Initiate multicultural collaboration in your own community! Be an Arts Leader through a rich, grass roots musical program that goes far beyond offering outreach! Book ETHEL’s collaborative initiative: TruckStop.
ETHEL has specialized since 2005 in designing, launching and nurturing creative collaborations with musicians and artists from widely varied backgrounds — from Appalachian shape note singers to indigenous musicians and composers; from Hawaiian slack-key guitarists and bluegrass and Tejano Conjunto maestros, to virtuoso urban drumlines. In the spirit of the great American Road Trip, the quartet calls this unique project TruckStop, and invites presenters everywhere to make use of ETHEL’s skills, in partnership, to reach out to performers and expand audiences, in their own localities.
TruckStop offers immense potential; it has the capacity to build new audiences and accrue credibility with communities who may have been regarded as remote. In partnership with ETHEL, this music can be shared, and original music developed, for any setting — from concert stage to school auditorium, to community center — with high resolution, dynamic arrangements, and potential multimedia support.
The project begins with residency work between the artists and ETHEL, from a couple of days to a week, ensuring that mutual interest is demonstrated, and a level of trust, assured. Better relationships make better music! The performance event is then developed in consultation with the presenter, honoring their needs and resources.
This way of using music as a connective force is guaranteed to touch, move and inspire both artists and audiences. It makes manifest the presenter’s intention to support and honor their community, while producing genuinely valuable art!
Documentation of this process is, of course, highly recommended. Additional activities include, audio and video recordings, as possible.
