26 Jun SALONERA DEBUTS AUGUST 24
Having recently released the concert series details for its all-virtual 2020-21 season entitled Embracing Change, Les Délices is pleased to announce a second, concurrent series called SalonEra; a live-streamed early music-focused variety show designed as a salon experience for the 21st century.
SalonEra will debut on Monday August 24 at 7:30pm and will be available for viewing on YouTube, and on SalonEra’s website. Featured guests for the debut stream include soprano Sherezade Panthaki, harpsichordist Eric Milnes, and others to be announced.
Produced and live-streamed twice monthly (see Fall Broadcast schedule), this fun, interactive series will be free to watch with a suggested donation of $10 per episode.
Artistic Director Debra Nagy has conceived the show as a fresh and entertaining experience for audiences at home, as well as an important outlet and paid opportunity for performing artists whose careers have been deeply impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic.
Bringing together both regular contributors and special guests for conversation and performance, Nagy sees SalonEra as “a place where we can increase visibility for emerging artists and artists of color while creating collaborative opportunities for both individuals and organizations that would not otherwise be practical.”
Free of geographic or conventional programming limitations, each one-hour episode will be guided instead by the personalities, perspectives, and contributions of special guests. Guests will share recent and/or upcoming work in alternating interview and performance segments that highlight personal stories, address inspiration and artistic process, and explore intersections between music and art through history. “We want SalonEra to feel like a timely and relevant take on the historical salon.”
Themes for individual episodes will run the gamut from Bach to folk-infused Baroque music from Scotland, Peruvian salons, art songs by Schubert, and to Medieval music and improvised traditions. In the course of each episode, audiences will enjoy live solo performances and brand-new recorded musical collaborations created especially for SalonEra. Each episode will include a post-show Q&A/chat with artists.
“I hope that SalonEra is something of a gateway drug to consuming more early music! I think we have great potential to expose audiences to fascinating projects and performers that they might not otherwise encounter through traditional, geographically-limited performance outlets,” said Nagy.
SalonEra will run concurrently with Les Délices’ Concert Series, which begins in October. Nagy added, “Right now I’m programming the Fall pilot season for SalonEra – and have so many more artists and themes I’d like to feature in the future! With enough support, we’ll be ready to continue with new seasons in Spring and Fall of 2021!”