Maiya Sykes
MUSE/IQUE Artistic Producer Heather Lipson-Bell and singer Maiya Sykes will be exploring music from the musician’s perspective during a virtual Zoom event Thursday, September 17, as part of the Pasadena Senior Center’s Online Events series.
The event is free to attend and starts at 2 p.m. Registration is required.
MUSE/IQUE, based out of Pasadena, hosts these bite-sized web series where Artistic Director Rachael Worby and some of your favorite musicians, artists, dancers, and vocalists give an up-close peek at the magic behind their craft.
A member-supported, nonprofit performing arts organization making radically engaging live music experiences accessible for all, MUSE/IQUE is built on a tradition of community and collaboration, creating events that feature an eclectic mix of artists and artistic disciplines in unconventional locations – spaces where art typically does not happen.
“MUSE/IQUE was founded to upend the misconception that live orchestral music and performing arts are elitist, unapproachable, and, frankly, dull,” a statement on the group’s website says. “Our mission is to build empathy and expand imaginations through transformative live events and strong partnerships with fellow nonprofit organizations in Pasadena and the greater Los Angeles area.”
Annie Laskey, Director of Events at Pasadena Senior Center, recalls how the collaboration between MUSE/IQUE and the Senior Center started years ago.
“For several years, before I started actually started at the Senior Center, they have been coming and doing workshops at the Center in person, typically the week before the concert,” Laskey said. “So they’d have a concert scheduled, and right before that, they’d come in, their education director would bring musicians who were involved in that concert to the Center, and we’d get anywhere from 10 to 30 people who would meet the musicians and there’s some concert pieces, and you get a free flow talk with a violinist or a singer or a tap dancer.”
All this changed when COVID-19 hit, and even MUSE/IQUE stopped doing concerts. Later on, the Senior Center hosted Social Hour and began hosting music discussions online.
“They (MUSE/IQUE) did a social hour with us, where they brought one of their singers who talked to our social hour folks,” Laskey continued. “So now, MUSE/IQUE is actually hoping to do some online concerts. And so we’ve set up three different sessions with them that are more or less connected to the concerts they’re doing.”
Although the pandemic hindered some experiences with MUSE/IQUE and the Senior Center, it’s not all negative. Laskey believes that these events do more than just bring strangers together in a virtual webinar.
“At the music concerts that they used to have every summer at the Huntington, there’d be a thousand people there, and you’re not going to be anywhere near the stage, and you’re certainly not going to be able to talk to the performer,” Laskey said. “This way, you really get to see what they’re like and, how they talk.”
Maiya Sykes is a classically trained vocalist, producer, vocal arranger, and entrepreneur. After graduating from Yale University, she went on to study international political science at Oxford and Keyboard performance at The Musicians’ Institute.
Sykes has provided back-up vocals for The Black Eyed Peas, Wayne Brady, Fantasia, Joss Stone, Michael Buble, Everlast, Avril Lavigne, and My Morning Jacket. She was a featured backup singer for Macy Gray in her live show for more than five years. Her background vocals have been featured in many films including the Oscar award-winning film “La La Land.” She recently was seen in the critically acclaimed “Dolomite Is My Name.”
Shortly after her for chair-turning debut on Season 7 of The Voice, Sykes began working with YouTube sensation Postmodern Juxebox. Her featured videos with Postmodern Juxebox have received over three million views and have been mentioned in Time Magazine and the Huffington Post.
Currently, Sykes has been busy working on her own projects, the first an album of all-original music and the second an album of acapella songs with her group, Light At The End of The Tunnel, featuring arrangements that highlight social justice and change.
As a performer, choreographer, and educator, Artistic Producer Heather Lipson Bell works nationally and abroad on stage and screen, in both the classroom and the community. She holds a bachelor of fine arts from the Boston Conservatory and has appeared with the New York and Los Angeles Philharmonic orchestras; the Los Angeles, Dallas, Palm Beach, and Boston Lyric opera companies; Boston and South Dakota Symphony Orchestras; Pasadena Symphony and Pops, the Hollywood Bowl, City Ballet of Los Angeles, Helios Dance Theatre, La Danserie, Wenta Ballet of Los Angeles, Theatre Bethune, South Bay CLO, Cabrillo Music Theatre, and Odyssey Dance Theatre.
Laskey said the online music event with MUSE/IQUE is just one of the ways that the Senior Center tries to help its members confront the negative effects of isolation due to the pandemic, and hopes to continue the collaboration for as long as necessary.
“It’s really special. I think any kind of music is wonderful, but when you really get really super talented people, it’s very exciting.”
To register for the virtual event, visit http://events.r20.constantcontact.com/register/event?oeidk=a07ehabn5up0d5cd847&llr=r65vwgkab&_ga=2.110626816.46843390.1600134348-1901623163.1600134348.
For more information, visit www.pasadenaseniorcenter.org/lectures-events/online-events.
