BONUS - Interviews with Joan Osborne and Bria Skonberg at bottom.
After what Executive Director Dee Billia calls “a really interesting time,” SOPAC (South Orange Performing Arts Center) is again welcoming audiences to its mainstage theater and presenting a roster of dynamic performances focusing on singer-songwriters.
The “interesting time” was only partially COVID-related. In the summer of 2021, after SOPAC was finally able to invite the public back, further challenges arose. On September 1, instead of preparing for an evening show, SOPAC staff were instead battling the impact of Hurricane Ida as it tore into town and left the facility seriously damaged in its wake.
“If it wasn’t for a Shuttered Venues Operator Grant,” Billia told me, “SOPAC would not be in operation.” This grant, set up by the Small Business Administration’s “Economic Aid to Hard-Hit Small Businesses, Nonprofits, and Venues Act” and administered by SBA’s Office of Disaster Assistance, supplied more than $16 billion in grants to affected venues.
“This infusion of Federal, State (e.g., fromNJ State Council on the Arts), and other foundation money, together withlotsof generosity on the part of audience members, donors, and people in the community, helped to prop us up.”
In addition to repairing extensive storm damage, SOPAC got some much-needed updating. “We fixed the lobby, painted and redecorated several areas, and basically refreshed the place,” Billia said. “I feel like we are getting a fresh start.”
Despite the obstacles they faced, SOPAC never completely shut down. “We still had The Loft,” Billia said. “We presented a popular monthly comedy series, Laughs in the Loft, and had jazz and blues performers there.”
Throughout those trying times, Billia and the SOPAC staff were also buoyed by an outpouring of community support. “People wrote and told us how much the theater means to them and what a treasure it is,” she said. “It was very touching.”
Despite the remarkable progress made, Billia acknowledges that things aren’t quite back to normal yet. “There is still a gap between what we were bringing in before and our revenue now.”
But rather than focusing on the past, SOPAC is looking ahead – they hosted a Re-Opening Party on May 21 and held an official Ribbon Cutting Ceremony on May 25 – and are “delighted to welcome back many of our friends and supporters, be with people we haven’t seen in a while, and show-off our new look,” Billia said.
And if the strength of the lineup for late May and June is an indicator, SOPAC is on a positive path. Upcoming shows shine a spotlight on singer-songwriters, and I asked Billia why she thinks that genre continues to appeal to audiences.
“Singer-songwriters have been with us since the beginning of time,” she said. “People love to hear the stories told in a personal way.”
And SOPAC, she says, is the ideal place for that experience. “We go to the theater for that human connection.”
“It’s a gorgeous building, a jewel in every way,” she said. “The acoustics are great, and with its size – just 439 seats – it creates the intimacy that a singer-songwriter needs.”
“Small is beautiful,” Billia said. “People can see their favorite artists and never be more than 50 feet from the stage.”
To emphasize that sentiment, Billia recalled a Mary Chapin Carpenter concert from years ago. “A person in the audience called out the name of a song, and Chapin Carpenter said she wasn’t sure if she remembered all the lyrics,” Billia said. “So, someone in the front row pulled it up on their phone, handed it to her, and she sang it from the phone.”
“That’s what live performance is all about.”
Not surprisingly, SOPAC draws its audience not just from Essex County but from a dozen or more other NJ counties, as well as the tri-state area and beyond.
“People who follow their favorites are willing to travel to a particular venue if it’s the only place in the area where that artist is performing,” she said.
I mean, check out SOPAC’s singer-songwriter line-up. May 29, Anders Osborne and Jackie Greene; June 9, Max Weinberg’s Jukebox; June 10, Joan Osborne; June 11 Bria Skonberg; June 19, Nick Lowe’s Quality Rock & Roll Revue, starring Los Straightjackets; and June 23, Roger McGuinn.
I told Billia that I recognized all the names except Bria Skonberg. “This will be her first time performing here,” Billia said. “She is a masterful musician who started out playing piano and moved to the trumpet in her teens,” she said. “She performs and she teaches, and she has wonall kindsof awards.”
“She has become one of my new favorites.”
You can listen to SOPAC’sSinger-Songwriter playlist on Spotifyand explore the artists’ videos on the venue’s wonderful website.
Both Anders Osborne and Jackie Greene are accomplished songwriters, musicians, and performers. They’re also friends, adding an additional dimension to their performances together. On the website, their upcoming show is described as “an evening of old-fashioned tune-trading.” I think you get the picture.
