Saturday, November 03, 2007

We're 501(c)3!

Hello all pC fans

Just writing to let you know that pC has just received word from our most awesome and faithful legal counsel,Matthew Sarelson, (http://sarelson.com/attorneys.html) that we are now a 501(c)3, non-profit arts orgainization. This will give us tremendous flexibilty in regards to fundraising, allowing us to solicit tax deductible donations from individuals and corporations, as well as allowing us to compete for foundation grants.

Thanks to everybody who made this happen: the artists of pC, the audiences who came to our performances, all donors, our amazing board, our lawyer Matthew, Karen Click, Mark Hart at Coral Gables Congregational Church, and most of all, Carol Hoffman, who helped to incubate our fledgling group which is now ready to take flight!

More soon!

Wednesday, August 29, 2007

Bravo Copernicus! The Critics have spoken!

Congrats to all the artists and composers that participated in the concerts last weekend, and thank you to all that attended the events. I think everyone has agreed that we have raised the bar yet again, and pC is well on its way to realizing some of its primary artistic goals. Below are three reviews of the concert that we have found:

Sun Sentinel - Larry Budmen
http://www.sun-sentinel.com/features/lifestyle/sfl-muclcopernicusnbaug28,0,3033598.story

Palm Beach Post - Greg Stepanich
http://www.palmbeachpost.com/blogs/content/shared-blogs/palmbeach/stepanich

Miami Herald - Alan Becker
http://www.miamiherald.com/tropical_life/story/217453.html

We also appeared in the American Symphony Orchestra League "In the News" twice this past week, with the Sun Sentinel Review, and the following forward article by Larry Johnson in the Miami Herald:

http://www.miamiherald.com/234/story/210742.html

Thank you to everyone who made this concert series such a resounding success! Now it's on to the next. I promise that we have some very exciting projects in the pipeline, and we can't wait to unveil them!

Let us know what you think!

Sunday, August 26, 2007

Guest Blog Post by Randy Wong

Hello, Friends of Project Copernicus!

I am honored to be this entry's guest blogger. My name is Randy Wong, and I was one of the four composers featured on this weekend's "From the Land of The Buddha" concert cycle that opened our second season.

This week was completely exhilirating for me, in the many ways that makes Project Copernicus special. One thing that I especially like about working with this group is the process that is undertaken with each individual project; there are no "cookie-cutter" or formulaic approaches to getting the music to sound a 'certain' way. And, unlike traditional ensemble rehearsals, in which musical decisions are often made from the top down (i.e., the conductor makes all choices, and his/her players surrender their artistic license to him/her), Project Copernicus is very democratic. I experienced this first-hand as composer for this concert; every single one of my colleagues who performed in my composition "L'ours Chinois" supported my work — not only with their marvelous talents on their individual instruments, but also with suggestions and ideas to further the musical interpretation of my writing. In many instances, their ideas were much better than my own!

As a bassist, I myself have participated in many composer readings and performances of new works. All too often, musicians pass up the opportunity to engage the composers in dialogue about their writing, or are not genuinely interested in the performance of the new work. That is not the case with Project Copernicus, and since it is not, each of the pieces performed in this concert cycle were truly embraced by all involved.

It seems to me that the process that led up to our most recent performances was not lost on our audience — quite a few concert attendees came up to me after both performances to mention how much they enjoyed our work! Even though Project Copernicus is young in its (hopefully) long career, I feel that our approach towards music making is really starting to mature, and I look forward to using PC as a model for working with my own projects.

My thanks to Chung Park and Steve Danyew, along with Angel Lam and Ryo Sato for inviting me to be a part of this special concert cycle. As we say in Hawai`i ... "Mahalo nui loa" ('thank you very much') and "A hui hou" (until we meet again) ...

Much Aloha,

Randy Wong
Bassist & Composer of "L'ours Chinois"

P.S.: Please visit my website www.randywong.net/exotica if you are interested in learning more about my emerging work as a composer.

Tuesday, May 22, 2007

Future programming and odds and ends

Steve and I had a lengthy talk about all sorts of things tonight, and in the middle of it all we just stopped and said "Whoa, we're talking about next year. There's going to be a next year". How cool is that? Nine months ago this baby was only a twinkle in our eyes and now it's starting to walk on its own.

