Living in Song

The past few weeks have been full of some fascinating work on Denver Art Song Project's next recording.   In addition to rehearsals, we brought in Denver coach, Andrew Adams, who listened and gave Mallory and I some great feedback on ways to approach our next recording.

Simultaneously, I had a lovely conversation by email with Charles Ralph, over at Opera Pronto.  When I relocated out here, I decided to drop him a line to connect up to the opera and singing world.  Our conversation lead to my being featured as the artist of the week and Opera Pronto's newsletter was the official announcement of the next Denver Art Song Project recording, Beethoven's "An die ferne Geliebte."

In the next couple of weeks I'll be posting more about the work itself.  Mallory and I will be back in the studio at the end of August and we will be announcing our release schedule.

As always you can check at our digital store to listen to our first album, "Donaudy Songs" and please consider buying our digital album.  Your purchase of $4 (or more, if you wish) will support the cost of our recordings and our future plans for Denver Art Song Project.

Denver Art Song Project is Live. Welcome and FAQ.

Denver Art Song Project is a musical cooperative founded by Eapen Leubner with the vision to create an opportunity for Denver-based musicians to create and perform art songs.  Upcoming projects for the 2015-16 season include recordings, concerts and a first commission combined with an online conversation via Facebook Fan page and this blog.

Thank you to all who are supporting the Denver Art Song Project! You can still purchase the first set of songs.  If you like the music or know someone who would, please share the link, hit like and send kind messages of support regarding our project.

All purchases help fund and promote the Denver Art Song Projects's next album and future releases! 

As a thank you for buying the existing album (don't worry, you can buy it now and still get this great deal), there will be a discount for all supporters when the next album is launched.

Here are some Frequently Asked Questions ( FAQs):

Why are you charging $4 for your album?

Unfortunately, making art costs money.   DASP keeps its overhead as low as possible (Bandcamp site and Paypal are basically it).  After those expenses, all recording revenue goes to offset rehearsal costs that were already paid to performers and, after that, artists get residuals!  Spreading the word and supporting the album makes a real difference in the life of these musicians.

But why four bucks?
Because it is about the price of a frozen coffee beverage.  We want the barrier to be low! Eapen is a bit of an economics nerd and this is the optimized price point.  If you wish, you can always pay more than the minimum when you are checking out.  If you would like to support the project, please email me (eapen (at) eapenleubner (dot) com) to find out more about how you can help support the 2015-2016 season.

Why not just do a Kickstarter?

Kickstarters are great if you have a body of work.  While DASP is not ruling that out for the future, we thought the best way for you to get to know us is to share a completed project and start a community of learners and art song lovers online.  It is more important to us to create an ongoing conversation based on the production of art rather than do a Kickstarter based on just an idea.

Is DASP a non-profit?

Not at this point.  Due to the overwhelming feedback and support, we are actively exploring the option of becoming an incorporated non-profit.  We believe that there is a market in the Denver and Colorado area for an organization dedicated to Art Song performance, recording and education.  We recognize that there may be increased costs in going "non-profit" and are making sure that it is the right choice since one of the goals is to provide the most financial support to artists as possible.

Thanks again for all your support and we look forward to sharing more music with you in the near future!
Sincerely,
Eapen

Let's start at the very beginning! #yearofplay

For those of you who are not in the field of music or voice, let me fill you in on the "inside baseball" of Art Songs.

When a freshman voice student arrives at a music school, fresh-faced and 18 years old, in most cases, they are not ready to tackle the challenges of opera roles and arias.  Typically, they don't have the stamina or vocal strength and they arrive at school ready to sing.

Most voice teachers supply voice majors with a steady stream of art songs to help build their vocal technique and stamina and prepare them for the rigors of opera to come.  Art songs teach a young singer the process of learning music.  A good voice teacher can use art songs to create a checklist for singers to use so that they can approach any singing project:

1. Translate the words and study the poetry
2. Learn the history of the song, including about the poet and the reason the pome was written
3. Think about what the poem means to you as an artist
4. Learn the notes and rhythms (wait... that's step 4?)
5. Collaborate with a pianist again and again until you can perform the song well

I would not ask you, the casual listener, to go through these steps.  Hopefully by seeing this approach, you can get a sense of why art song is so important to young singers artistic growth.

I have had a great deal of fun returning to my art song roots over the past couple of months to create my new Denver Art Song Project collaboration.  Please do check it out and remember, there will be more to come on June 15, 2015.

Happy Listening,

Eapen

What is an Art Song? (Continued) #yearofplay

Yesterday, I wrote a bit about why we are called the "Denver Art Song Project" and why I chose Art Songs (yes, still pretentious) as my genre of choice to work with during my #yearofplay.

Today, let's dive into a way to experience an art song.  Sure, I could give you a lot of "homework" to prepare to experience this little song.  Instead of throwing work at you, let's do a little experiment:

Read the instructions first... then do the steps... then, if you want, comment below and let me know what you thought, experienced, felt or how you were inspired.

