By Denise Marsa
With all things chaotic, quiet and quarantined, St. John’s in the Village is teaming up with Musae and Denise Marsa Productions (DMP) to create an exciting and viable new platform for musicians to continue to bring their music and talent to audiences safely while keeping their distance and continuing to earn income. The three partners introduce “Live Recording & Streaming from St. John’s in the Village.”
The goal is to present high quality live and recorded streaming and audio concerts, to keep the arts flourishing in the West Village. The team has put together a top of the line, portable studio with a full camera set-up that comes with an experienced live engineer who will be mixing the concert’s audio and visual elements live. Artists can feature their concerts in 360 Virtual Reality or in the traditional format. Filming with the 360 camera will be important for distancing especially with choir and vocal groups where they can be placed throughout the church space during performances. There will also be a 30-minute soundcheck prior to the concert beginning before the concert goes live whether pre-recorded or virtually live. Artists may stream their concerts on their own platforms (their Facebook pages or YouTube channels) or on St John’s own YouTube channel. (www.youtube.com/stjvny).
Fr Graeme has successfully grown the programs at the church since his arrival almost two years ago, with programs ranging from early music to contemporary art music, jazz, musical theater, and everything in between. He is determined to keep things moving forward. He has also been featuring live liturgies from St. John’s with over 2000 subscribers joining since the YouTube channel opened a month ago. It was proof for Fr Graeme that there is a need and a demand for St. John’s to remain a beacon for both prayer and music, during these difficult times.
Yachtz Radcliff, founder of Musae, an immersive live events company, shares, “We feel it is important to create an affordable, easy, sophisticated live streaming experience for both the audience and the talent. We spared no expense when configuring the portable studio and believe it will be a valuable and important part of Arts at St. John’s in the Village during the sequestering and even after this virus epidemic is a part of our past.”
Producing the events, Denise Marsa brought Fr Graeme and Yachtz together and believes the value for artists is substantial. They will have videos they can use to promote their concerts as well as high quality recordings they can release as “Live” CD’s, adding to their catalogs. DMP is managing the logistics and set-ups and is a liaison between artists and/or their managers and will also help Musae promote the events. Artists need pay only a minimal fee for the live engineer from ticket earnings with small percentages going to the church and producers. Artists will enjoy a unique experience that will be archived and appreciated for years to come.
Musae will handle ticket sales and donations as well as promotions and each artist will be paid directly from Musae. The set-up is easy and user friendly, with every project having its own page on the Musae.me website. There are several tiers for tickets, starting at $5 and up to $50. It has a non-profit approach to supporting artists, especially during these times.
“Live Streaming from St. John’s in the Village” is launching a special promotion. The first six artists/projects to sign up, will have the live engineer paid for by a generous St. John’s in the Village benefactor. The program officially begins bookings on May 1, 2020. For more information please email: rector@stjvny.org.