We've got lots of really great programming ideas on tap for next year and beyond. Details will start rolling in when we have things a bit more solid but you can be sure that we'll be bringing fresh ideas and top-notch performances to Miami and the rest of South Florida.

I met with Jim Stephenson this past week in Naples, FL, and we discussed his arranging Ravel's Mother Goose Suite for String Quintet, Piano and Percussion, as well as writing a new piece for us which we'll put on an all-American program sometime in the next year or two. We're excited to be working with Jim, whose composing career is really taking off.

More very soon. Check back often. We're doing things nobody else is doing down here-or maybe anywhere else!

pC Gets High Score from Florida Grant Review Panel

More good news! We've just heard from the State of Florida that we've received a 90+ score for a grant from the State of Florida. While the grant itself is small, it is a big step forward in regards to receiving future assistance from the State of Florida. Big shout out to Carol Hoffman at Arts at St. John's for her help with this grant and our MDC grant. Couldn't have done it wothout her.

Friday, May 11, 2007

Another Successful Concert!

This past Sunday, pC performed a wonderful concert of baroque music by unknown Italian composers at Vizcaya Museum & Gardens, arguably one of the most beautiful locations in Miami.
















Performing in an atrium within the amazingly constructed estate, the brilliant sounds of pC reverberated throughout the museum, garnering over 100 eager listeners. The response and warmth that pC received from the audience was outstanding, as the patrons appreciated the youthful energy of pC, the virtuosic level of performance, and the interesting dose of education and information that we always try to impart.

Special thanks to Destiny Pierce at Vizcaya for making the event possible, and to pC musicians Blake Espy, Jamecyn Morey, David Bebe, and Jason Moy for their remarkable musicianship and efforts.














Throughout the past week, Chung & Steve met with several key individuals that are supporting pC and its future in a big way. Matthew Sarelson, P.A. is helping us file for 501c3 status, and he has been gracious enough to provide his legal services pro bono. Matthew recently sent our application to the IRS, and now we are awaiting approval. We thank Matthew immensely for his hard work and support of pC, and we look forward to his involvement in the future as well.

Additionally, we met with Jerry Haar, a great friend of pC and a professor of business at Florida International University. Jerry has officially agreed to join our board, and we are thrilled that he will be such an integral part of pC. He brings great ideas and major goals for the group, as well as a great love and knowledge of music. His passion and ideas are sure to help pC as we grow and flourish.

More to come very soon, so stay posted!

Thursday, April 26, 2007

pC Awarded Grant from Miami-Dade!

Project Copernicus has just been awarded a $6,000 grant to fund a summer concert at Arts at St John's on Miami Beach! The concert theme is "From the Land of the Budda" and will feature eastern-influenced music composed by a wide variety of living composers. We obviously couldn't be happier about the support that Miami-Dade is offering us, and we are honored to be receiving their support. We will keep you posted on the details of this concert, but most likely the timing for this event will be mid-August.

Additionally, Project Copernicus will be performing music of lesser-known Italian composers on May 6, 3:30pm at Vizcaya Museum & Gardens. Come listen to the world-class sounds of pC while surrounding yourself with some breathtaking gardens and natural landscape. It is sure to be an event you won't want to miss! Feel free to email us at info@projectcopernicus.org with any questions.

We always appreciate your support and suggestions, so keep them coming!

Sunday, April 08, 2007

More Updates

pC has once again made great strides for the future as we are submitting (4-9-07) a complete grant proposal to the City of Miami-Dade, and we are planning to submit a proposal to the State of Florida very soon. We have had an immense amount of help from Dana Pezoldt and the Miami-Dade Department of Cultural Affairs, and their support in helping us apply for our first grant has been remarkable. And Carol Hoffman at Arts at St. Johns has guided us through this process with amazingly helpful advice and knowledge, and we could not have done it without her. We look forward to developing a strong relationship with the Department of Cultural Affairs, and we hope to garner their support for the future.

Additionally, we are very excited about the upcoming concert series in May, and it promises to be an exciting mix of high-quality and diverse music. Stay tuned to the website and updates here for more detailed information, but as we said in earlier posts the dates are May 6 (Vizcaya Gardens) and the weekend of May 11-13 (Venues TBA). As always, your input/suggestions/comments/thoughts are always welcomed and appreciated, so feel free to post here or email info@projectcopernicus.org.

