ARTIST DEVELOPMENT
Vanguard Award & Residency.
The Vanguard Award & Residency is an award and yearlong residency that celebrates the career of a singular artist who has contributed to American life and pop culture and is a part of the Joe’s Pub family of artists. This artist also sustains and leads their own artistic community while creating a body of work that stands apart from their peers. Additionally, the award answers to the music industry’s widening gaps in funding.
Laurie Anderson is the 2020 recipient of The Joe’s Pub Vanguard Award & Residency. The writer, director, visual artist, and vocalist is honored for her prolific career as a creative pioneer inspiring audiences with her groundbreaking works – daring multi-media presentations and innovative use of technology across the worlds of art, theater and experimental music.
Laurie Anderson's 2020 Curated Performance Series:
The 2020 Joe's Pub Vanguard Gala | Honoring Laurie Anderson - February 3, 2020
Maya Hawke | March 8, 2020
Cosmo (Instrumental Project by Jesse Harris) ft. Jesse Harris, CJ Camerieri, Jeremy Gustin, Will Graefe, Michael Boschen, and Benjamin Lazar Davis | March 8, 2020
The 2018 Vanguard Award and Residency was awarded to Nona Hendryx. In 2019 the Vanguard Award & Residency was awarded to Judy Collins.
Nona Hendryx
Grammy Award-nominated funk, art rock and new wave pioneer Nona Hendryx was the inaugural recipient of the Joe’s Pub Vanguard Residency. Joe’s Pub honored her career as a performer, producer, writer, curator, innovator and mentor, with a year of monthly programming in 2018. From January through December, Hendryx curated and/or performed in shows that featured not only her body of work, but those of the many multidisciplinary artists who she has influenced (and who continue to influence her).
Judy Collins
Judy Collins has inspired audiences with sublime vocals, boldly vulnerable songwriting, personal life triumphs, and a firm commitment to social activism. In the 1960s, she evoked both the idealism and steely determination of a generation united against social and environmental injustices. Five decades later, her luminescent presence shines brightly as new generations bask in the glow of her iconic 55-album body of work, and heed inspiration from her spiritual discipline to thrive in the music industry for half a century. Collins is the 2019 recipient of the Joe's Pub Vanguard Award & Residency.
Laurie Anderson
Laurie Anderson is one of America’s most renowned and daring creative pioneers. She is best known for her multimedia presentations and innovative use of technology. As writer, director, visual artist, and vocalist, she has created groundbreaking works that span the worlds of art, theater, and experimental music. Anderson has published seven books and her visual work has been presented in major museums around the world. She is the 2020 recipient of the Joe's Pub Vanguard Award & Residency.
Joe's Pub Working Group.
JOE'S PUB WORKING GROUP(JPWG) aims to enrich the sustainability and growth of New York-based emerging and established artists’ careers by providing administrative resources, physical space and curatorial services, further cultivating a community atmosphere wherein those artists can create and sustain new and developing work.
The program was concieved to address the rapidly shifting state of the performing arts and help artists at a critical point in their careers. “Being an independent performing artist comes with a lot of responsibilities and needs beyond purely making art. This program is a way for us to address and decipher those things for artists in a space that is accessible and inclusive,” said Alex Knowlton, Director of Joe's Pub.
The 2020 JPWG cohort is comprised of: Salty Brine, Sarah Elizabeth Charles, Jaime Lozano, Roopa Mahadevan, and Kirsten Maxwell.
Alumni of the Joe's Pub Working Group includes: Migguel Anggelo, Trevor Bachman, Bridget Barkan, Becca Blackwell, Yacine Boulares, Dan Fishback, Ali Grieb, Celisse Henderson, Juliette Jones, Larry Krone, Treya Lam, Danny Lipsitz, Dana Lyn, Erin Markey, Stephanie McKay, Michael Mwenso, Trish Nelson, Isaac Oliver, Samora Abayomi Pinderhughes, Courtnee Roze, Kaylyn Marie Scardefield, Tori Scott, Shaina Taub, Ike Ufomadu, and Julian Velard
Salty Brine
Salty Brine is a cabaret artist, playwright, and actor. He is the creative force behind The Living Record Collection, a series of cabaret performances, which weave together iconic, popular albums with cultural touchstones from classic literature to opera and beyond. As book writer, Brine is in collaboration with composer Alan Menken. Selected performance credits: The Elementary Spacetime Show (Ars Nova, FringeArts); Clown Bar (Pipeline Theater Company, The Box); Vera; or The Nihilists (HERE); The Poor Of New York (Connelly Theater); Straight Talk (Dixon Place); Taylor Mac’s The Lily's Revenge (HERE).
