extended stay in Seattle & Olympia throughout the Fall season. Seven artists join the organization from September 25 – December 13, as well as a series of guest artists throughout the Fall. Biographies and high-resolution images are available on the Emerald City Music website: www.emeraldcitymusic.org/
RESIDENT MUSICIANS
Dmitri Atapine, cello (Seoul, Korea): member of the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center
Nathan Chan, cello (Seattle, WA): member of the Seattle Symphony Orchestra
Andrew Gonzalez, viola (Seattle, WA): baroque violist; member of Carnegie Hall’s Ensemble Connect
Yoonah Kim, clarinet (New York, NY): winner of Concert Artists Guild competition
Kristin Lee, violin (New York, NY): Avery Fisher Career Grant recipient, Artistic Director of Emerald City Music
Demarre McGill, flute (Seattle, WA): member of the Seattle Symphony Orchestra
Hyeyeon Park, piano (Seoul, Korea): prizewinner of international competitions: Oberlin, Ettlingen, Prix Amadèo
Rachell Ellen Wong, violin (Seattle, WA): baroque violinist, Avery Fisher Career Grant recipient
TEACHING ARTISTS
Brad Balliett, composer (New York, NY): Princeton Symphony principal bassoonist, former Director of Decoda
Claire Bryant, cello (South Carolina): founding member of the chamber music society Decoda
GUEST ARTISTS
The Miró Quartet (Austin, TX): first prize at Banff International Quartet Competition and Naumburg Competition
Jeremy Jordan, piano (New York, NY): winner of Steinway Concerto Competition, and lauded jazz pianist
Tessa Lark, violin (New York, NY): winner of the 2012 Naumburg International Violin Competition
Brandon Ridenour, trumpet (New York, NY): member of Canadian Brass, winner of Concert Artists Guild Competition
Michael Thurber, double bass (New York, NY): composed for The Royal Shakespeare Company, performing in the house band on The Late Show with Stephen Colbert
OUTREACH
Emerald City Music is committed to leveraging our artistic platform to truly be responsive and adaptive to the community’s current needs. Seven artists-in-residence will engage with residents in Seattle & Olympia through dozens of partnerships that bring classical music to transitional housing facilities, homeless shelters, hospitals, retirement communities, and more.
Transitional Housing & Shelters: The Olympia Symphony and Emerald City Music have built new partnerships with Olympia’s transitional housing and homeless shelters to bring classical music to many who are most isolated by the COVID-19 pandemic. In partnership with Drexel House (the Catholic Community Services 100-unit transitional housing facility on Olympia’s Pacific Ave), InterFaith Works (operating a shelter on Olympia’s Martin Way), Family Support Center of South Sound, and local church temporary homeless shelters, the organizations will provide monthly performances featuring Olympia Symphony’s orchestra musicians – arranged into small ensembles to maintain social distancing – and Emerald City Music’s seven resident artists featured through their Fall 2020 chamber music offerings. Performances will include music, storytelling, and dialogue with residents, occurring from October to December 2020.
Treatment Service Centers: Emerald City Music is delivering recorded performances to Evergreen Treatment Services in Seattle and Lacey, WA, to engage with clients while they are waiting to receive substance-abuse treatment. These digital performances will be played in the lobbies and waiting rooms.
Hospitals & COVID-19 Patients: In partnership with the national organization Project: Music Heals Us, Emerald City Music is bringing classical music to the frontlines of the COVID-19 crisis by performing virtually for doctors, nurses, and their patients. The effort, part of the national Vital Sounds initiative endorsed by cellist Yo-Yo Ma, will bring over 6,000 hours of live classical music to bedsides in the next year. On Project: Music Heals Us, the New York Times states, “There are very few things in this world[that can] transcend time and place, and […] music is one of those things. It adds a level of humanity to a situation that I think this virus has taken away.” Emerald City Music’s seven artists-in-residence work in partnership with hospitalist connections made through Project: Music Heals Us to bring hope and beauty to doctors, nurses, healthcare workers, and patients. This work will commence virtually at Providence Everett Medical Center and Providence Mount St. Vincent.
Retirement Communities: In partnership with Panorama Retirement Community in Lacey and Mirabella Retirement Community in Seattle, Emerald City Music will provide over a dozen virtual performances for residents who are sheltering in place. These digital performances are designed to connect residents, provide time for social interaction, and deliver high-caliber music in lieu of not having live in-person concerts during this time.
EDUCATION
As schools announce online curricula for the Fall trimester, students have had their day-to-day lives drastically transformed to fit into an online setting. There has suddenly arisen a great and urgent need for dynamic and engaging music education programming for students learning both early fundamentals and advanced technique. Through two key programs in Seattle & Olympia, Emerald City Music is partnering with local institutions to aid students this Fall.