Max Weinberg’s Jukebox is audience participation at its best, as Weinberg – Rock and Roll Hall of Fame drummer and South Orange native – gives the audience a chance to create the evening’s setlist in real-time.
We then talked about Roger McGuinn, “He’s legendary, a classic,” Billia said, “People love him.” I knew that McGuinn started out playing folk music, and I asked him in an email what the appeal was. “I loved the human interest and the melodies of the old songs,” he wrote.
And Nick Lowe and Los Straightjackets? “Iconic,” Billia said. “That’s going to be absolutely great!”
At this point in our conversation, I told Billia that I am a huge Joan Osborne fan, have seen her in concert half a dozen or more times, and havealwaysbeen enchanted. Billia agreed that Osborne is something special. “She is an exceptional performer,” she said, “and she has that fantastic voice.”
Moving away from the performances for a moment, I asked Billia to tell me what this part of SOPAC’s mission statement means to her:
“to enrich individual lives, and to engage and serve those in our community and beyond, through arts experiences that inspire and transform,”
“Our community inspires me,” she said, “and we committed to serving our community and reflecting its diversity in a deep and relevant way.”
For example, in March, SOPAC presented theResistance Revival Chorus, a large, diverse group of women who sing powerful songs of freedom, joy, and spirituality, and – as the name suggests – resistance.
Billia said they brought down the house. “The audience wason their feet,” Billia said. “I will never forget it.”
“That’s a transformative art experience.”
BONUS
INTERVIEW WITH JOAN OSBORNE
JerseyArts: I know from your bio that you were born in Kentucky and moved to NY to attend film school, then got involved in the NYC music scene. What drew you away from film and toward music?
Joan Osborne: I loved film, and I still do, but there is something more immediate about the process of making music, in particular performing. From the initial idea to the finished product of a film, it takes a long, long time, and lots of money, and crews of people, and all this technology. Of course, you must prepare with music, too, but there is something much more primal about it. And with performing, it is physical, emotional, and intellectual as well. That combination of things just swept me up.
JerseyArts: When did you start writing songs?
Joan Osborne: I was not a songwriter until I became a performer. I loved singing other people’s material, but once I started performing, I realized I had a particular point of view and something I could bring to it that was unique to me. So, I wanted to try it.
JerseyArts: So, here is my Philadelphia question: How did you connect with Eric Bazilian and Rob Hyman, who worked with you on your first record, and was that as life-changing as it seems?
Joan Osborne: Yeah, it was pretty fateful. At the point that I connected with them. I was playing in Philadelphia and Rob Hyman happened to be in the audience. He came backstage after the show and started talking to me about his friend Rick Chertoff, who had just started his own imprint at Mercury Records and the success Chertoff had working with Cyndi Lauper and Sophie B. Hawkins. And Rob said Chertoff might be looking for new artists to sign. When I did meet with Rick, we didn’t talk that much about my music and where I might fit; we just had this great conversation and connection – talking about philosophical things like music and life. And he suggested that we do something that he’d done with Sophie and Cyndi, just get together in the studio and write with himself and Eric and Rob Hyman. That sounded good to me.
JerseyArts: I had the opportunity to talk to Rob and Eric for a feature about The Hooters, and they are both such nice people.
Joan Osborne: They are. And I just saw Eric last weekend. We played at the Keswick (Upper Darby, PA) and he sat in and sang “One of Us” with us.
JerseyArts: The crowd must have gone wild.
Joan Osborne: They were PRETTY excited.
JerseyArts: Your first release was such a phenomenal success. Was that a blessing or a curse?
Joan Osborne: It was definitely a blessing. But there were things about that level of success and scrutiny that I was uncomfortable with as a person. In spite of being a performer, I am a fairly private person. Even as an artist, I am one who likes to hang back and observe. That’s how I get ideas and think about writing. And there was little chance to do that once the record became so successful. But I am sure that a big part of the reason I have a career today is because I had that kind of success with the record. It allowed me to tour around the world and opened doors for me that would not have opened otherwise. So, yes, it was a great blessing.
JerseyArts: You have worked with such a wide variety of artists and in such a range of musical styles. How are you able to seamlessly move from one to another?
