2020 has been a very challenging year. The world stopped on the 13th of March when the arts shut down and our teaching and performance activities shifted online.
Despite many challenges, 2020 was also a year of accomplishments for us thanks to the extraordinary efforts of our faculty, students and team.
To support our growth please keep donating and help us thrive in 2021.
Online Masterclasses
For our very first series of online masterclasses, we were honoured to start with concert pianist Thomas Pandolfi in May and then later in November. Shortly after Italian dramatic soprano Capucine Chiaudani inspired us with her energy and passion for Mozart in a series of workshops on Mozart Recitatives.
New Era Voice Festival
2020 would not have been the same without our first New Era Voice Festival, a month of online workshops, masterclasses and live-streams centered on tools for singers wanting to find more power as both artists and business people.
The success was overwhelming thanks to the incredible artists and special quests who took part to this initiative including the wonderful Angel Blue, Joan Patenaude-Yarnell, James Valenti, Capucine Chiaudani, Tracy Cox, Matthew Anch, Daniel Welch, Miriam Gordon-Stewart, Jennifer Johnson Cano, James Darrah, Lori Laitman and Joshua Conyers.
On Demand Platform
During 2020 we created our first On Demand Platform, fully launching this year.
The Platform is on its beta version and courses currently available to users include a series of recordings of piano and voice lessons, a course on how to look and sound like the pros, a 6-part webinar introduction to music history, and our popular class on the basics of reading music in our Music Theory I.
Online Performances
Throughout 2020, we continued to entertain our audiences with many live performances including our well received Christmas Week in Music streamed on our social channels directly from the historic Arts Club of Washington.
We started with Tracy Cox performing ‘O Holy Night’, continued with mezzo-soprano Elizebeth Barnes performing ‘Christmas Time of Year’ and then finished with virtuoso pianist Thomas Pandolfi performing his transcription of ‘We Wish You a Merry Christmas’ and again Tracy Cox singing ‘Silent Night’.
To view all the videos from our Christmas Week in Music please click here.
Faculty in the Spotlight
In 2020 many of our faculty worked on exciting projects. M4Arts Artist and Soprano Tracy Cox debuted in her leading role in the new opera by Matt Boehler titled Fat Pig based on a play by Neil LaBute.
The opera is commissioned by Victory Hall Opera with the support of the Virginia Commission for the Arts, The Amphion Foundation, and a UVA Arts Enhancement Grant.
The project is quite revolutionary as it highlights a subject that has never been approached in opera before.
You can learn more about this project and our interview to Tracy here.
New Student Registrations
2020 also saw an increase in students registrations, a testament that music never stops, even during difficult times.
We were also very proud for the achievements of our students - some featured in our website and social media - as well as our fantastic faculty who quickly adapted to teaching online.
Our Losses
Unfortunately, in 2020 our faculty was unable to teach in person due to the pandemic and many of our student and faculty performances had to be postponed or cancelled. And that was our main painful loss. But we hope that our normal teaching mode will resume soon at 100%.
It was not an easy task to move all our performances online but we are inspired that our students and faculty thrived even in this difficult situation.
To support our growth please keep donating and help us thrive in 2021.
Looking ahead
2021 is set to be a great year despite all challenges. We are planning a new 2021 Young Artist Programme, aWeek Intensive later in the year and a series of exciting masterclasses with our fantastic faculty. Stay tuned!
The Young Artist Program (YAP) will be for intermediate and advanced pianists and singers looking to refine their repertoire, gain teaching experience and perform publicly. It will provide an opportunity to study with M4Arts faculty Thomas Pandolfi (a pupil of Vladimir Horowitz), pedagogist Radina Dosseva, dramatic Italian soprano Capucine Chiaudani and opera rising start Tracy Cox.. Our Week Intensive will include one-to-one sessions with M4Arts faculty on repertoire and relaxation techniques, social media and artist management and a final live recital, all in one week!
We are excited for 2021 and we remain thankful to all our students, artists and donors to be an active part of our community.
Please consider donating at www.m4arts.org/donate.
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