USVA’s Live Support Raising Artists From Ground Zero
USVA’s Live Support Raising Artists From Ground Zero
This is a must-read if you’re an aspiring artist and want a chance to find a supportive and diverse community to kickstart your career!
If I had only one word to describe this event, it would be “wow”. So much positivity, so much energy and excitement came from USVA's Live Support premiere last Thursday, 30th May. Live Support is a 1 year talent development track for artists, actors, performers, you name it! This was only their second year developing this project, and it has been a huge success both times so a continuation of this program is guaranteed.
So what happened prior to the premiere? After a round of auditions, 4 talented and hopeful artists (3 individuals and one band, to be exact) went through a series of workshops aimed at developing their skills as performers. With the help of last year’s finalists and professionals in the industry, the participants learned to hone their existing skills, let it be singing, performing, or playing an instrument; as well as other useful skills that are less ‘glamorous’ but essential to leave the program as a full-fledged artist. From stage presence, interacting with your audience, marketing yourself and other details to help push your name out into the public.
That night I was lucky to witness the final presentations of the participants, as well as take a few interviews with their thoughts and experiences with this program.
Henri van Wieren
The evening started off with singer-songwriter Henri. His voice was gentle and soulful, using his lyrics to bring light to the emotions of everyday life. He was accompanied by a pianist, Pieter Boonstra, who was actually one of last year’s live support participants. When I later asked how such a collaboration came to be, they responded that they shared a lot of similarities between them and ended up getting along well, eventually performing together.
The performance was amazing, especially due to the spectacular stage lighting. In tandem with the changes in beat and the melody, strobe lights of colours of the rainbow shone through the wispy stage smoke, illuminating the singer from the back.
His story is simple: “I rolled into music because my father bought a piano at a really random time. And I just started playing.” Funny enough, he didn’t even know about this program at first as his girlfriend secretly enrolled him, but then was invited to the auditions and the rest was history. He found the workshop and the “support” part of Live Support really helpful in putting himself out there and gaining confidence to perform.
As for how he felt after his big showcase: “ I feel really empty. Like where am I going to go now? I was living up to this moment. Like literally, I don't know how we wrote the songs. It feels empty. But maybe that's a good thing.” Well, it's only up from here, and maybe we’ll be seeing some of their music released on streaming platforms soon. You can check him out here: @henrivanwieren.
Hannan Van Rooij
I’m afraid I can’t really do justice explaining this performance, as it was in Dutch, but when Hannan came on stage, the venue transformed from a concert hall into a theatre. Though I could not understand the content, her words - spoken poetry - flowed beautifully. At times her words and pauses were harsh, sometimes soft, and most times powerful. She used a prop of a line stretched across the stage, where she would hang keywords on pieces of paper, telling a story. With themes of care, heartaches and other emotional topics, Hannan employed mixed media with photos, videos, and interviews of close friends and loved ones to explore the overarching question of “Am I doing good, making art?”
She later confessed that the idea came to her from fear: “I was the only spoken word artist in this group, and everyone just got half an hour of time. They just said, well, go and fill it. But I panicked a little bit. Because that's not something I can do with only spoken word poetry, so I had to find a way to make it interesting. I like combining poetry and video. So I thought, okay, that's a skill I could use. And then I just started adding a theme to it, decorations to it. So it just got layered on.”
What I did not understand through poetry, made up with her delivery and charisma. The stage presence was strong, and I could feel it. Hannan was already involved with poetry groups before Live Support, but she said that the workshop was still very useful to help explore performance in a different way, as well as the marketing aspects. She will continue to utilise the skills she learned from this program in spoken poetry and performance, and you can check her out here: @hannanvanrooij.
Charlotte Hessels
Now, this girl was absolutely enchanting. Her sweet and melodic voice touched my heart deeply, both through her melody and the topics. Charlotte is a singer-songwriter who touched upon growing up, passions and life topics in her songs. With only her on stage with her guitar and a prop made by Ella from the Live support committee, she took the audience on a lyrical journey of her personal experiences in songs.
Charlotte discovered USVA through Instagram and joined their program after returning from Australia. Her musical journey began five or six years ago when she started playing guitar and eventually singing. Her interest in songwriting peaked during a school project and further developed in Australia, where she performed live for the first time. There, she met her producer and began taking her music career more seriously.
In terms of the support for this program, she commented “It was so diverse. We got a technical workshop, but also about storytelling, and also how you stand on the stage, and how you make contact with the audience. It's really different from standing on the stage, but it's all part of trying to become an artist. There are a lot of steps.”
Despite initial nervousness, she felt relaxed and enjoyed her performance, and so did everyone else that night. In fact, you can listen to one of her released songs “Time to Grow” and check her out here: @charlotteh.music.
Asymmetry
Last but not least, came the band, comprising 5 members. The hall was cleared of chairs, and we had the chance to nod along and dance to progressive hard rock. Their goal was to make “weird music that is listenable yet accessible to everyone”, and that is exactly what happened. The band looked like they had so much fun, jamming to their music and playing around with more traditional rock motifs and mixing it up with synths and violin strings.
They were also a complete band that were trying things out with members coming and going before they enrolled in the Live Support, and even performed at VERA before the final presentation. They found the program through USVA’s Instagram story and decided to participate.
As for the workshops, they found them very helpful. “Some more than others. It was very inspiring. When we had a workshop, I was like, oh, I want to do this, and I want to change this, and I want to ask people to play somewhere.” What all performers agreed on that night was how useful the marketing workshops were. Assymetry commented: “It was very fun to have the feeling that we were actually working on something. That we were sort of getting involved in the musical business.”
Members contribute different elements, ranging from classical to metal, funk, latin, hardcore punk, and electronic music. This blend of styles creates a unique and exciting sound for the band, which they describe as Symphonic Hardcore. If that sounds like something you would enjoy, follow them here to catch a performance of theirs.
“And the best thing about it is just to see people... to help people make themselves grow, because we cannot do it for you, you have to do it yourself.”
Overall, I was amazed by the organisation, stage performance, ambience, and intimate audience that really made the experience that much more special. I also had a chance to speak to Marit Nygård, an artist herself and an organiser of the program. She was incredibly excited about the final presentation as well as the whole journey of getting here.
She emphasised that Live Support is more than just a development program, but a community where “Everyone's just involved. That's the nice part about us for Live Support, is the community part of it. So we have a heavy focus on networking and trying to engage with each other, and trying to find new ways of working together with other people.”
“We offer them workshops, and we offer them coaching conversations and stuff. So that is how we try to help them nudge in the right direction a little bit, or to have them gain knowledge on topics. We want to have somebody be more involved in their own process, and we try to enhance and stimulate the self-growth.”
I'm not exaggerating to say that I'm going to be attending every Live Support showcase while I'm staying in Groningen, and I encourage all of you to check out all these amazing artists, USVA, and all the contributors who made it possible.
And who knows, maybe next year you could be the one standing on that stage?