On June 6-18, and June 23, 2023, the Soapbox Gallery in Brooklyn presents its first annual Sono Fest!, featuring top performers in jazz and classical music.
Pianist, composer and man of many other talents Ethan Iverson curated the two-week festival, which takes place in the cozy atmosphere of the 60-seat art gallery venue. Every music fan, no matter where they are, will be able to attend, as all of the performances are live-streamed worldwide.
Here is an interview with Ethan Iverson about the festival.
Classical Music Communications: How did you meet Soapbox Gallery owner Jimmy Greenfield, and how did the idea of Sono Fest! come about?
Ethan Iverson: When I played a nice jazz duo gig at Soapbox with trumpeter Ingrid Jensen, I was impressed with the interesting space, the excellent piano, and the fact that Jimmy was a nice guy.
Truthfully we are starved for venues in New York: so many worthy musicians, so few places to play. I’d been thinking about Soapbox a while, and then Jimmy called out of the blue, looking for input. I suggested that a festival of modern greats might raise the venue’s profile.
CMC: Why do you call it Sono Fest! ? What's the overarching theme of the festival?
EI: Jimmy came up with the name.
The theme is basically: these are all musicians I dig! I love both jazz and classical music, and these are some of the best practitioners of either genre.
There’s a certain amount of progressive thinking on view as well. Everyone on this program is moving it forward, at times on multiple paths. I play the first night with classical violin virtuoso Miranda Cuckson, then the second night with jazz saxophone virtuoso Chris Potter. It’s comparatively unusual for someone to do that, but I honestly believe this is the future we need and want. My next jazz album for the Blue Note label will include my fully-notated Piano Sonata: the first sonata on Blue Note.
Even the coda featuring Mark Padmore is progressive. Padmore sells out big halls doing German lieder with star pianists. But he’s also interested in community outreach and assessing the larger story of humans on this planet. His “Songs of the Earth” program, which combines songs with poetry recited by Sarah Deming, is a humble but sincere serve to making a better world.
CMC: How did you choose this collection of musicians?
EI: Many are friends or colleagues, people I really respect as a person and as a musician. The hardest part was not extending the programming for a month or two! For a moment I was even considering giving everyone just one set, that way I’d have twice as many slots to play with. Well, we will see how this goes and adjust accordingly for next time.
The people who I don’t really know personally are more from the classical side, the string quartet Momenta and the pianists Taka Kigawa and Han Chen. They are all playing programs of the highest technical and musical difficulty, after having spent hours and hours rehearsing and practicing those programs. For Soapbox, Momenta, Kigawa, and Chen are all performing their program twice the same night. After putting in all that work, often the classical musicians just get a chance to do a program once.
Some jazz cats could learn a bit about a serious work ethic from the classical cats — not that the jazz musicians on the Soapbox series don’t put in the work. In fact, that’s one unifying element about Sono Fest! cast: everyone present spends a lot of time alone in a room, working it out.
CMC: As both performer and curator for the festival, what is alluring about performing at Soapbox Gallery?
EI: The piano is excellent, maybe the best piano in Brooklyn. And it just so great to play in an intimate space.
CMC: There are so many incredible concerts for audiences to unpack here. What concert would you point to for the audience member who’s looking for a concert that’s… contemplative? … intellectual? …. someone looking for virtuosic thrill?
EI: Perhaps the best thing is to sort by genre. I’m known as a jazz musician, and the concerts with Chris Potter, Sam Newsome + Sylvie Courvoisier, Aaron Diehl, and Marta Sánchez are all going to have breathtaking improvisations: sounds created in real time. On the other hand, there are solo and chamber concerts of formal notation, which include Miranda Cuckson, Taka Kigawa, the Momenta Quartet, Han Chen, and Mark Padmore. There are two composer features, Scott Wollschleger and Robert Cuckson, both offering mixed programs with the best freelance chamber musicians in NYC. (The Momenta sets are also a bit of composer feature, I specifically asked them to play quartets from Alvin Singleton.) Judith Berkson is unclassifiable, she will be singing, playing piano, and generating electroacoustic work, while Timo Andres is also polymath, playing rags, mazurkas, and his own piano music. I’m looking forward to each and every set!