[shimmery music]
- I am at Yerkes Observatory,
joining the Blackbird Creative Lab,
who are bringing music into focus at this cosmic site.
[guitar swing music]
I caught up with the directors of the lab,
who are also founding members
of the music group "Eighth Blackbird" to learn more.
- Lisa Kaplan: We really started talking about how can we bring together
the pieces of all these different programs
we've ourselves attended, to make our own program?
In 2017, we founded the Blackbird Creative Lab.
- Matthew Duvall: We look back at our struggles, the mistakes that we made,
and the things that took us too long to learn.
We wanted to create a space
that serves that demographic of emerging professionals.
- Angela: Wow, that's quite a journey,
from you all as musicians now creating a space
for other artists to engage with.
- Lisa: It's a very intense program,
and it's designed to be that way.
We really wanted to develop the curriculum
to what the cohort's needs were.
- And they're not asking about, "How do I compose music
or how do I play my instrument?"
They're saying, "How do I manage my finances?
How do I read a contract?"
And this program is very intentionally
geared toward the whole human of the emerging artist,
not just performance.
And even this place, the Yerkes Observatory,
is a teaching vehicle.
This is an extraordinarily unique concert hall.
- Lisa: I mean, it's not even a concert hall.
[Lisa and Angela laughing]
- Exactly. - And so, managing sound
in an observatory is quite different.
- But I think too that our partnership with Yerkes
has been so beautiful.
We are not creating work that's in the science field,
which is what Yerkes is known for,
but we hope that we're bringing in folks
who are incredibly innovative in art.
[bright music]
- Angela: Folks like composer Julia Moss
and the group "Sputter Box"
are cohorts of this year's program.
- Julia Moss: So I'm writing a piece called "Growing Pains."
It's about the mourning process
of sort of growing and splitting off from
old parts of yourself
and how that can be nostalgic and scary and hard
but also a positive thing for moving forward.
- That is interesting and relatable. [laughs]
- Yes. [laughs]
- So, what is it like creating in this specific space?
- We've really had an open and vulnerable process here.
I really think that this piece couldn't have been
what it was if it wasn't in this space,
together and also at the Yerkes Observatory
it's so resonant and beautiful.
- Angela: From composition--
- How about we start from letter J--
- Angela: To practice... [playing mallets]
...to performance.
[ethereal music, singing indistinctly]
The Blackbird Creative Lab offers emerging musicians
an out-of-this-world space to create and play.
[bright music]