Mid Atlantic Arts Foundation has awarded $134,366 in grants supporting 52 performing arts engagements through its 2018-2019 Mid Atlantic Tours program. The grants, awarded directly to presenting organizations, will support engagements by the following artists at venues throughout the mid-Atlantic region. All engagements will include public performances and activities designed to foster greater appreciation for artists' work and offer meaningful exchanges between artists and the public. New Jersey arts organizations involved include Peak Performances at Montclair State University (Montclair), Rowan University (Glassboro), Monmouth University Center for the Arts (West Long Branch), William Paterson University of New Jersey (Wayne), Raritan Valley Community College (Branchburg), and Wayne Theatre Alliance.
Choral Music: The Crossing, Philadelphia, PA (Shown Above). The Crossing, recipient of the 2018 Grammy Award for Best Choral Performance, is a professional chamber choir dedicated to new music. Highly sought-after by contemporary composers, The Crossing has premiered dozens of works by the elite of contemporary composers. The tour will visit the following venues/communities: Delaware Art Museum, DE; Peak Performances (Montclair, NJ), NJ; Rowan University (Glassboro, NJ); and Salisbury University, MD
Contemporary Chamber Music: M is Black Enough, New York, NY (Shown here). M is Black Enough is a band and collaborative evening-length concert consisting of composer/ percussionist Andy Akiho, poet/spoken-word artist Roger Bonair-Agard, cellist Jeffrey Zeigler, and drummer Sean Dixon. A contemporary band of hard driving rhythms and biting social commentary, M is Black Enough aims to be complex and aggressive, and to involve all elements equally in a bold narrative about people, justice, struggle, joy, and celebration. The tour will visit the following venues/communities: Delaware Art Museum, DE; Motor House, MD; Troy Savings Bank Music Hall, NY; and West Virginia State University, WV.
Dance: Bridgeman | Packer Dance, New York, NY. (Shown here). Art Bridgman and Myrna Packer's innovative "Video Partnering" work - the integration of live performance and video;technology - has been acclaimed for its highly visual and visceral alchemy of the live and virtual. The tour will visit the following venues/communities: American Dance Asylum, NY; Columbia Festival of the Arts, MD; Erie Arts & Culture, PA; LUMBERYARD Contemporary Performing Arts, NY; Monmouth University Center for the Arts (West Long Branch, NJ); Nazareth College Arts Center, NY; Reading Area Community College, Miller Center for the Arts, PA; Salisbury University, MD; and Torn Space Theater, NY.
Folk & Traditional Music: Kaia Kater, Toronto, Canada (Shown here). Listed as Rolling Stone Magazine's "10 New Country Artists You Need to Know" in 2016, Kaia Kater plays folk mountain music with a modern day edge. Her songs are fueled by her rich low tenor vocals, jazz-influenced instrumentation, and beautifully understated banjo, but it is her keen traditional sensibility and lyrical ability that makes her stand out as a new artist on the rise. The tour will visit the following venues/communities:
Arden Concert Guild, DE; Augusta Heritage Center of Davis & Elkins College, WV; Carnegie Hall, WV; Fells Point Creative Alliance, MD; Floyd Creative Studios, VA; Flushing Town Hall, NY; The Freeman Stage at Bayside, DE; Frostburg State University Cultural Event Series, MD; Huntington Arts Council, NY; Pittsburgh Cultural Trust, PA; Weinberg Center for the Arts, MD; Wintergreen Performing Arts, VA; and Zeiders American Dream Theater, VA.
Jazz: René Marie & Experiment In Truth, Warrenton, VA (Shown here). In a span of two decades, 11 recordings and countless stage performances, vocalist René Marie has cemented her reputation as not only a singer but also a composer, arranger, theatrical performer and teacher. Guided and tempered by powerful life lessons and rooted in jazz traditions laid down by Ella Fitzgerald, Dinah Washington and other leading ladies of past generations, she borrows various elements of folk, R&B and even classical and country to create a captivating hybrid style. The tour will visit the following venues/communities: Annenberg Center for the Performing Arts, PA; Columbia Festival of the Arts, MD; The Forum, USVI; Frostburg State University Cultural Event Series, MD; Manchester Craftsmen's Guild, PA; Norwood Village Green Concert Series, NY; Salisbury University, MD; St. John's School of the Arts, USVI; Weinberg Center for the Arts, MD; Weis Center for the Performing Arts, PA; and William Paterson University of New Jersey (Wayne, NJ).
Theater: Ping Chong+Company, New York, NY (Shown here). Ping Chong + Company produces theatrical works addressing the important cultural and civic issues of our times.Beyond Sacred is an interview-based theater production exploring the diverse experiences of Muslim Americans. The five young participants vary in many ways, but share the common experience of coming of age in a post-9/11 America and in this current moment of rising fear of and violence towards Muslims. The tour will visit the following venues/communities: Emory & Henry College, Woodrow W. McGlothlin Center for the Arts, VA; Millersville University of Pennsylvania,The Ware Center, PA; Raritan Valley Community College (Branchburg, NJ); and University of Albany Performing Arts Center, NY.
World Music: Alsarah & the Nubatones, New York, NY (Shown here). Alsarah & the Nubatones were born out of many dinner conversations between Alsarah and Rami El Aasser about nubian 'songs of return', modern migration patterns and the cultural exchanges between Sudan and Egypt. The result is a sound that grew into what they have dubbed as 'east - african retro-pop' rooted in Sudan and Nubia and drawing from the rich diversity of East-Africa's musical heritage. The tour will visit the following venues/communities: Clarice Smith Performing Arts Center, MD; Fells Point Creative Alliance, MD; Lake Placid Center for the Arts, NY; Wayne Theatre Alliance, NJ; Weis Center for the Performing Arts, PA; and West Virginia Public Broadcasting, Mountain Stage, WV.
Mid Atlantic Arts Foundation develops partnerships and programs that reinforce artists' capacity to create and present work and advance access to and participation in the arts. The Foundation was created in 1979 and is a private non-profit organization that is closely allied with the region's state arts councils and the National Endowment for the Arts. It combines funding from state and federal resources with private support from corporations, foundations, and individuals to address needs in the arts from a regional, national, and international perspective.
