Central Illinois Dance and Musical Collaboration Festival

Central Illinois Dance and Musical Collaboration Festival will be like no other festival in the Champaign-Urbana area. It will focus primarily on thrilling new art born from the artists at pre-Festival workshops while providing a fun event any family or group of friends can enjoy. Each summer, there will be two festivals. The first will focus on artists who have already collaborated and are looking for feedback, rehearsal space, and performance opportunity. The second will be geared towards artists who are looking to meet potential collaborators for the future and the duration of the Festival. Artists looking to participate in either festival will be appropriately screened.

During the pre-festival period, artists are given classes in collaboration and networking, apt rehearsal time and space, feedback from instructors and fellow artists, and an enormous audience at the Festival performance. By the end of the four weeks, each group of collaborators will have a piece of art to present at the Festival. The Festival will be a jam-packed day of eating, drinking, shopping, and art. Businesses that financially support the Festival will receive booth space in order to sell merchandise, food, drink, or practically anything else, drawing in guests from throughout the Midwest. .

Corie Patterson and Cheryl Krugel have teamed up to create Centraol Illinois Dance and Music Collaboratoration Festival. Patterson has 19 years experience in dance and a B.F.A. from the University of Illinois. She currently owns and operates Dream Big, a similar festival in the Joliet area. Krugel also has a Bachelor of Music in Composition from the University of Illinois. She has extensive experience in collaborating with dancers as a violist and as a composer. Krugel currently freelances as a composer, orchestrator, and violist. As artists, both Patterson and Krugel understand the difficulties of life outside of college. They want to provide a way for artists to broaden their collaborative contacts in the long term as well as work on current projects.

As an investor, a business can expect not only on the spot revenue at the booths but also an expansion in their customer base. The Festival will attract a large and diverse crowd. The Festival is looking to promote collaborative art by putting it in a very public arena. We do not believe that the artists should have to pay a large fee to participate in the Festival. Therefore, donations from local businesses will be used for any upfront costs including pre-Festival space, instructor compensation, Festival space, and Festival Performance logistics (i.e. stagehands, lights, stage, sound). These businesses will then be allowed to set up booths at the Festival to sell their items. In addition, ticket sales will cover extra costs as well as the promotion and expansion of the following year's Festival.

Compositions by Krugel

I am interested in starting up composition and orchestration business. It would be called Compositions by Krugel and would cater to writers and composers who write for film and musical theatre. Screenwriters are most often not composers as well, so they need someone to compose music for their films. Film scorers and musical theatre composers do not often have the time or the education to orchestrate their music for their intended instrumentation. Orchestrators often work for major motion pictures, but this business would cater specifically towards independent films and musical theatre projects. This would allow up-and-coming composers, playwrights, and screenwriters to create high quality art while not going over their budget.

The music that I compose or orchestrate for these films or musicals would be different than the average film or musical music in that it would use instrumentation and techniques that are not standard for these types of shows, yet the music would still reflect the mood of scene.

As a music composition student who has a great amount of experience with musical theatre composing and orchestration, as well as general knowledge of avant-garde composition, I am able to offer wide perspective on different types of instrumentation that would work well in movies and musicals. I am also well-versed in extended techniques for many different instruments; this knowledge allows me to experiment with a myriad of sounds that can create the mood composers and writers are looking for.

My business would charge a fee that is not exorbitant; my goal would be merely to be self-sustaining. I want to allow relatively unknown writers and composers to reach the general public with works of art having high quality music—without having to spend the amount of money big studios are allotted.

Goals

Here are a few of my one year goals:
1. I would like to start up a night club in Urbana that has an open mic for classical composers. Most open mic nights cater towards solo artists or bands, but I would like this one to allow composers to bring ensembles to play their original work. The composers would not be paid and would not be charged a fee; this would be a way for them to get free exposure. In the short term, I would research spaces for clubs--I need to find out the best location for this club, how much it is going to cost, and who I need to hire to make it feasible.

2. I'll start up my own improvisation group, preferably with musicians and dancers. We would perform at local arts festivals as well as have our own shows in clubs all across Illinois. In the short term, I'll talk to some dancers and musicians whom I know are interested in improvisation. We'll put together some rehearsals, either once or twice a week, and start hammering out our ideas.

3. I will create a musical theatre company dedicated to performing new musicals in Chicago. Composers and playwrights will bring their work to me, and my company will perform it. The company will consist of full-time actors and freelancing musicians--these musicians will be hired when the score calls for them. We will have a full time production staff as well--a director, producer, lighting, set designer, and any other staff that are needed. Our goal will be to break even--the members of the company will be paid, but the composers and playwrights will not. For this month, I'll research spaces for a theatre and try to find interested actors, producers, directors, musicians, and other staff members.

Cheryl Krugel

I am a music composition major at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign; I am also studying political science, specifically international politics, and viola. I intend to pursue a master's degree in film scoring or musical theatre writing after I complete my undergraduate education; my professional goal is to become an orchestrator for film scores and musicals. I would also like to perform as a violist in musical theatre pits.
My other interests include avant-garde dance improvisation, specifically collaboration between improvising musicians and dancers. I am also very involved in Judaism; I am on the executive board at the Hillel Foundation at UIUC as well as a KOACH intern. KOACH is Conservative Judaism's college outreach program. Meteorology is also something that interests me; I used to be a meteorology major.
In this class, I'd like to explore the "pratical" side of the arts: marketing, budgeting, making connections, and other ideas that will help me to succeed as a composer and orchestrator.