Joan Osborne: I love all kinds of music. When I was first on the New York scene, I was doing a lot of roots music, some soul music, even a little country. And when you dig into those, you get to Appalachian, and folk, and gospel. And those are the main ingredients when you talk about doing something like working with Motown guys, who came from a rootsy and jazz background. Or if you look at the Grateful Dead, they took American roots music and mixed it up with their own psychedelic magic. And because I was familiar with the roots stuff, we had a shared language. It may seem like the things I am doing are quite different from each other, but there is enough in common to allow me to easily move from one to another and be welcomed in these different worlds.
JerseyArts: I saw you in Ocean City NJ in 2019 when you were touring in support of your “Songs of Bob Dylan” release. Why did you choose to do a record of Bob Dylan songs?
Joan Osborne: It came about when I was approached by the people at Café Carlysle, a storied cabaret club in New York, and asked to do a residency there. I wanted to do something different from my regular shows, and I’d had this idea in the back of my mind based on what Ella Fitzgerald did in the 50s and 60s with the Song Book Series. She would pick a songwriter, like Cole Porter, and do an album of their songs. I picked Bob Dylan, and we performed his songs every night for the 2-week residency. At the end, we had an album’s worth of music.
JerseyArts: I read that you used the pandemic-driven break to pull together a collection of older live recordings for your most recent record, Radio Waves. What discoveries did you make?
Joan Osborne: It’s like looking at pictures of yourself in your high school yearbook when you’re older. At the time, you felt so awkward and so ugly. But you have such a different perspective when you look at them later, and you wonder why you didn’t see the beauty back then. Of course, I listened to the recordings when they were made, and I’m sure all I heard was what I didn’t like and the mistakes I made. Hearing them now, though, I appreciate how I was able to bring those songs to life and what was wonderful about them. It’s like getting into a time-machine.
Tell the SOPAC people that I am so glad they are back on their feet, and I am really excited to be there
INTERVIEW WITH BRIA SKONBERG
JerseyArts: The concerts scheduled at SOPAC for the next few month is called a singer-songwriter series. When did you become interested in songwriting? Why did you choose the trumpet as your instrument? Who or what inspired you?
Bria Skonberg: I had written a handful of songs throughout my studies, but it wasn't until after university that I started to think more about telling stories, or specifically my stories, through songwriting. I had a wonderful mentor in Vancouver BC named Paul Airey who encouraged and coached me on that process. My father played trumpet in high school and always kept one in the house, so I discovered it when I was around 11 years old. I loved the look of it and the funny sounds I could make.
JerseyArts: What did you do during the pandemic lockdown period(s) to keep creatively active?
Bria Skonberg: Musically I pivoted very quickly to live streaming, which was a fun way to stay inspired and meet my community. Unfortunately, I couldn't play with my band, so I had to rely on my rudimentary piano and ukulele skills, but I was just happy to stay connected with others. I feel most inspired when I share music with other people.
JerseyArts: You are active in music education projects. Why do you think that teaching about music is so important?
Bria Skonberg: Music and the arts help us process the times past and present. Music can help express what we don't have the words to say. We all have a lot of healing to do in this collective experience and I believe the arts are essential in that regard. This generation of students has experienced a lot and it's important to recognize they need healthy, nurturing outlets to understand it.
JerseyArts: How has it been for you to be playing live concerts again?
Bria Skonberg: Performing with people for people makes me feel like I'm alive, like I can fly again. I released an album in November of 2019 and the music is just reaching the stage now where the band is breathing lots of great energy and fire into it. It's FUN!
JerseyArts: What, if anything, is different post-lockdown?
Bria Skonberg: Honestly, everything. I had a baby in October of 2020, so I knew things were going to change in my life before the first lockdown but had no idea what was to come! It's been a whirlwind of new experiences on top of an already disorienting time with incredible highs and some new depths as well. It's all part of the life experience and I think it's impacted my music making in a beautiful, relatable way.
JerseyArts: Who are your personal musical favorites? If you could share a stage with anyone, who would that be?
Bria Skonberg: I have my jazz stalwarts - Louis Armstrong, Anita O'Day, Roy Eldridge, Lee Morgan, Sarah Vaughan, and I have always loved artists who bend genres like Stevie Wonder, Joni Mitchell, David Bowie, Queen.
Who's on my dream list? Hmm. Tom Waits. Harry Connick Jr, Gwen Stefani, Bobby McFerrin, David Byrne – that’s a good snapshot into my brain right now.
LINKS
