THANK YOU EVERYONE!!!! WE MADE IT!!!!!
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In the fall of 2015, ECM Records will release Liaisons: Re-Imagining Sondheim from the Piano. All we need to do is finish recording it and get it to them by the end of the year!
Please help us with the final three sessions - anything "extra" goes toward paying off the first nine.
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What is The Liaisons Project?
Liaisons is a landmark commissioning and concert project, conceived by acclaimed concert pianist Anthony de Mare, based on the songs of legendary musical theater composer Stephen Sondheim.
At its essence, Liaisons is an homage. But unlike tributes to his show tunes, which have featured some of the world’s greatest singers, Liaisons' focus is on Sondheim the composer - featuring some of the world's foremost composers in classical, jazz, pop, theater and film music.
We began commissioning composers in 2009, and in 2011 had received enough pieces to start touring them in concert. Tony has performed the pieces in various combinations to sold-out houses and rave reviews at Symphony Space, the Ravinia and Gilmore Festivals and other major venues in NYC, San Francisco, Chicago, Minneapolis, San Diego and Portland (to name a few).
As of this writing we finally have all 36 pieces in hand. Until now, no one has ever heard the music outside of a live performance... and no one has ever heard all the pieces together. But with your help, we can change that!
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Pianist Anthony de Mare playing Rodney Sharman's Notes on Beautiful at Symphony Space, March 2013. Anthony Tommasini of the New York Times wrote, "Mr. de Mare's playing was dynamic and stylish.... I loved it."
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Composers and Song Selections
Tony started with a core list of artists that grew as the project progressed, with additional input from Mr. Sondheim and producer Rachel Colbert. We wanted a roster that was diverse and intriguing, including composers who aren't associated with "musical theater", and we felt it was important to invite emerging composers alongside the established ones.
We capped the number at 36, in part because it lends itself well to concertizing (three programs of 12). Our final list ranges in age from 30 to 75, represents seven different countries, and encompasses 44 Grammy, Tony, Pulitzer, Emmy and Academy Awards.
And here they are...
Andy Akiho Into the Woods
Mason Bates Very Put Together
(after Putting It Together)
Eve Beglarian Perpetual Happiness (after Happiness)
Derek Bermel Sorry-Grateful
Jherek Bischoff Ballad of Guiteau
William Bolcom A Little Night Fughetta
(after Send in the Clowns/Anyone Can Whistle)
Jason Robert Brown Birds of Victorian England (after Green Finch and Linnet Bird)
Kenji Bunch The Demon Barber (after The
Ballad of Sweeney Todd)
Mary Ellen Childs Now (Now/Later/Soon)
Michael Daugherty Everybody’s Got the
Right
Peter Golub A Child of Children and Art
Ricky Ian Gordon Every Day a Little Death
Annie Gosfield A Bowler Hat
Jake Heggie I’m Excited. No, You’re Not.
(after A Weekend in the Country)
Fred Hersch No One is Alone
Ethan Iverson Send in the Clowns
Gabriel Kahane Being Alive
Phil Kline Paraphrase of Someone in a
Tree
Tania Leon going… gone (after Good
Thing Going)
Ricardo Lorenz The Worst [Empanadas] in London (after The Worst Pies in London/A
Little Priest)
Wynton Marsalis That Old Piano Roll
Paul Moravec I Think About You (after Losing My Mind)
Nico Muhly Color and Light
John Musto Epiphany
Thomas Newman Not While I’m Around
David Rakowski The Ladies Who Lunch
Steve Reich Finishing the Hat – Two
Pianos
Eric Rockwell You Could Drive a Person
Crazy
Daniel Bernard Roumain Another Hundred People
Frederic Rzewski I’m Still Here
Rodney Sharman Notes on Beautiful
(after Beautiful)
Duncan Sheik Johanna… in Space
David Shire Love is In the Air
Bernadette Speach In and Out of Love
(after Liaisons/ Send in the Clowns)
Mark-Anthony Turnage Pretty Women
Nils Vigeland Alma Mater/Merrily We Roll
Along
Wait - Sondheim Who?
We especially welcome people who aren't so familiar with Sondheim - even people who "hate" musicals. This project is as much for you as for anybody!
Here's a two-second primer: Sondheim turned a simple and saccharine form of popular entertainment into something witty and profoundly sophisticated. Although he's probably best known for his song Send in the Clowns, because it was covered by Judy Collins, just knowing him for that would be like just knowing Einstein for his wacky hair.
Sondheim started as a lyricist (
West Side Story, Gypsy) before creating his own shows, including two that were turned into major motion pictures:
Sweeney Todd and Into the Woods. His source material has ranged from George Seurat and Ingmar Bergman to the letters of Commodore Perry and the stories of The Brothers Grimm. His fans range from Cornel West to Stephen Colbert. He's not your usual musical theater guy.
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Even South Park and The Simpsons <heart> Sondheim.
About the Recording
ECM is an ideal match for Liaisons. They're known for producing groundbreaking music “unfettered by genre”, and they’re also known for releasing gorgeous physical CDs (not just digital tracks). We're excited and honored by their interest.
Our producer/engineer is the incomparable Judy Sherman (three-time Grammy Award-winner as Classical Producer of the Year), and we are recording at the American Academy of Arts & Letters, whose acoustics are considered among the worlds finest. We've recorded 29 pieces to date.
But the recording business has changed. Labels seldom pay for recording costs any more. We are responsible for delivering all 3+ hours of music to ECM, at our own expense, by the end of 2014.
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On deck a few months back: Phil Kline, Nico Muhly, Ricky Ian Gordon.
Why This Campaign?
We begged, borrowed and stole to make it through the first nine sessions, and we have three more to go. So we took a leap of faith and booked the hall for November 1st -3rd.
That's where we hope you'll come in. Each session costs about $4,000: $1K in engineering costs, $1K in piano costs (rental, carting, tuning), $1K to rent the Academy and $1K in performance and documentation fees.
Our $15K goal represents $12K for the upcoming three sessions, plus $3K in outstanding bills from the two June sessions (after we cut the campaign video).
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The American Academy of Arts and Letters: one of the most acoustically perfect spaces in the U.S.
For Tony and me, crowd-funding isn’t just a financial necessity. We believe that involving more people helps further the legacy of ALL the composers - not just Sondheim - and proves that music no longer has to be “ghettoized” by genre. This music should belong to everyone!
When Sondheim first started writing his own music, a lot of people asked him why he didn't just stick to lyrics, since he was so good at them. But he proceeded to take a risk - and The Liaisons Project is as much a tribute to risk and the breaking of artistic boundaries as it is to the composer himself.
A note on transparency: the donor price points are a little funky to compensate for the 7% fees taken out by Fractured Atlas – but it's totally worth it, because they make it entirely tax deductible for you. Oh - and perks are cumulative! So each level gets all that came before it too.
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The Maestro, speaking on stage at the Liaisons NYC Premiere in April 2012.
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... and with Tony after Liaisons II in March 2013.
Please Share Your Thoughts!
We'd love to know what you think about the project - what are you most excited to hear? What do you think of "Sondheim without words"?
Please email me at rcolbert@theliaisonsproject.com if you have any questions, comments, or even any other perks you’d like to see.
Thanks so much for taking the time to visit this campaign page… even if you can’t participate right now, please tell your friends!