Workshop Offerings
OIE OFFERS SIX or ten SESSION GROUP COMPOSITION WORKSHOPS IN:
Music
Music and Dance / Movement
Music and Spoken / Sung Word
Music and Visual Arts, including Digital / Video
Music and spacial design / architecture
The workshops can be conducted onsite or at Longy School of Music of Bard College. Meetings are generally weekly and conclude with a final performance.
The final performance is open to anyone interested in attending – work colleagues, friends, and families.
Workshop Components
OPEN AUDITIONS & INVENTORY OF MUSICAL and performance RESOURCES
The first stage in the OIE project is to let everyone know: anyone who plays or has played an instrument will be accommodated and encouraged to participate. Even those individuals with no prior musical training, or interested in another type of performance discipline can be accommodated as well. The OIE’s purpose is to create an organic music-based experience in which all members are able to participate equally. Along with these individuals, the Gravity Arts Staff then selects, composes, and arranges music for the ensemble based on the groups’ instrumentation and on each of its member’s musical capability.
REHEARSALS
Rehearsals acclimate the ensemble members to each other, the music, and the group performance. Musical instruction is provided to individual ensemble members as desired. OIE participants receive their own performing parts and begin assembling a book of the ensemble’s evolving repertoire. Open rehearsals may be conducted in proximity to the work environment. This promotes the participants to gain strong ties through learning to work and perform together outside of - yet physically inside - their work settings. Previously unexplored or unrecognized new strengths in the team are discovered, and non-participants in the corporate community are given the opportunity to experience the activity, as well.
FINAL CONCERT
A Final Concert, open to all employees, serves as the culmination of this cycle of the OIE project. The final concert embodies a spirit of accomplishment through teamwork in the universal medium of artistic expression; the same spirit that unifies employees in all successful corporate endeavors. Creative employees solve problems, produce effective products, and relate better with customers to provide a valuable service. The OIE inherently promotes and enhances all these values in an employee while at the same time strengthens their commitment to the company which has provided this cultural opportunity for their own personal growth.
“I have really valued the opportunity to play in a group with music custom-written for individual skill levels. And as a management consultant who works with organizations, I think the idea of forming in-house ensembles has a lot of promise. It brings small groups of employees or members together in a new way. Then, when the time comes for concerts, it adds another unifying dimension involving many more people. Ben’s versatility and infectious enthusiasm make it all come together.”
GRAVITY ARTS’ SERVICES
Gravity Arts provides all coordination, musical direction and technical assistance, any necessary instruments, music copying and supplies, and provides audio-visual documentation of the final concert. The music and performance parts and the documentation remain with the company for its’ own future utilization. A support system for the continuation of the project after the completion of the twelve-week period may also be established, as well.
Longy School of Music of Bard College, in collaboration with Gravity Arts provides an off-site conservatory venue for the OIE. Sessions may also be held in a common area (or Company event) on-site within the corporation.