Join us for the Festival Finale event of The Next Festival's 2020 season!

Combining three events that showcase the breadth of the Festival's activities, we invite you to learn, explore and be inspired by great artists, genre-free creativity and innovative collaborative solutions.

The event is a fundraiser to support Festival programming and scholarships. We have been providing free public events since March and waived tuition for all students. In the spirit of making art accessible to all, we invite you to give-what-you-can for this unforgettable event and help the Festival continue to support the art and artists of tomorrow.

One registration is good for all three events. You are welcome to attend any part of the events. Come for one, stay for all!

6 PM - 7 PM ET - Creating Your Unique Career: Living Your Passion and Making a Difference with Kelly Hall-Tompkins

This talk features the journey of starting from a very traditional education and idea of what a career should be to a dynamic, entrepreneurial, self-directed solo career on major concert stages, to Broadway, YouTube, film, and social justice activism. Learn how you can apply the same principles and insights to create your own unique career.

http://www.kellyhall-tompkins.com/

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7 PM - 8 PM ET - Rock Meets Orchestra: A Virtual Conversation and Performance with Rock Icon Richard Thompson

This genre-busting event is a rare chance to see “the finest rock songwriter after Dylan and best electric guitarist since Hendrix” (LA Times), present an hour of both his inimitable folk-rock style and his unique approach to contemporary classical music.

Though most known for his career as a GRAMMY-nominated singer/songwriter/guitarist, Richard Thompson is a virtuoso composer of numerous powerful orchestral works, including the soundtrack for the HBO documentary The Cold Blue and KIA (Killed In Action), premiered by The Next Festival of Emerging Artists.

Named one of the TOP 20 GUITARISTS OF ALL TIME by Rolling Stone, Richard’s love of music knows boundaries, and his influences include Benjamin Britten and Maurice Ravel, as well as Scottish ballads. Unlike many composers who bridge genres, Richard writes every note of his orchestra music, bringing his encyclopedic musical knowledge to bear in diverse and moving works of beautiful orchestral color.

As part of Next Festival 2020’s Finale, Richard will talk about his acclaimed orchestral projects and offer an exclusive sneak preview of his upcoming EP, performing selections before it releases to the public the next day.

https://www.richardthompson-music.com/

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8 PM - 9 PM ET - Next Festival 2020 Collaborative Projects: Broadcast from Home with Lisa Bielawa and Stepping with Resonance: Works-in-Progress with Derek Bermel and S. Ama Wray

Seizing the opportunity to innovate in the time of COVID-19, the Festival has undertaken two cutting-edge collaborative projects as part of its 2020 Season. Join us for an inside look at how Festival artists leverage technology and creativity to foster true collaboration and create collective art from isolation.

Broadcast from Home: Composer Lisa Bielawa unveils Episode 13 of her Broadcast from Home series. The Next Festival musicians are the "resident ensemble" for the latest chapter of her large-scale, multi-chapter composition. Each installment of Broadcast traces the effect of the coronavirus crisis on our inner lives, through crowd-sourced texts and recordings of contributors around the world. Lisa will discuss the project and her collaboration with Next Festival musicians.

http://www.lisabielawa.net

`http://www.lisabielawa.net/broadcast-from-home

Followed by...

Stepping with Resonance: Works-in-Progress: 3 composers, 3 choreographers, 14 dancers, 11 musicians. We set out on a journey in the eye of the storm COVID-19, followed by a wave of response to the unjust and disproportionate violence perpetrated on black lives in the USA. What did we do? We began by breathing, paying attention to the essence of life as we attempted to forge new relationships with artists as far afield as Korea, New York, Oklahoma, and California.

Over four weeks, choreographer S. Ama Wray and composer Derek Bermel—long-time collaborators—have supported the development of creative bonds between Adeliia Faizullina and Brandi Kelley, Ryan Lindveit and Endalyn Taylor, Samantha Wolf and Vitor Luiz. Join us to see what they have discovered on the exhale.

https://www.embodiology.com/

http://jazzxchange.org/

www.derekbermel.com

https://nmbx.newmusicusa.org/derek-bermel-context-is-key/

http://derekbermel.blogspot.com/

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This Season Finale event is a fundraiser for The Next Festival of Emerging Artists. We would greatly appreciate your support through a give-what-you-can donation. Proceeds benefit scholarships and programming for the Festival.

We thank you for supporting our mission to provide a comprehensive approach to entrepreneurial career-building, contemporary music performance, and intensive, personalized artistic development.

Zoom Conference instructions will be included with your registration confirmation email.