Tag: music

creativity

Hadestown is effective climate storytelling at its finest

Christa Avampato

I finally went to see Hadestown on Broadway. I know, I know. What took me so long?! After seeing it, I truly have no idea because it’s a transformative theater experience. A huge thank you to my dear friend, Dan Fortune, for taking me.

This was a very special performance because all 5 of the leads are brand new to the show. Music legend Kurt Elling, Jack Wolfe, Rebecca Naomi Jones, Morgan Dudley, and Paulo Szot knocked it out of the park, and the audience literally shouted with delight.

Yes, it’s all the things you’ve heard. It’s beautiful in every way, heart-filled, and filled with fascinating twists and turns woven between mythology and present day.

It’s also an incredibly effective climate story – the call to protect nature to reverse the harmful impacts of climate change on the food supply, mental and physical health, politics, and the economy.

It’s an immigration story, a migration story, a working class story about the power of generosity, community, and our own voices to lead change, to create a world where all beings are happy, healthy, and free. It’s a story of hope found in difficult, dark times and turning that hope into empowerment that leads to action. And art, specifically music, as a lever for all of that change.

Reminiscent of the call and response of spirituals with the essence of New Orleans, it’s a show that is of-the-moment even though it’s been on Broadway since 2019. Go see it. Cheer, clap, sing, get swept up in the beauty. And then carry all of it out into our world that is crying out for change. We are the ones we’ve been waiting for.

creativity

Reduce stress with Fall scenes and relaxing music

Christa Avampato

Image by Relaxing Jazz Corner

If you’re stressed, I’ve got something for you. I made this YouTube playlist of cozy Fall scenes with relaxing music: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLF8SWzj5Blq3uG2Zgig6jI4lOhefMF5VG

Crawl into one that looks inviting. Take a few deep breaths. Relax your face, neck, and shoulders. These scenes and this music are easy on all the senses. Even a few minutes of conscious relaxation will do wonders for your mind, body, and spirit. After some rest, you’ll bring a whole new perspective to your to-do list.

You’re doing the best you can. It’s okay to rest for a bit. Take care of you so you can take care of others.

Images from https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLF8SWzj5Blq3uG2Zgig6jI4lOhefMF5VG

creativity

Carnegie Hall radiates joy as Dudamel, Lang Lang, and Castillo open the 2024–2025 season

Christa Avampato
Carnegie Hall 2024–2025 Season

Last night I had the great honor of joining a sold out crowd to open Carnegie Hall’s 2024–2025 season, and I’m so happy my friend, Ashley, could enjoy it with me. There were so many surprises and delights as the program mixed well-known favorites with first-of-their kind discoveries during a thrilling concert. 

Conductor Gustavo Dudamel is beloved among classical music lovers and Hollywood as one of the greatest of our time. He gives a full-body experience to his conducting and the joy he gets from leading the exceptional Los Angeles Philharmonic is evident to everyone who has the good fortune to see him do the work he loves. What knocked me out was the absence of a physical score. He conducted entirely from memory and never missed a beat. Even among world-class conductors, this was an incredible feat. 

Lang Lang joined Dudamel as the soloist for Rachmaninoff’s well-known Piano Concerto №2 in C Minor, Op. 18. At turns sweeping, fun, serious, and heartfelt, it spans the range of human emotion. Like Dudamel, Lang Lang gives his entire being to the music and also performs entirely from memory. At multiple points in this piece, Lang Lang’s hands and fingers were moving so quickly they appeared to blur. He’s an absolute wonder to see live and the audience was on their feet as soon as the piece ended demanding an encore, which Lang Lang happily gave.

The second half of the program was anchored by baritone soloist Gustavo Castillo performing Estancia, Op. 8 by Alberto Ginastera. The lyrics derive from José Hernández’s poem Martín Fierro, a heartbreaking story of the plight of the gaucho (a farmer or cattle herder in Argentina) losing his rural way of life. Last night this work received its first complete Carnegie Hall performance on record, demonstrating the Hall’s dedication to lesser-known works deserving of the spotlight. Castillo, Dudamel, and the Philharmonic kept the audience’s rapt attention right to the end. 

This season at Carnegie Hall will prove to be a bright light for music lovers of all genres, especially classical, pop, salsa, and reggaeton. With opening night, Dudamel and Castillo officially began the 2024–2025 season-long Nuestros Sonidos (Our Sounds) festival that celebrates the heritage and influence of Latin culture in the U.S., including those from the Caribbean. As usual, a plethora of talent will grace the Hall’s stages. I’m particularly excited about Pink Martini, Angélique Kidjo, Joyce DiDonato’s master class series, Ivy Queen, Asmik Grigorian, Sheku Kanneh-Mason and Isata Kanneh-Mason, Yuja Wang and Víkingur Ólafsson, Angel Blue and Lang Lang, and Samara Joy. 

