World Premiere Recording of Yvette Young's Music!

For our 10th Anniversary Season in 2023, The Next Festival performed 13 World Premieres in NYC in two weeks! As part of this groundbreaking season, we were thrilled to commission and premiere electric guitarist/composer Yvette Young's VERY FIRST music for orchestra, her "3 Pieces for Strings and Guitar." After a standing-ovation premiere to a packed house, we're headed into the recording studio to document this amazing music for all the world to hear!

The Project:

Please support this first-ever project to reunite Yvette with our Artistic Director Peter Askim and our 2023 Fellows to document and make a proper studio quality recording of the piece she wrote for The Next Festival.

The livestream from performance can be found here: https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=5C-mnoDbHMI

Here's an interview with Yvette about the music: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YGDIvXCLc3k

It was crucial for Yvette to find a way to bring all the same people who performed her piece back to New York to record. The whole day will be a meaningful and educational studio experience for everyone!

We are recording a piece and visually documenting the process with the help of Universal Audio and engineer/producer Fab DuPont (J-Lo, Bon Jovi).

The piece consists of 3 movements-

I. Love and hold nothing back

II. Run steadfast towards the unknown

III. Step into your power

Why we need your help: This is a big endeavor that Yvette is taking on independently with no label.

The money raised will be used to help cover some of these costs :

1. Fees: We want to teach early-career artists that you should always get paid for your time, and we value and respect everyone’s contribution. We have 18 string players to compensate for their time.

2. Boarding and lodging

3. Flights/travel

Any excess funds will be used to further the Next Festival's mission of equity-based access for all through our unique "pay-what-you-can" model of tuition.

What you get for donating:

Eventually we will be releasing this music on streaming for you to listen to forever, and you are guaranteed attendance to any future performances of it that might take happen.

A download code will be provided for anyone who donated when the recording is finished!

The Artists:

Yvette Young is the songwriter behind the band Covet and has a background in visual art and visual/performing arts education. Her ethos towards music and art is that it is a tool for self empowerment and finding a voice, and is a big advocate for music as an outlet and as therapy. This project has been meaningful to her because it’s been a chance to bridge her classical roots and upbringing with her current “rock/indie” sound.

The Next Festival of Emerging Artists is dedicated to helping early-career artists by giving them the tools, support, and community to create a new artistic reality – for themselves and the world. Now in its 10th Anniversary Season, the Festival has helped hundreds of string players, composers, and choreographers to imagine, create, and bring great new art into the world.

The Next Festival of Emerging Artists is a project of Next Edge Arts, Inc.