This monthly series of documentaries, developed in collaboration with Harbour Productions and Mark of Man Films, premieres October 30, 2020 on multiple online platforms.
Sarasota, FL – La Musica International Chamber Music Festival, in collaboration with Harbour Productions and Mark of Man Films, is pleased to announce the launch of “La Musica at Home,” a monthly series of documentaries exploring the personal lives, musical passions and performances of its renowned musician artists. The series will be available through multiple online platforms, including YouTube and La Musica’s website, LaMusicaFestival.org.
In the premiere episode, available October 30, 2020, viewers get a peek into the world of orchestral bassist Dee Moses through traditional and contemporary performances captured in the recording studio, and candid reflections on his life, work, and collaboration with his dancer/choreographer wife Elsa Valbuena. This episode is co-produced by Jerry H. Bilik and John Moffitt, La Musica board members who also conceived “La Musica at Home.”
Subsequent episodes will feature La Musica artistic director and celebrated pianist Derek Han; Ann Hobson Pilot, former principal harpist of the Boston Symphony Orchestra, in collaboration with Sarasota Contemporary Dance; and young piano virtuoso and Yamaha artist Steven Lin, with a special look at the custom piano work of Justin Elliott.
Award-winning artist/filmmakers Shawn Convey and Alexander Berne co-directed these vignettes from across the world: Convey is in Sri Lanka working on his next film; and Berne is in Florida, waiting to return to Rome where he is producing the feature, “The Last Supper.” Convey remotely directs and edits “La Musica at Home,” while Berne, in addition to his sound engineering work, is producing, directing, and filming each of the artists featured in the series. Harold J. Bott is the executive producer and musical director for Harbour Productions.
“I wanted to bring the best to La Musica, so a necessary ingredient for my participation in ‘La Musica at Home’ was a focus on audio fidelity,” says Berne. “We have all been grateful for the use of technology in this ‘staying at home’ time – seeing and hearing artists in their living rooms is intimate and reassuring in difficult times. Yet for me, in these ‘La Musica at Home’ performances, the goal was to present the musicians with the highest possible respect for the sounds they can create. We are fortunate to have legendary sound engineer Gary Baldassari joining us on this project. His decades of experience, and passion for technical and aesthetic brilliance, are indispensable.”
“Equally important is to try and achieve something artistically worthy from the visual perspective,” Berne continues. “To have a filmmaker of Shawn’s caliber on this project is a dream.”
Shawn Convey spent a decade as a photographer in New York and Chicago before deciding to move abroad and concentrate on film. He settled in Bosnia and Herzegovina in search of a story that humanized the people and region, as opposed to perpetuating the stigmatizing stereotypes so prevalent in postwar documentary films. His debut film, “Among Wolves,” won many awards including the Chicago award, Best Documentary Feature, Best Director and the Inaugural Hernandez/Bayliss Prize—Triumph of the Human Spirit award, among others. “Within That Fire,” Convey’s follow-up film, captures the heroically intimate work of a unique army of social change advocates in Kolkata, India. Once victims of human trafficking or children living in the streets and red-light districts, they now help others like them transform and reclaim their lives through dance/movement therapy.
Alexander Berne is a composer, multi-instrumentalist, and filmmaker/producer, born and raised in New York City. In recent years, he has worked on projects with special creators like Sonia Rubinsky, Bill Frisell, Debashish Bhattacharya, Nicholas Hytner, Brian DePalma, Armondo Linus Acosta, Dante Ferretti, and Vittorio Storaro. His live performances and engagements have ranged from the Palazzo Reale in Milan to the famous underground cabaret The Box in New York City, from the Du Maurier and Middelheim jazz festivals to Joe’s Pub-Public Theater and The Joyce in New York City, and the Verbier Festival in the Swiss Alps. In December, Derek Han is presenting Berne at the Teatro Verdi in Trieste.
To learn more about La Musica and “La Musica at Home,” visit LaMusicaFestival.org. La Musica will present its 35th concert season in April 2021; tickets go on sale in January. ###
La Musica’s mission is to bring together the finest musicians of Europe and the Americas to present exciting programs of familiar and unusual chamber music, communicating a joy in performance to enthusiastic audiences. A major goal is to reach out to the community to draw people into the creative process through special performances and daily open rehearsals. For more information about La Musica, visit www.lamusicafestival.org.