THE SEATTLE SYMPHONY ANNOUNCES FOUR RECIPIENTS OF ITS COMMUNITY STAGES FUND

NOW IN ITS THIRD YEAR, THE COMMUNITY STAGES FUND CONTINUES OFFERING SUPPORT TO LOCAL ARTISTS AND ORGANIZATIONS, WELCOMING THEM TO SHOWCASE THEIR WORK AT BENAROYA HALL

Seattle, WA — The Seattle Symphony is excited to announce four new Community Stages Fund (CSF) grant recipients. Created as a way to invest in greater support for underrepresented artists, the CSF continues to help grow the region’s unique musical and cultural landscape. The CSF selection committee, made up of community leaders and Seattle Symphony staff, reviews a broad range of applications, prioritizing grantee selections based on each organization’s demonstrated level of need as well as service to racially diverse communities. The Seattle Symphony is pleased to present this year’s impressive lineup of grant recipients: Asia Pacific Cultural Center, Degenerate Art Ensemble with Shin Yu Pai, Seattle Women’s Jazz Orchestra and Speak With Purpose.

In 2021, the Seattle Symphony created the CSF to help combat the systemic inequities that impact ALAANA (African, Latinx, Asian, Arab or Native American), LGBTQ+ and female performers, especially after the COVID-19 pandemic hit and increased the disparities experienced by these communities. In an effort to broaden the reach of the selected grant recipients, the CSF provides grantees with fully sponsored or highly subsidized use of the Illsley Ball Nordstrom Recital Hall, Octave 9: Raisbeck Music Center and/or the Samuel & Althea Stroum Grand Lobby, along with in-house digital streaming equipment, marketing and production crew support.

“The Community Stages Fund begins its third year with an exciting lineup of performers,” shares Seattle Symphony President & CEO Krishna Thiagarajan. “For the past three years, the Fund has exceeded our expectations — opening Benaroya Hall to more artist communities, while increasing diversity and equitable access to our excellent performance spaces in the heart of downtown Seattle. We look forward to welcoming even more voices to our hall this year, enhancing Seattle’s cultural and artistic scene and sharing inspiring, innovative performances with our audience.”

Asia Pacific Cultural Center bridges communities and generations through art, culture, education and business. Performing November 24, 2024, at the Illsley Ball Nordstrom Recital Hall.

Degenerate Art Ensemble with Shin Yu Pai combines projected imagery with movement and sound to create new mythologies, revealing other dimensions and challenging reality in a multi-dimensional storytelling experience. Performing November 9, 2024, at the Octave 9: Raisbeck Music Center.

Seattle Women’s Jazz Orchestra (SWOJO) performs jazz standards, Latin and Brazilian jazz, and has been showcasing many of the finest female jazz artists in the region since 2000. Performing May 12, 2024, at the Illsley Ball Nordstrom Recital Hall.

Speak With Purpose (SWP) exists to cultivate inclusive and creative learning spaces that allow young scholars to deconstruct the dominant narratives by using public speaking to uplift their culture, self -authored identities, and communities. Performing June 16, 2024, at the Samuel & Althea Stroum Grand Lobby and the Illsley Ball Nordstrom Recital Hall.

COMMUNITY STAGES FUND

The Community Stages Fund (CSF) is an initiative focused on serving organizations, groups and artists within our region that do not have access to spaces to produce and present their art and connect with their community. This fund is part of the Seattle Symphony’s investment in greater prominence for ALAANA (African, Latinx, Asian, Arab or Native American), LGBTQ+ and female artists and their works on the Benaroya Hall stages and the Seattle Symphony+ digital platform, as aligns with the Symphony's Diversity, Equity, Inclusion and Belonging work. The CSF welcomes nonprofit organizations, groups and artists to the Benaroya Hall stages for fully sponsored or highly subsidized use of the Illsley Ball Nordstrom Recital Hall, Samuel & Althea Stroum Grand Lobby and Octave 9: Raisbeck Music Center along with in-house digital streaming equipment and production crew. This program aims to amplify the voices of the Puget Sound area and give back to the community members who have helped shape and grow our region’s unique musical and cultural landscape.

ASIA PACIFIC CULTURAL CENTER

Asia Pacific Cultural Center (APCC) is a center for cultural exchange, promoting the greater awareness, understanding, equity, and inclusion of the Asian and Pacific Islander people with the mission “to bridge communities and generations through art, culture, education and business.” For over two-and-a-half decades, APCC has proudly represented and served the Asia Pacific people from 47 different countries. APCC is a 501(c)3 nonprofit organization located in Tacoma, Washington, serving the Greater Puget Sound and beyond. It provides a wide range of culture, arts, youth, outreach, and education programs and activities for all ages. APCC works to bring people together in the spirit of acceptance and understanding, helping to build a stronger, healthier, more vibrant community for present and future generations.