Wednesday, March 21, 2007

Blog on Blog

Hi All,

Palm Beach Post music Critic Greg Stepanich has written a thoughtful and lengthy piece on his blog about our concert at St. John's on Jan. 21. Here's a link:

http://www.palmbeachpost.com/blogs/content/shared-blogs/palmbeach/stepanich/entries/2007/03/copernicus_conc.html

We're moving on several other fronts right now. We've got Matthew Sarelson, a lawyer on South Beach doing our 501c3 filing for us pro bono, we finally have a checking account open courtesy of Emilio Vazquez at Coconut Grove Bank and some money to put into it thanks to the generous people who donated money during our last concert cycle.

Speaking of which...

We have two concert cycle coming up. One a baroque concert featuring lesser known Italian baroque composers including Leonardo Leo and Francesco Geminiani at beautiful Vizcaya Mueseum and Gardens on May 6 (vizcayamuseum.org, check it out-it's gorgeous) and the second a cycle of music from the near and far east featuring pC percussionist Rod Squance running from May 11-13th. Lots of cool stuff going on. More to come...

Tuesday, March 06, 2007

Updates

Hello all Copernicans,

It has been a while, but we've been up to things. Most importantly, we've tentatively scheduled concerts for the 10-12 of May (info here: http://projectcopernicus.org/Concerts.html) featuring Rod Squance, one of our fine percussionists. We're still working on firming up venues, and we're looking to extend our reach into Broward (Ft. Lauderdale/Hollywood) and West Palm Beach. We'll get those firmed up soon and let you know when we do.

Steve and I have decided to start a press out of pC (http://projectcopernicus.org/pC%20Publishing.html) to help disseminate the music of our artists as widely as possible. We have many talented composers and arrangers on our roster and we're going to make sure they get heard!

Next up on our to do list is a major fundraising campaign. We've been meeting with several people who have been extremely successful at fundraising efforts in Miami and they have been extremely generous with their advice and encouragement. Everybody we've come across is rooting for us to flourish and have been unstinting in their efforts to make it happen.

One last thing: We're official! pC has incorporated in the State of Florida and we're lucky enough to have Miami Beach lawyer Matthew Sarelson (sarelson.com) handling our 501 (c)(3) filing on a pro bono basis. He is very generously donating his expertise through the Miami-Dade County Bar Association's Put Something Back pro bono program. He's a great guy and very enthused about pC.

Moving ahead one step at a time. Drop us a line anytime and let us know if you'd like to have a copy of our debut concert CD. We'll put one in the mail for you right away.

Thursday, February 15, 2007

Soft Wind Sunday

Steve's piece beautifully sung by Monica and Brandon.

Thursday, February 01, 2007

Next Concert on the Horizon

Friends and fans of Project Copernicus:

pC is tentatively planning our next concert series for mid-May. We are currently considering several programming ideas, and we would love to hear YOUR thoughts! Please post any ideas you have for programming, or any pieces you would like to see us perform on the upcoming concerts or future concerts further down the road. I can't tell you exactly what the concert will consist of at this point, but I can promise you this; it will be fun, interesting, fresh, and unique. Well, it's already February, so we better get to work!

-Steve

Wednesday, January 24, 2007

Successful Concert Series by All Accounts

Friends of pC:

We apologize for not posting a blog last week, but things were a little busy in preparation for our first concert series. We were thrilled to have large, supportive audiences at both of our venues this weekend, and there was a genuine sense of excitement and appreciation from the public. Additionally, everyone involved with pC felt as though this was a special experience. Musically, the concerts were nothing short of inspiring for many people, including myself, and the biggest question that came up was...when is the next concert? Well, we're working on that as we speak, and we will do our best to have another concert series ASAP.

Larry Johnson of the Miami Herald was in attendance Saturday night, and he has written a very thoughtful and positive review in the Herald. I invite you to view the article here:
http://www.miami.com/mld/miamiherald/entertainment/music/16515463.htm

Stay tuned for details of our next series, and please feel free to contact us about any thoughts or comments you may have. The more input we have about our project, the better off we will be.