1.) Hit play on my song "O del mio amato ben".

2.) Now listen as you look at this picture:

Learn more about this picture here

3.) Was there anything about the picture that you noticed as you listened to the song?  In your opinion, how did the picture and the music match?  Feel free to comment below!

Score some bonus points... Cruise through the amazing MET online collection.  Is there a picture that captures the spirit of the song to you more than this one?  If so, why?  Post a link to the pic in the comments below!

Hope you enjoy this little game!
Eapen

Why art songs? #Yearofplay

With the launch of the Denver Art Song Project, a number of people have sent messages to find out "What is an art song?" and "Why aren't you recording opera arias?  You are an opera singer!"

Great questions and thanks to all of you who asked and thanks to all who have already pre-purchased the album.

Let's start with the second question first.

"Why aren't you recording opera arias?  You are an opera singer!"

I love opera.  I've been singing opera for years now and it has been the largest part of my career.  I chose art songs for my #yearofplay because making a high-quality opera aria album would be a larger project than I could have managed.  Operas are presented with an orchestra, I would have wanted to do the same for my album as well.  It would mean pulling together a lot of talent and the logistics of recording might have overwhelmed me.  I've always said, that I should keep my goals modest at first and focus on achieving a final product, not get stuck half-way because my ambitions outstrip my organizational skills.

"What is an art song?"

Art songs are poems set to music.  Generally, they are meant for voice and piano and are meant to be shared in a small setting with friends.  There are many exceptions to this rule, but let's keep it to this simple definition for now.

Since an art song is a poem set to music, this makes life easier for you as an audience member.  Here are some pros and cons:

Pros:
- You don't have to learn the whole long story of an opera.  These are little bite-sized musical experiences!
- You don't have to learn the translation of an entire opera.  (bite-sized!)
- You don't have to keep track of characters in an opera.
- Art songs are shorter than opera (3 minutes vs. 3 hours).
- As with most poetry, you get to do your own interpretation.  Take a look at this poem:

One's-Self I Sing

  One's-self I sing, a simple separate person,
  Yet utter the word Democratic, the word En-Masse.

  Of physiology from top to toe I sing,
  Not physiognomy alone nor brain alone is worthy for the Muse, I say
      the Form complete is worthier far,
  The Female equally with the Male I sing.

  Of Life immense in passion, pulse, and power,
  Cheerful, for freest action form'd under the laws divine,
  The Modern Man I sing.

(Walt Whitman, Leaves of Grass. Text from Project Gutenberg)

Your interpretation could likely differ quite differently from mine based on your own personal experiences.  This could conflict with your values or support them.  With an opera, you have more to learn about the story and that could slow or cause you to misunderstand the song.

Cons:
- Art Songs.  What a pretentious name.
- They are short and we always want more.  (We do, don't we?)
- Sometimes we have to learn a bit about why the poem was written or sometimes about the poet themselves. (I'll look to provide that context in my liner notes and blog posts!)

Over the next few days, I will be posting some more thoughts about Art Songs and why we chose this genre for our recordings.

Newly announced: Denver Art Song Project #yearofplay

By now you have probably seen the stories posted on this site.  These stories all link to the song text of art songs by Stefano Donaudy.

So what do we know so far for my #yearofplay?  I've been exploring art songs in a new way outside of learning the notes and rhythms and collaborating with a pianist.  I am focusing on three songs by Stefano Donaudy.  I am focusing on playing with social media to announce and drive a personal artistic endeavor.  And you may have seen some weird pics pop up on Instagram

All of that leads up to this announcement:

Introducing the "Denver Art Song Project".

This musical cooperative is dedicated to exploring and sharing art song repertoire and giving voice to new, high-quality recordings from Denver area artists.

The first collaboration of the DASP is a micro-album of three Donaudy songs sung by Eapen and accompanied by Mallory Bernstein.  Michael Bevers is our engineer.

You can listen for free at the site and, if you'd like, pre-order all three songs for $4.  We will release the full set of songs on June 15, 2015.

You can follow Denver Art Song Project on Facebook and at the newly redesigned and mobile-friendly www.eapenleubner.com.

Year of Play Update #yearofplay

I have been soliciting feedback about my projects for "Year of Play" and one of my test subjects said, "How many points have you scored for yourself lately?"

Tweets- 3 (3 points)

Pictures- 3 (6 points)

Blog Posts- 4 (8 points)

Podcast- 0 (0 points)

So, all in, that is 17 points in advance of the big announcement.

As you may recall, the idea was to do more in social media and make some art.  These postings had to do directly with my big musical project.  The rules were that the posts had to relate directly to the final product that is going to be released soon.

I think I achieved my goal of creating a semi-major musical project and challenging myself to change my approach to learning music.  My goal was to go way outside of my comfort zone and I definitely achieved that with "Song Fiction".

I had hoped to create some podcasts, but it took more time than expected and they may end up being released later.

I will be making a big announcement about results of "Year of Play" on June 1, 2015, so stay tuned!