Public School Composition Program: The Olympia Symphony and Emerald City Music both have previously served Thurston County area schools by bringing live classical music into the classroom setting. Now, the organizations are turning their gazes on supporting the music curriculum for fourth and fifth grade classes, where the foundations for middle and high school music education are built. The collaborative program begins with Emerald City Music’s teaching artists – cellist Claire Bryant and bassoonist/composer Brad Balliett; both members of the Decoda Ensemble and lauded performers and instructors –who will work alongside 80 Olympia-area music students to provide a creative composition experience. Through virtual workshops with Bryant and Balliett, students will meet the members of the Olympia Symphony Orchestra, learn about the instrument families, get to know the composer’s toolbox, and together create a new, collaborative composition based on a meaningful folk or indigenous song of Washington state. The workshops will be provided weekly from October 5 – November 20th, 2020, with a culminating virtual performance of the new composition by the Olympia Symphony Orchestra on Emerald City Music’s free end-of-season livestream on Sunday, December 13, 2020.
Violinist Kristin Lee, Artistic Director of Emerald City Music, shares, “I am so thrilled that Emerald City Music is able to use this unique time as an opportunity to shift our focus to the community of Olympia. The Olympia school district has a close place in my heart, especially after doing a tour through over ten different schools with Jennifer Hermann, the executive director of The Olympia Symphony, in past seasons. This opportunity to partner with the orchestra, and bring musical activities to the students while all classes are going virtual, is extremely meaningful to me. I hope this collaboration – using music as our medium – gives hope to students, teachers, and the Olympia community.”
Seattle Youth Symphony Orchestras: In a brand new partnership with the region’s oldest and largest youth orchestra, Emerald City Music artists will work alongside students as they prepare for a Concerto Competition. Through a series of masterclasses, as well as adjudicating the judging of the competition, Emerald City Music artists will contribute their expertise to help ensure that the next generation of world-class musicians hails from the Pacific Northwest.
LIVE EVENTS
Emerald City Music is entering its SEASON 05 this Fall, and we want to celebrate with as much music as possible. The season is bookended by two free community livestream events on September 25 and December 13, 2020. Other special events include:
This is Beethoven (December 16 – 19, 2020): Over a four-day virtual festival, over twenty Seattle-area arts organizations join forces virtually to demonstrate art’s ability to bring hope and articulate the essence of humanity. Why theme a festival on Beethoven in 2020? Not only is December 16th, 2020 the 250th birthday of Beethoven, but his presence in musical history is a great example of the needs in our times right now: pushing for change, unafraid of our voice, and transforming vulnerability to creativity. He is what represents ‘human’- the beauty we see through the imperfections and what we love about humanity. As we are facing this extraordinary time in our history, we want to involve arts organizations of all disciplines in Seattle to stand up, be revolutionary, educate our community, and promote cultural change. The festival features the award-winning Miró Quartet alongside twenty regional arts presenters. Sponsored in part by KING FM and the Vashon Center for the Arts.
Wine Down Mondays (October 5 – December 7, 2020): While we can’t produce our normal in-person concerts, Emerald City Music has opened up a door to create a new experience for the ECM community to gather. Wine Down Mondays is a weekly ten-part series where the Emerald City Music community will gather virtually, make friends with our musicians, and hear live music. Each Monday features a totally different experience, from live concerts and bar-trivia to insightful behind-the-scenes conversations with musicians.
10.5 (7 PM): WINE DOWN ONE with trumpeter Brandon Ridenour & pianist Jeremy Jordan
10.12 (7 PM): WINE DOWN TWO with cellist Dmitri Atapine & pianist Hyeyeon Park
10.19 (7 PM): WINE DOWN THREE with cellist Nathan Chan
10.26 (7 PM): WINE DOWN FOUR with violinist Kristin Lee
11.2 (7 PM): WINE DOWN FIVE with flutist Demarre McGill
11.9 (7 PM): WINE DOWN SIX with clarinetist Yoonah Kim
11.16 (7 PM): FUN-RAISER: with violinist Kristin Lee, supporting ECM’s Fall 2020 community engagement
11.23 (7 PM): WINE DOWN EIGHT with violinist Rachell Ellen Wong & violist Andrew Gonzalez
11.30 (7 PM): WINE DOWN NINE with violinist Kristin Lee
12.7 (7 PM): WINE DOWN TEN with violinist Tessa Lark & bassist Michael Thurber
To promote equity and inclusivity during this time, Wine Down Monday events are unticketed. A donation of any amount (as little as $1) grants listeners access to the full 10-part series of Wine Down Monday events.
PARTNERSHIP SUMMARY
The complete list of Emerald City Music’s Fall partners includes:
Drexel House (Olympia)
Interfaith Works (Olympia)
Saint Michael Men’s Shelter (Olympia)
Family Support Center of South Sound (Olympia)
The Olympia Symphony (Olympia)
Evergreen Treatment Services (Seattle & Lacey)
Project: Music Heals Us (Connecticut)
Providence Everett Medical Center (Everett)
Providence Mount St. Vincent (West Seattle)
Panorama Retirement Center (Lacey)
Mirabella Retirement Center (Seattle)
The Tumwater School District (Tumwater)
Seattle Youth Symphony Orchestra (Seattle)
This is Beethoven partners, including KING FM, Vashon Center for the Arts, Northwest Sinfonietta, Rhapsody Project, Northwest Film Forum, ProMusica, Seattle Modern Orchestra, Town Hall, and more.
