The Cedar Presents
the Cedar Commissions
february 18 & 19, 2022
Photos taken by Buck Holzemer
The Cedar Commissions Night One featured Carlisle Evans Peck, Nyttu Chongo, and Maddie Thies live at The Cedar on Friday, February 18th, 2022.
The Cedar Commissions Night Two featured Vie Boheme, Alicia Thao, and Kat Parent live at The Cedar on Saturday, February 19th, 2022.
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The Cedar Cultural Center presented the eleventh annual Cedar Commissions, on February 18th and 19th, 2022, featuring new works by Carlisle Evans Peck, Nyttu Chongo, Maddie Thies, Vie Boheme, Alicia Thao, and Kat Parent. Each night, three lead artists will debut their brand new works on The Cedar stage: Friday, February 18th features Carlisle Evans Peck, Nyttu Chongo, and Maddie Thies, and Saturday, February 19th features Vie Boheme, Alicia Thao, and Kat Parent.
The Cedar Commissions is a flagship program for local emerging artists made possible with a grant from the Jerome Foundation. Since the program began in 2011, the Commissions have showcased new work by over 60 Minnesotan emerging composers and musicians, including Dessa, Aby Wolf, Adam Levy, Maria Isa, Joe Horton, Joey Van Phillips, Gao Hong, Dameun Strange, and many more.
“We’re extremely grateful to continue supporting emerging artists as they create new work and push themselves to explore new possibilities they haven’t before,” says Robert Lehmann, Booking and Artistic Manager and program lead for The Cedar Commissions. “Thanks to the Jerome Foundation, we’re able to amplify these six artist’s important voices and perspectives. It’s an honor to support this group as they bring their visions to life.”
The 2021-22 round of artists was selected by a diverse committee of Minnesota-based musicians, music industry professionals, and one Cedar staff. The 6 commissioned artists, each receive $4,000 plus $500 for performance costs to compose at least 30 minutes of new musical work to debut at The Cedar in February 2022. To date, the Commissions have supported the creation of new music by more than 60 local artists across genres. In the event that gathering restrictions are in place due to COVID-19 during the grant period, we will work with artists to make adaptations to the performance platform as needed.
Alicia Thao (She/Her)
Alicia Thao is a singer-songwriter who is Tulsa-raised and Saint Paul-based. “As Lis Sam Thoj / Alicia Thao” will be centering Thao’s Hmong American identity, paying homage to her parents’ story by connecting with her roots and family history. The set will range from kwv txhiaj (traditional Hmong folk song), incorporating Hmong inspired sounds which will transition to genres that Thao currently experiments and identifies with: indie, folk, soul, and rnb.
Spotlight
Shasa Sartin, The Cedar’s Marketing and Communications Manager, had a great conversation with Alicia. Find it here.
Carlisle Evans Peck (They/He)
Carlisle Evans Peck was raised surrounded by storytellers, a lineage stretching back to bards of the Welsh countryside. These compelling family stories of their larger-than-life ancestors have been passed down through generations, yet the importance of these tales to Carlisle's queer identity is starkly contrasted by stifling heteropatriarchal family norms and expectations. In "Iconoclasm", Carlisle becomes (as far as they know) the first Queer Bard in their lineage in order to weave new mythologies. Through intricate song stories they explore their forebearers lives, reinterpreting stories through a queer lens and bringing voice to forgotten or silenced ancestors that upend prevailing narratives of gender and self-expression. Drawing ancestral inspiration from Welsh legends with a dramatic flair for music-theatre, Carlisle endeavors to craft a musical mythos in which queer descendants would feel welcome and reflected, connecting once-severed threads of past and future.
Spotlight
Shasa Sartin, The Cedar’s Marketing and Communications Manager, had a great conversation with Carlisle. Find it here.
Kat Parent (They/Them)
In the streets and peat bogs of Minnesota, shy and powerful cryptid Kat weaves darkly beautiful songs processing haunted histories, tangled roots, and unresolved pain. Swampling is an eco-horror electronic folk show beckoning audiences into soundscapes reflecting both the urgent needs and slow, complex inner processes of our hearts and ecological context. Inspired by classic horror comic books and Minnesota wetlands, “Swampling” spellbinds with earthy, eerie vocals, lush looped harmonies and hypnotic live collaboration with beatboxer and Hip Hop composer SEE MORE PERSPECTIVE.
