Today we’d like to introduce you to Leslie Leytham.
Leslie, can you briefly walk us through your story – how you started and how you got to where you are today.
Project [BLANK] came about after graduating from UCSD with a doctorate in Experimental Music Performance, and not knowing what to do next! As a singer who comes from the classical music tradition, I was so frustrated with how exclusive the artform is. At $100/ticket, not many people can afford to go see a show! I was also coming off a degree in Experimental practices, which is also exclusive in its own way! If you don’t have a basic understanding of art and music history, a lot of what gets produced at UCSD will go right over your head. (TBH, as someone who has all the education required to know what’s happening at all these experimental concerts, a lot of it went over my head, too.)
So, my producing partner, Brendan Nguyen, and I wanted to create a concert series that is both affordable and accessible. By partnering with visual artists for each concert, we’re inviting audiences to engage so much more of themselves. You don’t need to know all the ins and outs of art history in order to “get it.” There’s nothing to get! It’s just storytelling with compelling visuals and performances by some of the best musicians in the area!
We’re always bombarded by how great it is to pursue your passion, etc – but we’ve spoken with enough people to know that it’s not always easy. Overall, would you say things have been easy for you?
While trying to remain true to our ethos of affordability, that means we have to fundraise so much more than our projected ticket sales will bring in. Producing shows is expensive! But we believe that it shouldn’t be the audience’s burden to carry. Our artist community deserves to be paid fairly for their time and work, we’ve all had horror stories of people wanting to pay us in this imaginary currency called “exposure.” “Exposure” doesn’t pay the rent in San Diego. It feels like we’re constantly swimming upstream in order to raise the funds needed, but we just keep trying!
Then…. COVID happened. We had an opera scheduled for the Spring, which had to be cancelled. We ended up putting together a virtual series to help keep our name out there, and to help send some money back to the artist community who saw a major loss of income. Now, we’re trying to plan a season knowing full well that we’ll likely have no live audiences in the ways that we’re used to. So, we’re trying to create new ways to explore the virtual performance. I feel like the best ideas come out of some external limitations, so we’re facing these challenging times head on!
Project [BLANK] – what should we know? What do you guys do best? What sets you apart from the competition?
Simply put, we produce interactive art installation/performances. In other words, we produce performances by local classical musicians in collaboration with visual artists. I’m most proud of the work we’ve been able to showcase by female, LGBTQ, and non-binary artists. At our last show, we took over the sacred spaces of a church in La Jolla, filling it with visual art and musical performances for an entire week. It was amazing to see how each artist was able to think of the church as a gallery, and what kind of work they were able to create in response to that. The audiences were able to immerse themselves in art that they would normally never encounter, by predominantly female and non-binary artists/performers, in a place that would normally never host an event like this! It was amazing!
While you can definitely find great classical music, top notch experimental music, and world-class art by living artists, no other group in San Diego does all three.
So, what’s next? Any big plans?
In dealing with the loss of public performance thanks to COVID, we’re deciding to face the challenge head on. We’re partnering with The Front Arte y Cultura Gallery in San Ysidro to produce live virtual performances next season. We’re producing three works that confront change and transformation from different points of view. Now that we’ve all grown so accustom to consuming all our entertainment on computers and devices, we’re embracing this by crafting a more intimate performance experience. It’s going to be beautiful, intense, ugly, aggressive, soothing, peaceful, and hopefully, transformative!
Contact Info:
- Website: www.projectblanksd.org
- Email: leslie@projectblanksd.org
- Instagram: @project_blank_sd
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/ProjectBLANKsd/
- Twitter: @projectBLANK_SD
Image Credit:
Frankie Martin, and Leslie Leytham
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