music/dance
first place
Photo by Kiki Vassilakis.
Tell Me
Ilana Morris
I am submitting an original song I wrote when I was feeling overwhelmed by all of the effects of the pandemic. It highlights a moment in my life where I felt hopeless and powerless. This song and the songwriting/recording process was a way to help me reclaim my power and voice.
Born and raised in Western Massachusetts, Ilana Morris was often described by the folks who knew her best as "a child who sang as early as she talked." The 25 year old vocalist has been pursuing her musical passions for most of her life. In 2010, she released her first original song, "Endless Lies," co-written with legendary guitarist, June Millington. In 2014, while studying Jazz voice at the University of Massachusetts - Amherst, she co-founded a funk band with fellow musicians and has since graced multiple local bands with her vocals. In 2017, she joined the Albany based R&B/Pop band, Wurliday, as their lead vocalist. She has shared the stage with iconic groups such as En Vogue, Third World, members of Snarky Puppy and the Trey Anastasio Band. In 2020 she decided to pursue her career as a solo artist and loves sharing her personal music with the world!
breeze - I wish i knew how it would feel to be free
By Taylor Mickens
A jazz piece and a spoken word piece combined to speak to how the institutionalized racism ingrained in our country has affected me and my people and how Black people are trying to break from the chains we are still in today.
Taylor Mickens is an actor, singer, dancer, poet, and performance activist currently getting her BA in Theater while also studying Jazz and African American Music at The University of Massachusetts Amherst.
When she isn’t on the theater stage, Taylor sings and gigs with combos and bands singing different genres of music as well as original compositions and spoken word. Upon graduation, Taylor plans to move to NYC to be a working artist and continue to work toward creating an arts nonprofit for underserved Black communities.
Taylor hopes to empower young Black people to fulfill their dreams through doing what she loves.
Drive-In
Driving Wheel/Pete Sikowitz
We're submitting an original composition entitled "Drive-in." Since we haven't been able to perform (musicians have been devastated by Covid-19), we created the video you can see here "virtually." All members recorded parts separately and our drummer edited the video's visuals. "Drive-in" is timely (drive-ins have come back in vogue due to the fact people don't venture from the confines of their car for the most part). The video also addresses the scary aspects of a pandemic metaphorically.
Second place
america, the beautiful 2020
nerissa nields & Company
A rewriting/rethinking of America the Beautiful. A recording with a pictoral video.
Featuring Chris Smither, Dar Williams, Vance Gilbert, Peter Mulvey, Kalliope Jones, and Ben Demerath. Audio Produced by Dave Chalfant from The NIelds album November. Video created by Katryna Nields with Nerissa Nields.
back in the ussa
Peter brown
A musical and video commentary on life in the USA during the summer of COVID
Flight or Fright
By Liz Ryan
A composition for brass band. Solosists Joannie Timberlake on alto sax and Dani Garcia on trumpet.
This is an original brass band composition. I have been meaning to compose an original tune for the band and this contest pushed me to do it. There are tracks of live horn artists in this piece on saxophone and trumpet. I put it in a video format but it is a musical performance submission. I hope to use the piece in the future with Prone to Mischief.
third place
pas de toilet paper
madeleine bonn
This short choreographic piece was my contribution to a larger project that I created via Amherst Ballet called "The Social Dis-Dance Project." This program curated and commissioned short choreographic work from dancers in Amherst, as well as all over the world, to express their experience of the COVID19 pandemic and the social distancing ordinances put in place thereafter. In the face of a lot of sadness, isolation, and uncertainty, I chose to create something light, absurd, and comic, by telling the story of an unexpected friendship, and dance partner, with my chance encounter with a rare roll of toilet paper.
COVID SUMMER SHADES
Daniel Hales
My submission is a 3-song EP called Covid Summer Shades, which can be streamed here: m/covid-summer-shades. These songs, written and recorded in the last month, express my pain, sadness, grief, and frustration after first losing my job and then having my 15-year relationship end when my partner moved out on March 15th... right after quarantine started. Such huge life losses are tough to deal with in the best of times, but they’re much harder when one has to go through them alone while stuck in pandemic isolation—a theme most directly addressed by the first song: “Corona Summer Song.” Song two, “Side Of Your Mind” explores how it feels to grieve the loss of someone who’s still alive—while living alone in a quarantined house surrounded by memories of them. The last song, “Corona Summer Sunset,” is a deeper exploration of the grieving process during a pandemic. Is the speaker addressing a loved one who’s left him, or has died... possibly a victim of the Coronavirus?