Winner! No Divide KC International 2022 Art Song Competition

Come as You Are: Vulnerability in the Concert Space

NDKC come-as-you-are

Thrilled to announce that I am one of four winners of the No Divide KC international 2022 Art Song Competition with my work “A Sea Spray of Ash”!

I am stoked to be receiving my US debut with this work soon coming in March, especially in a competition championing LGBTQ+ composers.

(Amelia Jones and Stefan Cassomenos MRC @kammerklangau performance 2021 pictured below)

“In partnership with newEar Contemporary Chamber Ensemble, Mid America Freedom Band, and KC VITAs Chamber Choir

What does it mean to come as you are, to be vulnerable? In a 2013 interview, sociologist Brené Brown, whose research focuses on shame and vulnerability, described being vulnerable as “showing up and being seen,” even in “uncertainty.” We believe that concert music has contributed greatly to performing arts but that it has also sometimes stifled creativity and vulnerability, maintained privilege and power, created oppressive expectations of formality, and caused separation between creators, performers, and audiences. This can lead to this music and its spaces feeling inaccessible to those who may feel they lack the privilege, training, and/or formality to be welcomed into an experience. Come As You Are aims to open up these barriers through reimagined musical experiences and storytelling in the concert space.

When:

Saturday, March 19

7:00PM

Where:

St. Mary’s Episcopal Church

1307 Holmes St.

Kansas City, MO 64106”