There’s no better way to spend a year than reveling in music, familiar and new. See the full program and purchase tickets at https://www.carnegiehall.org/.

Photos below by Christa Avampato.

creativity

Campaign communications are bringing the fun and rallying voters

Christa Avampato
Image by Swifties4Kamala.com

Something fascinating and fantastic is happening with campaign communications in 2024 and it warms my story loving heart. In the past, voters have rallied around their political party, social issues, geography, and demographics such as age, race, religion, and ethnicity. This year we’re seeing people rally around their interests, passions, and affinities in support of Kamala Harris and Tim Walz. From comedy and food to pets and music, there is a group for all of us. These groups and their respective Zoom events are using trusted messengers — people with whom we share a common bond and who make us feel safe—to relate to voters on a personal level. 

This week I went to two online incredible online events: Swifties for Kamala organized by Taylor Swift fans and Cooking for Kamala organized by professional celebrity chefs. (They were both recorded so you can watch them at the links below.) Swifties raised over $144,000 and the chefs raised over $225,000 from event attendees. They got people registered to vote, helped people check their voter registration, talked about issues related to their interests (in these cases, corporate monopolies like Ticketmaster and food security, respectively), provided resources for people to volunteer on the campaign to knock on doors, send postcards, make phone calls, combat disinformation and misinformation, and most importantly activate their friends, family members, and communities to turn out the vote this November. 

Swifties for Kamala has a full website, social media accounts, merch for the cause, friendship bracelets (of course!) and a newsletter called Paint the Town Blue where they are continuing to activate their community after the event. What’s even more impressive about Swifties for Kamala is that it’s organized and run only by fans, not celebrities. Taylor herself is not involved, and they had Senator Elizabeth Warren and Carole King attend the event as special guests.

Collectively, all these affinity events and efforts are also doing the important work of reminding all of us that politics is about people and policies. It’s personal. It’s about who we are and who we want to be. It’s about how we live together in community, in harmony. It’s about the world we’re building for ourselves and future generations. While disagreements will inevitably happen, politics can only be effective if it’s about unity and open, clear communications. These affinity events are putting the heart back into government, and they’re giving us hope. 

Some media outlets have said joy is not a strategy. These events show joy is not only a strategy; it’s also a way of being and doing. And it’s working. 

Swifties for Kamala website, social media accounts, and event rewatch:
https://swifties4kamala.com/
https://linktr.ee/swifties4kamala
https://www.youtube.com/live/r9lQlWzQLPQ

Cooking for Kamala event rewatch:
https://pages.hovercast.live/cooking-for-kamala/live

creativity

I fell hard for Liverpool; you will, too.

Christa Avampato
The Beatles statue. Royal Albert Dock, Liverpool. Photo by Christa Avampato.

I love a gritty city – one peppered with history, music, art, and salt-of-the-earth people. I fell for Liverpool as soon as I arrived. I walked out of the train station and into the cool morning light. I immediately felt at home. The food is delicious, the people are kind, and the city is thriving with art and music everywhere. It’s also very affordable. I could easily live there and be very happy!

Some highlights:

As a port city, Liverpool has an extensive dock area. It’s been refurbished as the Royal Albert Dock, filled with restaurants, cafes, bakeries, pubs, and art. It’s a fun area to spend an afternoon. (Rough Handmade is one of the greatest bakeries I’ve ever been to anywhere!)

Bold Street is one of the main commercial areas filled with shops, food, and bookstores. Open early to late, there’s something for everyone there. I spent an event there at Mowgli, enjoying some of the best Indian food I’ve ever had. There are a few Mowgli locations in Liverpool and each of them is beautiful, buzzy, and relaxed.

Seeing the Beatles childhood homes and the Cavern Club was the main reason I went to Liverpool. I love their story and music. My old neighborhood on the Upper West Side has the Dakota, the last home of John Lennon, and Strawberry Fields in Central Park where the “Imagine” sundial honors John’s legacy. The two childhood homes of John Lennon and Paul McCartney in Liverpool are very different from one another. They’re time capsules that tell their story of friendship and happenstance in the wake of WWII. No pictures are allowed inside the houses, but you can get excellent indoor tours with the National Trust. The tour picks up at Speke Hall, another great National Trust home (that’s 400 years old!) and grounds that I highly recommend seeing. Become a member of the National Trust and this tour (as well as Speke Hall), along with many other UK sites, are deeply discounted or free.

Liverpool is home to many museums, my favorite being the Maritime Museum. It pays homage to the Titanic because the White Star Line, the ship’s owner, was based there. The museum also exposes the city’s horrific role in the transatlantic slave trade. While many cities and countries attempt to sweep tragedy under the rug, Liverpool addresses directly and honestly in this museum and throughout the city.

