With 50 of 82 ArtPrize song entrants performing during this weekend’s musicians’ showcase at St. Cecilia Music Center, Grand Rapids is singing an artful tune. And ArtPrize busking and concerts continue beyond that. The full schedule.
Amid the packed-street hubbub, giant carved animals, mammoth mosaics and glitzy techno-art that will dominate much of the ArtPrize landscape in Grand Rapids the next few weeks, a truly unique spotlight on art will attempt to captivate audiences at St. Cecilia Music Center.
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In this case, that art is original music, much of it produced by West Michigan musicians.
For the third year in a row, St. Cecilia in downtown Grand Rapids will host a musicians’ showcase – indoors and out – with three days of performances by 50 of the acts that have entered songs or compositions into the ArtPrize competition. The showcase begins at 3 p.m. Friday.
“Whether you’re painting, dancing, rapping, beat boxing, acting, singing, it all requires skill, hard work, years of practice and heart,” says Grand Rapids singer-songwriter Kelsey Rottiers, a returning showcase performer who entered her song “Medicine of a Simple Love” in this year’s competition.
_________________________________________ArtPrize Musicians’ Showcase
Friday: 3-10 p.m.
Saturday: Noon-10 p.m.
Sunday: Noon-6 p.m.
Free
Beer, wine, food available
St. Cecilia Music Center
24 Ransom Ave. NE, Grand Rapids
Details online at artprize.org.
___________________________________________
“We’re all inspired by life, relationships, stories, heartache, joy, love, and we use those common human experiences and turn them into beautifully uncommon expressions to connect and relate with other people. It’s all art.”
Indeed, that’s partly what motivated St. Cecilia executive director Cathy Holbrook and local record producer and musician Michael Crittenden to successfully incorporate original music compositions into the international ArtPrize competition in 2011. And for the second year in a row, St. Cecilia will award $2,000 prizes to the top vote-getters among song entries in five different musical categories. (Winners also will receive $1,000 in recording time at Crittenden’s Mackinaw Harvest Music studios.)
82 ARTPRIZE SONG ENTRIES, 50 WEEKEND PERFORMANCES
This year, ArtPrize boasts 1,524 entries, most of them visual art pieces such as sculptures, paintings, mosaics and photos. But 82 artists also have submitted musical entries, a slight increase in submissions over 2012, with most of the songwriters performing at the weekend showcase.
“It’s a totally different animal than we do with anything else,” Holbrook says of the showcase performances that take place outdoors under a tent in the St. Cecilia parking lot, with some jazz, pop and classical artists playing indoors in the music center’s historic and pristine Royce Auditorium.
“We don’t do outdoor concerts any other time of the year. It’s a real outdoor music festival party atmosphere. You can hang out for however long you want and you’re going to get a chance to hear a whole bunch of different bands in different genres. If you’re a music lover, come down and hang out in the parking lot for a while or come and sit inside Royce Auditorium for an hour, and you’ll just get exposed to so much music.”
Beer, wine and food vendors are part of the three-day showcase, helping create “a great vibe” unlike any other, Holbrook insists, one that brings musicians and the community together.
Returning ArtPrize performer Brad Verker of Grand Rapids’ Tommy B and The Verk raves that “the atmosphere is great, it is outside, people are walking around everywhere, and the city is alive and feels like a major U.S. city.”
Grand Rapids’ J. Oscar Bittinger says he hopes to turn his Saturday afternoon showcase set “into a great big singalong,” noting that his performances over the past year have all been chosen “based on creating or participating in a community experience.”
And because ArtPrize has become “such a big event” in the community, says Grand Rapids singer-songwriter Karisa Wilson, who’s entered her song, “The Courage of One,” in this year’s competition, “it’s natural to want to participate” as a musical artist.
That’s true even for those performers from out of state such as Sara Azriel, a Muskegon native who’s lived in Boston and Los Angeles and now makes her home in Providence, R.I.
“When St. Cecilia’s said we’d have the opportunity to play in Royce Auditorium, that sealed the deal. Playing in a room as grand as that is the ultimate experience for an artist like me,” says Azriel, who played the first ArtPrize showcase in 2011 and whose return to West Michigan includes a Saturday night EP-release show at Harbor Cinema in Muskegon. The singer, whose music blends contemporary pop with soul, folk and jazz, has entered the song “We’re Alive,” in this year’s ArtPrize competition.