Spotlight
Shasa Sartin, The Cedar’s Marketing and Communications Manager, had a great conversation with Kat. Find it here.
Maddie Thies (She/Her)
Where do we belong? Growing up in between international cultures, Maddie found this question especially hard to answer. Maddie Thies, a queer Twin Cities bassist, was born in Minneapolis, Minnesota but grew up in Seoul, South Korea, and thus, identifies as a Third Culture Kid (TCK) - a person who spent their formative years growing up in a country different from that of their origin. While each TCK experience is personal, we can all relate to the need to belong.
To bring additional perspectives to this multifaceted identity, Maddie collaborates with recording artist Tate Egon Chavez (Egon), who himself was born in Los Angeles and raised in Singapore. Additional music support will be provided by drummer Juan Migues, himself a TCK, and from Kailyn Grider.
“Everywhere and Nowhere” explores feelings of liminality, nostalgia, grief, culture shock, and a fractured sense of identity. The artists explore their fluid self images through vulnerable storytelling, creating a space for personal reflection and empathy.
Spotlight
Shasa Sartin, The Cedar’s Marketing and Communications Manager, had a great conversation with Maddie. Find it here.
Nyttu Chongo (He/His)
Nyttu Chongo is a musician and composer from Maputo, Mozambique who was raised living with music woven into everyday life. In his original work “Nkovu Wa Xivavu,” which means “A Celebration of Pain,” Chongo weds the voices of Central, Southern, and West Africa through the inanga, xitende, and kora. These iconic and disappearing African string instruments from three distinct regions of the continent (Rwanda/Burundi, Mozambique, and Senegal) have never been played together in a single work. By featuring these instruments with deep African soul together at the heart of this improvised and spirit-led piece, “Nkovu Wa Xivavu” sings of an Africa divided with the opportunity to rediscover itself, illustrated through thin individual strings woven together to become a stronger, united continent.
Spotlight
Shasa Sartin, The Cedar’s Marketing and Communications Manager, had a great conversation with Nyttu. Find it here.
Vie Boheme (She/Her)
The Edge will be an electro soul, funk, house collection of songs written by multimodal performance artist Vie Boheme. Electro soul music has a pulse with energy between legato spaces that allow for breath. With breath, Vie can manage fully realizing her performance signatures of singing while balancing on one leg in high heels and singing while standing on her head. “The Edge” will also feature driving four on the floor beats and funky bass lines that weave around frank and vulnerable lyrics and poetry inviting listeners to take in honest truths and sit with them.
'Over the past year we have all been on the edge. The edge of our sanity and our emotional capacity. I believe that's an important place to be. I believe that when we are at the farthest reaches of our emotional capacity and self belief that we take risks and make revolutionary choices in alignment with our truest selves. I want to make music about that! And through my two performance signatures, I want to physically practice being at my own personal edge and allow an audience to be a witness to life imitating art.'
Spotlight
Shasa Sartin, The Cedar’s Marketing and Communications Manager, had a great conversation with Vie. Find it here.
GOALS OF THE CEDAR COMMISSIONS:
Facilitate the creation of innovative new work by Minnesota-based emerging artists/composers. The Cedar Commissions provide artists an opportunity to push the boundaries of their work through thoughtful and intentional next steps.
Provide audiences a platform to discover new music. The Cedar Commissions offers an exciting opportunity to reach, serve, and engage new communities with unique music and performance they have never seen before.
Increase artist exposure. By presenting The Cedar Commissions annually, The Cedar is building an audience for emerging artists. Our press coverage has also grown steadily, helping to raise awareness about the work to the wider public.
Foster and develop artists’ work and creativity. The Cedar Commissions provides artists with the resources, opportunities, and flexibility to explore new creative pathways and collaborations, cultivating and improving the artists’ skills and talent.
The Cedar Commissions is made possible in part by a grant from the Jerome Foundation.
