CHICAGO, IL (January 24, 2024) – Cedille Records is pleased to announce it has been approved by the National Endowment for the Arts (NEA) for a Grants for Arts Projects award of $20,000. This grant will support the album Black Being, the latest co-composed work by acclaimed flute duo Flutronix (Nathalie Joachim and Allison Loggins-Hull) performed with the Chicago Sinfonietta.
James Ginsburg, president of Cedille Records said, “It’s an incredible honor to receive support from the NEA for this recording. Nathalie and Allison’s Black Being project is an ideal representation of Cedille's dedication to bringing out new and underrepresented classical repertoire, as part of its mission to spotlight and preserve the extraordinary artistry found in Chicago's classical music scene. This grant not only enables us to support outstanding Chicago talent, but also reinforces our commitment to produce, release, and promote compelling projects that embody great artistic integrity. We are grateful to the NEA for helping us to record such meaningful and transformative music."
Flutronix’s concert premiere of Black Being was praised by the Chicago Tribune as “the most stunning live performance” and listed among Chicago’s Top 10 Classical Music shows of 2021. Flutronix and the Chicago Sinfonietta will record the album during the 2024–2025 season; the album is set to be released in 2025.
Black Being explores the black female experience in an evening-length music performance. This immersive electro-acoustic performance is set to a newly commissioned text by North Carolina poet laureate Jaki Shelton Green. Through themes of strength, sacrifice, beauty, fear, and survival, Black Being gives voice to the complexities of Black womanhood and provides a musical lens into black female cultural realities and conditions.
Cedille Records will record, release, and promote Black Being, highlighting Cedille’s mission to assist performers as they further their respective artistic visions and goals. Recordings are a vital tool in the advancement of artists’ careers that often lead to performance opportunities and commissions. Yet the high cost of orchestral recordings is often prohibitive. As is the case with all Cedille recordings, the label bears production, distribution, and promotion expenses, funded by donations and grants, as a service to the artists and in fulfillment of the company’s nonprofit mission. Here, with the assistance of this NEA grant, Cedille gives Flutronix the freedom to focus solely on the music and the story they want to share with audiences beyond the concert hall.
In total, the NEA will award 958 Grants for Arts Projects awards totaling more than $27.1 million that were announced as part of its first round of fiscal year 2024 grants.
Maria Rosario Jackson, PhD, the Arts Chair for the National Endowment for the Arts said, “The NEA is delighted to announce this grant to Cedille Records, which is helping contribute to the strength and well-being of the arts sector and local community. We are pleased to be able to support this community and help create an environment where all people have the opportunity to live artful lives.”
For more information on other projects included in the NEA’s grant announcement, visit arts.gov/news.
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