Gerald Seminatore and Taro Wayama, 2017
Hello! Thanks for stopping by. This is a valedictory post, shared with some regret.
The Spacious Vision Song Project began in 2013 with a gala concert at the Longy School of Music in Cambridge, MA. The occasion was the centenary of the birth of composer Benjamin Britten. That program subsequently evolved and landed in Los Angeles. Soon thereafter, Spacious Vision became a musical collective bringing together artists on both coasts. From 2014 through 2018, some twenty different singers and instrumentalists collaborated with me on fifteen different programs. Our repertoire included Elizabethan ayres, German Lieder, French cabaret chanson, American song, 20th-century musical theater, concert repertoire for World AIDS Day, unknown repertoire for the Christmas season, Japanese concert song settings, and even Creole and Haitian folk song.
In 2019, we went on an extended hiatus, as our core group members transitioned into new adventures. These included artist residencies, job re-locations, and the arrival of new family members.
Our hope was to resume collaborations during the summer of 2020 and beyond. However, the COVID-19 pandemic has closed our network of presentation venues on both coasts, and made travel logistics for regional and cross-country collaborations unworkable. It appears these obstacles will persist until a vaccine is widely available. Many small performing arts groups are striving to re-invent themselves and bring their work to online presentation platforms. I have chosen not to attempt this. Regrettably, the five-year endeavor that was the Spacious Vision Song Project has come to an end.
These shared artistic explorations were some of the most satisfying experiences of my creative life. I will always treasure the memories of those performances, and the colleagues and friends who were part of them.
This website will now serve as an archive of our work. Information about Spacious Vision artists and past programs may be accessed via the drop-down menu. Perhaps something here will inspire you in your own efforts at artistic collaboration.
Whatever our circumstances in the coming months and years–may we continue to create opportunities for imagining and enacting a “spacious vision” of our chosen art form, musical or otherwise.
Gerald Seminatore, DMA
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Spacious Vision 