Interlude - July 23
July 23, 2020
Songbook Academy Showcase sneak preview, experimental music and more
Welcome back to Interlude, your twice-weekly portal to all sorts of fun, enriching and educational material, available free online from local, national and global artists and presenters.
Note to readers: Our email service provider is making some technical adjustments this weekend that will limit our reach for a week or two. If you don’t see the next issue of Interlude on Tuesday or Thursday as usual, look for links to that content in the next issue you do receive. Apologies up front for any interruption.
Songbook Academy Final Showcases streaming Saturday!
The wait is almost over! The biggest Songbook Academy event of the year is streaming right to your living room this Saturday, and our friends at the Great American Songbook Foundation shared this exclusive sneak preview at what’s in store. Sponsored by locally owned Ruth's Chris Steak House, this year’s Final Showcases will be hosted by Michael Feinstein and will feature all 40 Songbook Academy 2020 finalists, as well as special guests including nine-time Grammy Award winner Janis Siegel and 2019 Songbook Youth Ambassador Sadie Fridley.
Plan to fill your Saturday with music starting at 1 p.m. ET with five showcase events that will run throughout the day! And if this sneak preview is anything like the real deal, you are in for a treat. Follow along live on the Songbook Academy’s Facebook Page and Songbook Foundation YouTube channel to cheer on this year’s talented Songbook Academy finalists.
A note of thanks to our Resident Companies
Meanwhile, Mr. Feinstein, also the Center’s Artistic Director, is back with a new message. This time it’s a shout-out to our Resident Companies, who are meeting the challenges of this unusual year with innovative programs to serve their audiences and the broader community. Watch it right here, and find more info on these six fine organizations over here.
The Notes with Michael Feinstein video series is sponsored by the Payne & Mencias Group.
Quarantine Concerts for the quirky and curious
When you’ve watched every show on Netflix and your other mainstream entertainment sources are growing stale, Chicago’s nonprofit Experimental Sound Studio offers something completely different.
The Quarantine Concerts is a video series that provides a platform for cutting-edge musicians, composers, poets and performing artists of all kinds. New performances stream nightly on the ESS website, and the YouTube archive is a test-your-comfort-zone rabbit hole of free jazz, experimental electronica, spoken word journeys and other sonic experiences you’re not likely to stumble across on Spotify.