The Resident is a fantastic boutique hotel that emphasizes sustainability and is a repurposed factory. Incredible service and great accommodations, it’s located very close to Bold Street and within walking distance of all the great sites of the city.

While Liverpool isn’t as flashy as some other European destination, it’s filled with heart and soul. It’s well worth a visit. I’m already looking forward to visiting again.

The collage below are my favorite photos from Liverpool, all taken by me.

creativity

JAY-Z: entertainment, music, and social justice icon

Christa Avampato

If you see only one cultural exhibition in New York City between now and December 4th, get yourself to the main branch of the Brooklyn Public Library at Grand Army Plaza to see the JAY-Z exhibit—The Book of HOV: A celebration of the life and work of Shawn “JAY-Z” Carter. (HOV is a play on Jehovah, another name for God, because people marveled at his incredible ability to improvise and create whole songs in minutes.) A few weeks ago, I used my morning run to wind my way from my Brooklyn apartment through Prospect Park to the library.

On the terrace in front of the library, pictures of JAY-Z with people such as President Barack Obama and performing on stage rotate on over-sized screens. The front facade of the library is wrapped in lyrics from his music. It brought me so much joy to see so many people — every age, race, and creed — enjoying the library. This is exactly why JAY-Z and his Roc Nation team decided to stage his exhibit here: to have it be free and within walking distance to the Marcy Houses, the public housing project in Bedford-Stuyvesant, Brooklyn neighborhood where he grew up, so everyone could be part of it.

Inside, there are photos of JAY-Z, examples of the many products he’s created, collaborations he’s forged, and awards he’s won. Visitors can play his records on turntables, look at his original masters (which he now owns after making a deal with Def Jam — he agreed to be President of Def Jam for 3 years provided that his masters would then be returned to him), sit inside a re-creation of the main room of his Baseline Recording Studios, walk through an immersive experience celebrating his achievements, and marvel at the array of memorabilia that commemorate his many accomplishments. 

As amazing as all of this is, what absolutely stunned me and what I can’t stop thinking about is how JAY-Z has used his fame and fortune more than any other artist to make the world a better place by standing up for those who could not stand up for themselves. He and his team at Roc Nation were unrelenting in their demands for justice for inmates at Parchman Farm, a maximum-security prison in the Mississippi Delta. They fight rampant racism that runs through businesses and organizations around the world. They hold a social justice summit in New York City. They make documentaries including Time: The Kalief Browder Story and Rest in Power: The Trayvon Martin Story. They stand against hate crimes, gun violence, and police brutality, not only with their words but with funds to provide pro-bono legal support and with their time to walk with the people they’re helping on their journeys. They champion artists, athletes, and Black-owned businesses. The list goes on and on. 

Sometimes celebrities sit back after they leave the stage. They enjoy their retirement, and I don’t begrudge them for that. We all have a right to decide how to live our lives and spend our time. What I find so impressive and admirable about JAY-Z is that he looked at his celebrity and fortune, and rather than take a well-deserved rest, he accelerated. He’s done even more off the stage than he did as a performer. And for someone as prolific and influential in entertainment, that is a feat maybe he didn’t even foresee. 

I’m a fan of JAY-Z’s music, but to be honest, I’m even more of a fan of who he is as a human and what he’s done to further humanity as a whole. He’s still got a long runway ahead and I can’t wait to see what he does next. 

The Book of HOV is on exhibit until December 4th, JAY-Z’s birthday. If you can’t get to New York, the website that accompanies the exhibit is excellent. You can also watch the recording of JAY-Z’s November 14, 2023 prime time interview with Gayle King on CBS.  

All photos taken by Christa Avampato.

creativity

Roll out the red carpet: Carnegie Hall opens the 2023–2024 season

Christa Avampato
Riccardo Muti with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra on opening night 10/4/23. Photo by Christa Avampato.

Last night I went to Carnegie Hall’s opening night gala with one of my best friends and my many talented colleagues. It was thrilling to hear the Chicago Symphony Orchestra under the expert baton of Riccardo Muti with the incomparable violin soloist Leonidas Kavakos, and to experience this gorgeous music with a packed house of nearly 3,000 people in this historic venue. The program included Tchaikovsky’s Violin Concerto in D Major, Op. 35 and Mussorgsky’s Pictures from an Exhibition orchestrated by Ravel. As an encore, Muti chose the brief and beautiful aria Amor ti vieta (Love forbids you) that appears in Intermezzo from Fedora by Giordano and Colautti.

Happy to be at Carnegie Hall’s opening night. Photos by Christa Avampato.