Sarah Elizabeth Charles
Sarah Elizabeth Charles is a vocalist and composer. Currently, Charles is a member of two performance/recording projects: Manner Effect and The Enoch Smith Jr. Trio. She is also the bandleader for her own group, the S.E.Charles Quartet – with Jesse Elder (piano), Burniss Earl Travis (bass), and John Davis (drums) – performing and recording her own compositions and arrangements. Charles’s music is wide ranging, touching on everything from uniquely crafted originals to contemporary arrangements of jazz standards and re-workings of Haitian folklore music.
Jaime Lozano
Jaime Lozano, who was born in Monterrey, Mexico, is an accomplished musician, vocal coach, composer, arranger, orchestrator, musical producer, and musical theater director. He has been called the “next big thing” on Broadway by Lin-Manuel Miranda. Lozano has performed sold-out shows at Two River Theater, Joe’s Pub, and The Green Room 42 with his concert “Jaime Lozano and the Familia: Songs by an Immigrant,” which features an all-Latinx line up of Broadway stars. He is a teacher and activist for the NYC-based not-for-profit organization R.Evolución Latina.
Roopa Mahadevan
Roopa Mahadevan is a leading Indian classical and crossover vocalist known for her powerful, emotive voice and distinctive re-imagination of the classical Carnatic art form. Seeking to celebrate yet push the boundaries of the Indian classical idiom, Mahadevan creates unique works with artists from classical, jazz, world music, and R&B/soul genres. Often complementing her versatile voice with multidisciplinary talents in dance and theater, she also brings critical cultural commentary, humor, and searing authenticity into her work.
Kirsten Maxwell
Kirsten Maxwell is a New York-raised singer, songwriter, and artist. She was five years old when she made her stage debut. Born into a family of opera singers, Maxwell found her voice early. She performed a number of roles at the Amato Opera in NYC, including the First Spirit in Mozart’s The Magic Flute. With support and encouragement from her musical parents, Maxwell continued to develop her talents into high school where she embraced musical theater and took up the guitar. By college, Maxwell was writing songs and laying the foundation for an ever-expanding musical career.
New York Voices.
New York Voices is Joe’s Pub at The Public’s artist commissioning program. As part of The Public Theater’s long history of cultivating the country’s most celebrated artists, this program supports the creation of new works by critically-acclaimed musicians and performers. New York Voices encourages artists to explore their storytelling, narratives and songwriting processes, and includes a variety of developmental and practical resources. Each commission culminates with a run of live shows on the Joe’s Pub stage.
The program successfully connects artists with their contemporaries and significantly expands their ability to reach wider audiences. Many of the commissioned works have toured nationally and internationally.
"New York Voices has become an indispensable addition to The Public’s programs for developing new work."
-Oskar Eustis, Artistic Director of The Public Theater
New York Voices alumni include: Allen Toussaint, Angelique Kidjo, Ethan Lipton, Rizo, Toshi Reagon, Bridget Everett, Abigail Washburn, Noche Flamenca, Martha Redbone, Dawn Landes, Daniel Breaker, Jamie Leonheart, Joey Arias, Daniel Alexander Jones, Kiki & Herb, Somi, Jean Grae, Nona Hendryx (with Carrie Mae Weems, Francesca Harper, and Niegel Smith), Murray Hill, Alynda Segarra, Erin Markey, Helga Davis, and The Illustrious Blacks.
Our 2020 commissions are by: Alicia Hall Moran, Daniel J. Watts, Samora Pinderhughes, and Yacine Boulares.
Alicia Hall Moran
Daniel J. Watts
Samora Pinderhughes
Yacine Boulares
Joe's Pub Philadelphia.
Joe’s Pub expands the reach of its artist driven programming, with an annual Philadelphia-based residency for musical storytellers. Led by Alex Knowlton, Director of Joe’s Pub, and Jay Wahl, Artistic Director of the Kimmel Center, Joe’s Pub Philadelphia is an incubator created to enrich works-in-progress through mentorship. Artist-residents represent the breadth and diversity of the work performed on the Joe’s Pub stage, and are encouraged to produce work that resonates far beyond it.
Ethan Lipton’s The Outer Space represents a wonderful example of the program’s success. The New York Times Critic’s Pick was initially explored at Joe’s Pub Philadelphia in 2015. In 2017 it was performed as part of The Public Theater’s season as a full production on the Joe’s Pub stage.
The 2019 cohort was focused on text, voice, music, and body, and how these elements are woven together into musical and theatrical storytelling. Artists were challenged to transcend their rehearsal limitations and plumb the depths of long-form narrative, with strategic guidance from Knowlton, Wahl, and Dael Orlandersmith (Mentor & Playwright in Residence), in addition to their mentor partners. The residency culminated in excerpt performances at the Kimmel Center that were free for the public to attend.