Monday, July 25, 2011

GREAT news!

i just booked a performance workshop series at dixon place on thursday september 29 for a “musical” i’m assembling called the billie holiday project. this is an idea that i performed at the historic lenox lounge at the first annual harlem jazz shrines in may of this year. i wanted to grow it and i wasn’t sure how or if i could even pull it off in new york city because i hadn’t developed anything here through conventional means in awhile and i didn’t know the lay of the land. i still don’t, but i’m feeling my way along and i’m enjoying the process.

this is the way you do something new. i’ve originated work before. i know the trajectory very well. one step at a time, one moment at a time, one idea at a time – getting all of it up on its legs every season, getting a run where you can and shaping it as it goes along.

but that’s not the kicker.

the kicker is that i just confirmed with the apollo theater’s sound stage for their monthly music cafe series for may 11 and 12, 2012. i’ll also be performing there for harlem jazz shrines for those dates.

yeah, i’m over the moon. once i land, mpb and i will celebrate.

still submitting this idea for workshop opportunities all over the place. and yeah, i’m still waiting to find out if i’ve been chosen as a librettist for the bmi musical theater workshop. let’s see what develops. when anything gets confirmed, you will be the first one i tell.

happy summer!

5 comments:

AJ Muhammad said...

Queen. that is fantastic. God is good! You have all these projects blooming!

You are back at the Apollo once again after all these years from doing Harlem Song!

Well, alright then!

Love to you and your pb!

Queen Esther said...

There's way more that's in bloom - "The Alberta Hunter" project is still in the works, thanks to boxing, I'm getting my body back (finally!) and I'm mixing my next album. Much Love to you - and thanks for all your support.

AJ Muhammad said...

Queen, you've got the Alberta Hunter project, the Billie Holiday Project, the project that you previewed at the Kitchen this past winter, the musical theater project that you've been writing on and the list keeps going including your new album which you are mixing! All I know is the song that you wrote for your brother where you sing "death and destruction terrify me" had better be on it otherwise, as they sing in West Side Story: There's going to be a rumble tonight...

But seriously, may you get support you need to get all of them done. And I know you will!

Queen Esther said...

uh, oh...well, the song you're referring to is called "baby brother's blues" and it's not on the album.

*sigh*

don't be too disappointed! there's a lot more where that song came from...

AJ Muhammad said...

Well, I hope you release Baby Brother's Blues as a single! People want to hear it!