Annually at the end of June, The Lab brings together a number of artists and resources for an intense two-week immersion set on a secluded campus setting at the Besant Hill school in Ojai, California:
- 30 Tuition-Free Fellowships, inclusive of room and board – 24 instrumentalists and 6 composers will be invited to participate each year based on their talent, technical proficiency, ability to communicate, personality, curiosity and creativity.
- 9 Faculty – The 6 members of Eighth Blackbird will be joined by 2 professional composers and 1 choreographer/director at the top of their field.
- Guest Artists – Periodic and ongoing visits by creative experts in a diverse array of fields will added based on the selected fellows’ creative project proposals.
- Key Partners – The Besant Hill School will provide the facilities and community connections that allow The Lab to achieve its lofty artistic, educational and audience engagement goals.
- Over the course of the two-week experience, fellows will participate in:
- Coaching Sessions – Daily two-hour sessions led by faculty and guests
- Salon Hours – Gatherings before dinner for informal performances, cocktails and other non-musical activities
- Guest Lectures – Structured and unstructured opportunities to talk about a variety of musical and professional development topics with faculty and guests
- Individual Practice – Time for fellows to practice and study on their own
- Performances – Two culminating public performances to be captured on video
The Lab’s mission is to inspire the next generation of performers and composers to share in the ensemble’s vision: to champion a distinctive, dynamic and engaging performance aesthetic. This intensive, human-centered experience will immerse lab fellows in a learn-by-doing, exploratory process of creating new work. By discovering and developing an audacious curatorial vision, lab fellows will be launched on their paths as provocateurs and visionaries in the arts.
Help support the Lab by donating here: https://www.blackbirdcreativelab.org/donate/fund-a-fellow/
The Blackbird Creative Lab is supported in part by the Colburn Foundation, the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation, and an award from the National Endowment for the Arts. To find out more about how National Endowment for the Arts grants impact individuals and communities, visit www.arts.gov.
Blackbird Creative Lab is a tuition-free, two-week immersive experience that combines the idyllic seclusion of an artist retreat, the intense camaraderie of a chamber music intensive, and the practical skills of a leadership program. Located on the bucolic campus of the Besant Hill School in the Ojai Valley, 24 performing artists and six composers from around the world gather each summer to develop and realize their own dream projects in addition to exploring and performing works written for The Lab. Chicago-based chamber ensemble Eighth Blackbird are founders of The Lab, and its members serve as the program’s core instrumental faculty. Utilizing their signature learn-by-doing approach, Eighth Blackbird coaches and mentors while playing alongside the fellows, who also benefit from the guidance of two composers and one multidisciplinary artist on faculty. Augmenting the faculty is a diverse array of visiting guest artists who give seminars on topics ranging from Carnatic rhythm to public speaking. This unprecedented new program is designed to inspire, empower and equip the next generation of artists to become provocateurs and leaders of their communities.
This concert will premiere work commissioned for the Lab, as well as performances from this year’s Lab fellows. Program details forthcoming.
The Blackbird Creative Lab is supported in part by the Colburn Foundation, the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation, and an award from the National Endowment for the Arts. To find out more about how National Endowment for the Arts grants impact individuals and communities, visit www.arts.gov.
Blackbird Creative Lab is a tuition-free, two-week immersive experience that combines the idyllic seclusion of an artist retreat, the intense camaraderie of a chamber music intensive, and the practical skills of a leadership program. Located on the bucolic campus of the Besant Hill School in the Ojai Valley, 24 performing artists and six composers from around the world gather each summer to develop and realize their own dream projects in addition to exploring and performing works written for The Lab. Chicago-based chamber ensemble Eighth Blackbird are founders of The Lab, and its members serve as the program’s core instrumental faculty. Utilizing their signature learn-by-doing approach, Eighth Blackbird coaches and mentors while playing alongside the fellows, who also benefit from the guidance of two composers and one multidisciplinary artist on faculty. Augmenting the faculty is a diverse array of visiting guest artists who give seminars on topics ranging from Carnatic rhythm to public speaking. This unprecedented new program is designed to inspire, empower and equip the next generation of artists to become provocateurs and leaders of their communities.
This concert will premiere work commissioned for the Lab, as well as performances from this year’s Lab fellows. Program details forthcoming.
The Blackbird Creative Lab is supported in part by the Colburn Foundation, the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation, and an award from the National Endowment for the Arts. To find out more about how National Endowment for the Arts grants impact individuals and communities, visit www.arts.gov.