-Steve

Thursday, January 11, 2007

A Little More

This article in Playbill:

http://www.playbillarts.com/news/article/5828.html


Kind of summarizes the other two. It's amazing how a little press can snowball. We'll be getting a lot more after the concert so keep in touch.

Tuesday, January 09, 2007

Project Copernicus makes headlines in Miami Herald

Larry Johnson of the Miami Herald has written a fantastic article about Project Copernicus.
It can be found online here:
http://www.miami.com/mld/miamiherald/entertainment/music/16392796.htm

Here is an excerpt:
"Project Copernicus, a new chamber orchestra created to present the kind of envelope-pushing concerts that, apart from Seraphic Fire, are currently lacking in Miami."

As a result of this article, and the blog post by Greg Stepanich, we have received several emails and calls from patrons who want to purchase tickets, join our mailing list, and just generally offer their excitement and support.

We have also created an electronic version of our press kit and sent that by request to the Coral Gables Gazette, who may be covering the event. If you would like a copy of the electronic press kit, simply email us at info@projectcopernicus.org, and we will get it to you ASAP.

Ok, stay tuned for more!

Friday, January 05, 2007

Press and More Press

Here are some excerpts from Greg Stepanich's blog:

What we see here is a group with a very modern outlook: it has an active Web site, a press packet with a DVD and CD featuring Park's conducting and Danyew's music, collaboration plans, outreach proposals, and a focus on contemporary music that it's willing to leave undefined and forever explored. That strikes me as the kind of business plan that is alert to today's music-business reality.


And:

I'm planning to attend one of the group's first concerts, and I hope that the youthful energy evident in the founding vision of this ensemble leads to wonderful music. This is the kind of operation that we're likely to see much more of over the next few years, as younger musicians marry their interest in new music with the necessity of reaching audiences they have to educate.

That is the world we live in, and Project Copernicus understands that. I wish them good luck, and hope everyone interested in the new face of classical music will give them the benefit of the doubt as they strike out on their demanding path.


Read the entire post here:

http://www.palmbeachpost.com/blogs/content/shared-blogs/palmbeach/stepanich/entries/2007/01/post_5.html

Heady stuff. We're going to do everything we can to bring Greg's kind words to fruition. Many thanks to Greg Stepanich and the Palm Beach Post!

Chung has also been in very close contact with Larry Johnson of the Miami Herald, having spoken with him several times in the past few days. Mr. Johnson is not only an insightful critic, but he uses his forum to be an advocate for the arts, encouraging Miami's audiences to broaden their horizons. Larry will put a short article about us in the paper today, with a longer one to follow in a couple of weeks. We'll have excerpts and links to both of those articles when they appear. Thanks to Larry Johnson and the Miami Herald for their help in getting the word out about what we're doing!

The press we've been getting has been just fantastic. Now it's time for us to knock 'em dead with our musicmaking.

Thursday, January 04, 2007

Miami Herald

Chung had a great conversation today with Larry Johnson, the new music critic at the Miami Herald. Larry is very excited about our vision and he will be doing a short writeup about pC to go into the paper this week, with a longer feature on the week of the concert. In addition, he'll be in attendance at our debut concert. With the level of talent that we have and through our hard work we'll do our very best to impress him and all of the concertgoers. The buzz about pC has been just amazing, and frankly, a little surprising. This whole endeavor feels a little bit like Frankenstein's monster - it's taken on a life of it's own, but this is what our wiki-orchestra is all about, and with the people we've got involved all they need is a little room to run and they'll take care of the rest.

Hope you all had a great holiday!

Monday, January 01, 2007

Press on the Palm Beach Post Blog

Hi everyone,

I hope you are having a great holiday season, and best wishes for a safe and happy new year. Chung recently sent press kits and letters to several local music writers, and we have already heard back from one--Greg Stepanich from the Palm Beach Post. I spoke with Greg yesterday and we had a great conversation about pC and our upcoming concerts. Greg is going to write a little something about us on his blog- http://www.palmbeachpost.com/blogs/content/shared-blogs/palmbeach/stepanich/ and he is going to try to attend one of the debut concerts! We are flattered that he is interested in our project, and that he would consider writing about us. Stay tuned to his blog (linked above) to see what he has to say. I can't wait to see everyone in a few weeks! -Steve

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