A performance at Carnegie Hall is a must-do for New Yorkers and visitors. This year’s season features Yo-Yo Ma and John Williams, Mitsuko Uchida, The Vienna Philharmonic, Jason Moran, The Hot Sardines with Alan Cumming, Lea Michele, Sutton Foster, Kelli O’Hara, Sheku Kanneh-Mason, Norm Lewis, Bryan Terrel Clark and Valisia LaKae with The New York Pops, Meow Meow, Patti Lupone, Emanuel Ax, Yuja Wang, Yannick Nézet-Séguin and The Met Orchestra, Tania León, and many, many more.

At 132 years old, Carnegie Hall is a stunning space in midtown Manhattan and the heart of its mission is to bring the transformative power of music to the widest possible audience. It’s a privilege to work with them and contribute to this organization’s legacy in my extraordinary city.

The Chicago Symphony Orchestra warms up for opening night. Photo by Christa Avampato.

One of my main projects at Carnegie is the subscription streaming channel Carnegie Hall+. We curate concerts, music festivals, dance, opera, and music documentaries from around the globe and deliver them to music lovers in the U.S. and 20 other countries. We have a lot of exciting developments underway for the year ahead. If you’d like to learn more, I’m always happy to chat about it. You can also find more details here: https://www.carnegiehallplus.com/

Happy opening, Carnegie Hall. I look forward to making more music available to more people in more places this season. 

creativity

JoyProject podcast: The Joy of Old Time Radio Shows with Zachary Lennon-Simon

Christa Avampato
The Joy of Old Time Radio Show with Zachary Lennon-Simon

Travel back in time with JoyProject as we delve into the world of Old Time Radio Shows, a form of entertainment from the 1920s to the 1960s that had families and friends gathered around the radio to tune into their favorite mysteries, drama, and comedies. Zachary Lennon-Simon, a comedian and storyteller in Brooklyn, New York, is our guide through this delightful and light-hearted audio-forward history for the latest episode of the JoyProject podcast—The Joy of Old Time Radio Shows.

At the end of the podcast, I share something that brought me joy this week related to the episode. I found a bunch of free online resources where you can tune into all kinds of old time radio shows with just a few taps on your computer or phone. I also share my two favorite apps where you can access thousands of free audiobooks through your local public library.

Topics discussed in this episode:
– How Zach discovered old time radio shows as a kid and rediscovered them after college
– Zach’s favorite shows and where to find them today
– The differences between old time radio shows, audiobooks, and narrative podcasts, and some good ones to check out
– The importance of sound design in old time radio
– Stars who made old time radio popular

Links to resources:
– Zach on Instagram – @lennonhyphensimon
– Zach on Twitter – @zachlennonsimon
– Zach’s short film, frantic delicate summer – https://vimeo.com/63383000
– Christa on Twitter – @christanyc
– Christa on Instagram – @christarosenyc
– Christa’s website – ChristaAvampato.com
– Old Time Radio Archive – https://www.youtube.com/c/OldTimeRadioArchive
– Old Time Radio Shows – https://www.youtube.com/c/OldTimeRadioShowsOnline
– MakeUsOf article – https://www.makeuseof.com/listen-old-time-radio-shows-online/
– Internet Archive – https://archive.org
– Relic Radio – https://www.relicradio.com/otr/
– RockIt Radio – https://rokitradio.com/
– Internet Radio – https://www.internet-radio.com/search/?radio=old+time+radio
– Pumpkin FM – https://pumpkinfm.com/
– RUSC – https://www.rusc.com/
– Libby App for free audiobooks – https://libbyapp.com/
– Cloud Library for free audiobooks – https://www.yourcloudlibrary.com/

A little bit about Zach:
Zach Lennon-Simon is a filmmaker and storyteller who was born & raised in Brooklyn, NY. He has told stories for many different shows such as Kvetching & Kvelling, Everything is Bad, Beaver Helmet, and The Teacher’s Lounge. In his spare time, he tries his best to sing both parts of Judy & Babs’ “Get Happy/Happy Days Are Here Again” medley. 

creativity

Write every day: Toronto Symphony

Christa Avampato

I’m so grateful to the artists doing what they can to lift people’s spirits during this tough time. This one by the Toronto Symphony is stunning: the wonder of Aaron Copland’s Appalachian Spring. It reminds for what we’re fighting for and why it’s so important to stay home to stop the spread.

creativity

Write every day: Here’s 5 minutes of joy for you

Christa Avampato

Here’s 5 minutes of pure joy for you today. I happy-cried through this and it filled my heart. We all have something to give, especially during difficult times. Musicians, artists, writers – we have the role of lifting up others with our creativity. We’re needed now more than ever.❤️