DEGENERATE ART ENSEMBLE WITH SHIN YU PAI

This project is a collaboration between Degenerate Art Ensemble and poet Shin Yu Pai. Seattle-based Degenerate Art Ensemble (DAE), which is led by Haruko Crow Nishimura and Joshua Kohl, makes performances inspired by punk, comics, cinema, nightmares and fairytales driven by live music and their own style of physical theater and butoh-inspired dance. DAE’s leading artists are recipients of the Arts Innovators Award from Artist Trust, a Creative Capital award, received a commission from director Robert Wilson to re-interpret his work Einstein on the Beach (NY), created a solo dance for legendary dancer Anna Halprin’s 95 Rituals (SF), and a large-scale site-specific collaboration with Olson Kundig Architects (Seattle). Shin Yu Pai is currently the Civic Poet of the City of Seattle. She is the author of 13 books, including most recently No Neutral (Empty Bowl, 2023) and Less Desolate (Blue Cactus Press, 2023). Shin Yu Pai has received awards for her work from the Academy of American Poets, 4Culture, The Awesome Foundation and Artist Trust. From 2015 to 2017, she served as the Poet Laureate for the City of Redmond. She is a three-time fellow of MacDowell and has been in residence at Centrum Foundation, Taipei Artist Village and the National Park Service. Shin Yu Pai is the host and writer of Ten Thousand Things, an award-winning, chart-topping podcast on Asian American stories produced with KUOW, Seattle's NPR affiliate station.

SEATTLE WOMEN’S JAZZ ORCHESTRA

SWOJO is a professional 16-piece jazz orchestra that has been showcasing many of the finest female jazz artists in the Puget Sound region for over 20 years. The orchestra performs classic jazz, Latin jazz and contemporary jazz by established and emerging composers. SWOJO presents live concerts with special guest artists such as Ingrid Jensen, Grace Kelly, Curtis Stigers, Mimi Fox, Sheryl Bailey and Christine Jensen. The band has performed at many top venues such as Benaroya Hall, Jazz Alley, The Triple Door and at Bumbershoot. SWOJO has traveled internationally to present concerts at jazz festivals and recorded two CDs, Dreamcatcher and Meeting of the Waters, released on the Origin Arts2 record label.

SPEAK WITH PURPOSE

SWP is the only youth public speaking program incorporated into the school day throughout King County public schools. The program collaborates with students and teachers to reimagine classroom learning by integrating arts education with student voice. SWP’s aim is to develop independent learners with self-authored identities, providing them with a platform for expression and leadership. The organization understands that each student brings unique backgrounds and experiences to the classroom. That is why SWP adapts to the needs of each student and fosters a culturally responsive and relevant project-based learning (PBL) curriculum. To ensure inclusivity, SWP trains a diverse group of teaching guides who co-teach alongside classroom teachers. SWP believes that student voice and agency are essential to the learning process. By nurturing collectivism and encouraging expression, we nurture brilliance, imagination and leadership in students.

SEATTLE SYMPHONY   

The Seattle Symphony unleashes the power of music, brings people together and lifts the human spirit. Recognized as one of the “most vital American orchestras” (NPR), the Seattle Symphony is internationally acclaimed for its inventive programming, community-minded initiatives and superb recordings on the Seattle Symphony Media label. With a strong commitment to new music and a legacy of over 150 recordings, the orchestra has won five Grammy Awards, 27 Grammy nominations, two Emmy Awards and was named Gramophone’s 2018 Orchestra of the Year. The Symphony performs in Benaroya Hall in the heart of downtown Seattle from September through July, reaching over 750,000 people annually through live performances and radio broadcasts, and through the Seattle Symphony+ streaming service, the orchestra’s concerts reach audiences at home and around the world.

BENAROYA HALL   

 Benaroya Hall, the home of the Seattle Symphony, is located in downtown Seattle and surrounded by numerous restaurants, retail stores and parking facilities. Opened in 1998, Benaroya Hall is the most-visited performing arts venue in Seattle. It has received numerous awards, including a 2001 American Institute of Architects (AIA) National Honor Award for outstanding architecture. Benaroya Hall has three versatile performance venues, the S. Mark Taper Foundation Auditorium, the Illsley Ball Nordstrom Recital Hall and Octave 9: Raisbeck Music Center, all renowned for their pristine acoustics, luxurious design and prime location. For additional information, including rental information, event listings and public tour schedules, please visit benaroyahall.org.

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The Seattle Symphony’s Community Stages Fund is generously supported by the Tagney Jones Family Fund at Seattle Foundation.

The Seattle Symphony’s Family, School & Community programs are supported by 4Culture, the Arakawa Foundation, Marco Argenti, ArtsFund, Delta Air Lines, the Merriman-Ross Family, the National Endowment for the Arts, and individual contributions to the Seattle Symphony Annual Fund.