Live music series continues to Draw numbers

By EVAN MOODY The Breeze

In May 2021, the Levitt Foundation researched the effects of commissioning an outdoor music venue in Denver’s Ruby Hill neighborhood — “a residential, predominantly lowincome Hispanic/ Latinx community.” The study found that the Levitt Pavilion both “helped create a stronger, more equitable community of music lovers” and fostered “long-term investment in the local community.”

Last year, the Levitt Foundation took on a similar project by selecting Harrisonburg as one of the 33 Levitt AMP Music Series locations from across the country. With this selection, Harrisonburg Downtown Renaissance receives a $30,000 grant from the Levitt Foundation each year from 2023-26, to which HDR will match. The grant provides live music performances at Turner Pavilion from critically acclaimed artists at no expense of the audience.

According to the Levitt Foundation’s website, the foundation believes “access to the arts and open green space are fundamental human rights.”

Performances, which take place at 6 p.m. every Wednesday, run through late September. Since they began in the middle of July, attendance sizes of the concerts have doubled from 600 to 1,300, said Jennifer Bayes, events and special projects manager of HDR.

“Every artist brings different people and different ages, different backgrounds,” Bayes said. “It’s just cool to see that what we hoped is actually working.”

According to the latest census data, 25% of Harrisonburg residents, or roughly 12,800 people, identify as impoverished. As access to art performances are often restricted by high premiums, free concerts such as those provided by the Levitt AMP series ensure marginalized groups reap the benefits of experiencing art.

Said benefits are known by Christine Elise, one half of a newage, soul duo formed with Kuf Knotz that performed at the Turner Pavilion on Aug. 2. The classically trained harpist is also a former student of community music therapy, which takes into account cultural and social context of music therapy. Elise said she can relate her past study material to the live music series.

“It is playing out where this ripple effect, where all ages of people gathered together in an experience does create a ripple, whether they would like to see a live show again or talk about one of the lyrics that they heard, or just have the memory of sharing a space on a nice afternoon or evening together,” Elise said. “Those feelings and those memories continue to create ripples. And that’s really what community therapy is all about.”

The two are no strangers to the community benefit of music.

They even first watched each other perform at a previous fundraiser. Elise’s musical counterpart, Knotz, is cited on his Spotify as having a passion for supporting the community through food and clothing drives, among other initiatives, and is a member of WXPN Musicians on Call — a free program that brings volunteer musicians to the bedsides of hospital patients.

Artists are chosen for the Levitt AMP series through a selection process after applying. According to the Levitt Foundation website, acts represented throughout the series offer a broad cultural and genre range while representing the selected location’s area. Cinémathèque, a cinema music-oriented band, was formed out of Roanoke in 2011, and its Aug. 9 set featured JMU junior and saxophonist Evan Bertoglio.

For Cinémathèque, playing a live show in Harrisonburg was a major draw for the all instrumental group. While some members have attended concerts in the Forbes Center for the Performing Arts and commented on the large music program at JMU, the group as a whole had not played a show in town.

“It’s really exciting,” said Jonathan Falls, a member of the collective. “I’ve always wanted to do a Harrisonburg show.”

In tune with the community benefit theme, Cinémathèque has also performed at charity concerts at the art museum of Roanoke and participated in Relay for Life, a fundraising event for the American Cancer Society, at Virginia Tech. Also in accordance with the Levitt Foundation’s commitment to broad genres, the group’s sound is influenced by exotica, spaghetti Westerns, Afrobeat and Ethiopian Jazz.

“It’s great to see that people are like, ‘I don’t really care who it is or what the genre is. I just want to see live music,’” Bayes said. “It’s expanding people’s horizons, and also it’s bringing in artists and bands that are from other parts of the country. So, it’s also putting Harrisonburg on the map.”

Calls to turn the Turner Pavilion into a permanent stage for live music have been circulating, Bayes said. While most events for HDR occur on S. Main, Liberty and Mason streets, the space had become unactivated other than for the weekly farmers market and a past skeleton festival.

While the venue itself hasn’t made considerable changes, the community began to see the area as usable, and there’s hope that city officials have also taken notice, Bayes said. This is in part with the Levitt Foundation’s mission, committed to “injecting joy into underused public spaces and fostering more equitable, healthy and thriving communities.”

Part of the equitable growth noticed in the Harrisonburg music series has come from the project’s sponsors — local businesses including Kline’s Dairy Bar, Matchbox Realty & Management Services, Pale Fire Brewing and more.

For HDR to match the $30,000-per-year grant, it sought former and new sponsors, and the foundation was able to expand its reach. Along with this support, vendors have also been represented at the Wednesday concerts. Located next to Kline’s downtown, El Paisano has received exposure by vending tacos and quesadillas.

“We’re meeting our mission of helping downtown businesses grow and thrive,” Bayes said.

As students return for the fall semester, the audience for the free, live concerts is expected to continually grow. Moving forward, 10 more artists will return to Harrisonburg next summer and the summer thereafter to continue the project.

For now, however, it appears the Levitt Foundation remains in good standing for completing their mission in Harrisonburg.

“Every week that we have it, people come and they’re like, ‘Oh, I was having dinner downtown last week and I heard music and I looked it up, and so, then I came,” Bayes said. “We hear that every week, and so it’s just going to keep growing in numbers. Who knows how many people we’ll have in that grassy lot?”

CONTACT Evan Moody at thebreezeculture@gmail.com

For more on the culture, arts and lifestyle of the JMU and Harrisonburg communities, follow the culture desk on Twitter and Instagram @Breeze_Culture.