FIVE BUSKING STATIONS AND THE ART VAN CONCERT SERIES
Showcase performers are required to perform their ArtPrize song entries as part of their short sets this weekend. ArtPrize visitors can listen to all song entries at 20 listening stations in the basement of St. Cecilia Music Center, which also hosts some visual art entries. The songs also are available online at the ArtPrize.org website.
This year’s spotlight on ArtPrize music has other element to entice visitors, too. Starting on Sept. 23, five busking stations around downtown Grand Rapids will allow performers to play acoustic instruments and sing for passersby. (Busking is the practice of performing on city street corners or in train stations, often accepting donations in hats or open instrument cases.) The stations will be located inside and outside St. Cecilia Music Center, and at the Blue Bridge, Rosa Parks Circle and Lyon Square. The daily busking performances will continue through Sept. 29.
“It’s not something we typically do, so it is a bit out of our comfort zone, but I’m really excited to be in the middle of all the festivities,” offers Rottiers.
In addition, the Art Van Concert Series at Rosa Parks Circle will feature bands performing nightly from 5 p.m. to 7 p.m. during live broadcasts of 24 Hour News 8 throughout ArtPrize, starting on Monday, Sept. 23 with the Thirsty Perch Blues Band.
That’s followed by Nicholas James & The Bandwagon plus Rottiers, Azriel and Andy Willey (Sept. 24), Roger MacNaughton & Friends, plus Serita and Jon of Serita’s Black Rose (Sept. 25), Troll for Trout, Susan Picking and Diverse City (Sept. 26), Simien the Whale (Sept. 27), Kris Hitchcock & Small Town Son (Sept. 30), Chris Hansen & Hark Up Horns Big Band, plus Josh Rose, Lucas Wilson, Cole Hansen and Michelle Chenard (Oct. 1), Robin Connell and Steve Talaga (Oct. 2), Cabildo and Grand Rapids Youth Symphony Orchestra (Oct. 3), and the ArtPrize finale watch party with Domestic Problems (Oct. 4).
All of it ensures that music – not just visual art – will play a central role at 2013’s ArtPrize.
“Absolutely, music is art,” says Azriel. “Art is essentially self-expression: creating something that reflects life and existence. Music does that quite well, I believe. To me, there is no art form that makes me feel as connected and alive and human as a great song.”
Here’s the ArtPrize Musicians’ Showcase schedule:
FRIDAY SEPT 20
ROYCE AUDITORIUM STAGE
3:00 Ann Marie Church
3:45 Ryan Wilson
4:30 Michael Schaeffer
5:15 Steve Talaga
6:00 Roger MacNaughton
6:45 Cole Hansen
7:30 Adrian Krygowski
8:15 Sara Azriel
9:00 Chris Hansen
OUTDOOR STAGE
3:30 Anita Schmaltz
4:00 Dan Hazlett
4:30 Elle Pohlman
5:00 Mike Lonzon (Willy Wompa)
5:30 Wade Whittington
6:00 Amanda Vernon
6:30 Michael Cohen
7:00 Coldville
7:30 XIT18
8:00 Tommy B and the Verk
8:30 AOK
9:00 Tokyo Morose
9:30 Dennie Middleton
SATURDAY SEPT 21
OUTDOOR STAGE
Noon Susan Picking
12:30 Chasing the Sky
1:00 Slow Buffalo
1:30 Andrea Matthews
2:00 Jimmie Stagger & John Fritz
2:30 Kelsey Rottiers
3:00 Matt Hannegraaff
3:30 J. Oscar Bittinger
4:00 Romano Paoletti/Heart and Bones
4:30 Josh Rose
5:00 Troll for Trout
5:30 Glen Danles Brand
6:00 Slow Log
6:30 Karisa Wilson
7:00 Hannah Rose Graves
7:30 Moonrays
8:00 The Willeys
8:30 Juxtapose
9:00 Water Clocks
9:30 Thirsty Perch Blues Band
SUNDAY SEPT. 22
ROYCE AUDITORIUM STAGE
Noon Tom Messink
12:45 Tracy Kash Thomas
1:30 Eric Johnson
2:15 Brad Fritcher + trois
3:00 Pete Kehoe
3:45 Michelle Chenard
4:30 Cameron Blake
5:15 Frank Nawrot
Email John Sinkevics at jsinkevics@gmail.com.
Copyright 2013, Spins on Music