Individual Artist Project Grant FY21
Individual Artist Project Grant FY21
Full-length holiday album produced by Ingeborg von Agassiz. A collection of both original and traditional songs available in digital and CD format.
Tara Makinen: former-Executive Director of Itasca Orchestra and Strings, musician; Tammy Mattonen: Executive Director of Itasca Orchestra and Strings, visual artist, co-founder of Crescendo Youth Orchestra; Kathy Neff: musician, Director, Fine Arts Academy at the University of Minnesota-Duluth; Ron Piercy: jeweler, gallery owner; Emily Swanson: arts administrator at Oldenburg Arts and Cultural Community; Kris Nelson: artist, teacher; Roxann Berglund: musician; Bill Payne: Professor of Theater at the University of Minnesota-Duluth
Kathy Neff: musician, Director, Fine Arts Academy at the University of Minnesota-Duluth; Kris Nelson: artist, teacher; Adam Swanson: visual artist; Betty Firth: writer; Greg Mueller: sculptor
ACHF Arts Access
My local Duluth community will benefit because they will be able to listen and enjoy the album for free on online digital streaming services (like Youtube) and will be able to hear it on the local radio stations like KUMD and KUWS. As a woman, I will be representing an underrepresented demographic in the music industry which is female music producers and will hopefully inspire other women to produce their own music. I will be setting a positive example as an artist who is not afraid to delve into new territory (Holiday music!). As this album becomes known throughout the world via online streaming platforms, it will bring positive attention to the city of Duluth and the surrounding area. My ultimate goal is to create an album of music which explores the mystery, the magic, and the varied folklore of the holiday season and to share this interpretation with an audience of captivated listeners. I hope to inspire some disenchanted souls into embracing a new take on the holiday season. I hope also to find a satisfied audience with listeners who already generally love holiday music. The outcomes that I can measure are how many radio stations play songs from the album, how many songs from the album receive radio plays, and streaming statistics from online streaming platforms like Youtube and Spotify. I am confident I can execute this recording project because I have a clear vision for what I want to achieve and have a solid team who will help get me there. Based upon previous experience in self-producing an album, I am confident I have ample time to execute this next project because I will have no other projects going on simultaneously and so will be able to devote nearly all my time to the album for an entire six weeks, which is more than enough time. I already have song sketches made for the original songs which I will be recording and have the traditional songs chosen that I wish to record. I have a strong working relationship with the two sound engineers I'll be working with and they are prompt and reliable. I have all the tools I need and recently upgraded some recording gear and so my studio is up to date and in working order. I will want the album to be released before the holidays 2021 so will be very motivated to make sure the album remains on schedule. My belief is that the most important part in the process of creating artwork is finishing it and putting it out into the world for others to experience. It is not enough that I sit at home and make music for my own enjoyment, I must finalize my work and actively share it with others. However, I can't just share 'demos' with people, it has to be 'finished' work, and that is what happens when I have someone "master" an an entire album of tracks. It "finishes" the music, almost like stamping the songs with "complete." I will measure the outcome by tracking the number of radio stations that play my album, and by viewing the number of online streams I have on online streaming platforms such as Youtube and Spotify. I will know the work is a success when local radio stations play the songs and when people throughout Minnesota have streamed or downloaded it online.
My activities addressed the main goal of my project which was to write and record a dark holiday album. I exceeded my goals by writing most of the album myself instead of relying on cover songs/traditionals. My intention had originally been to record both traditionals and originals but that was because I did not expect that I could come up with enough original songs. But I surprised myself and wrote nine original songs all within the theme of 'dark holiday,' exploring the mysterious, magical, and macabre side of the season. Original song titles on the album include: Advent Hymn, Medieval Ghost Choir, Christmas in the Dark, Ebenezer, I Want More from Xmas, St. Children's Choir, So Many Silent Nights, We Are Not Tired at All, and Snow Globe City. I recorded the songs myself, and got the songs professionally mixed and mastered, and then manufactured into CDs as well as distributed the album digitally worldwide on November 19, 2021.
Other,local or private