We are diving into a really interesting project today called Anna’s Promise. Anna’s Promise is the third in a series of multimedia works developed by Barry Green (author of The Inner Game of Music and several other works, and also a former Contrabass Conversations guest). Barry is joined by Jeff Bradetich (double bass professor at the University of North Texas and also a former Contrabass Conversations guest) to speak with me about this work.
The first piece, Anna’s Way, From Inspiration to Artistry, is a 45-minute musical and visual journey of a young bass prodigy and her rediscovery the joy of music after lessons with a Tai Chi master. Written by Alan Scofield, this story is set to music from China, India, Africa, Brazil, Israel, and America by Tony Osborne, Francois Rabbath, Arvo Pärt, Astor Piazzolla, Emily Brown, Mary Knysh, Larry Dunlap, Johann Birkenstock, Frank Proto, and Andrés Martín (who we recently interviewed for the podcast—stay tuned for this!).
The second piece, Anna’s Gift, is a fifty-five minute story about a musician named Anna was written for solo bass, concert band, and narrator, and includes background visuals. The story takes place ten years after Anna was inspired to become an artist from her studies with retired Tai Chi Master Chen. The piece recounts the emotional journey of a gifted concert bassist who is longing for love and fire in her music and her life. Andrés Martín composed the music for this piece.
We delve into Anna’s Promise, the third part of this series, today in our conversation with Barry Green and Jeff Bradetich about this project, which is being performed by 34 different soloists all across the world. Andrés Martín is also the composer for this third installment.
Anna’s Promise is a worldwide effort to spread this inspirational story. The commissioning fee for Andrés Martín and story writer Alan Scofield, is being raised through industry solicitation directed by Toni Buffa of Lemur Music Inc. Toni@lemurmusic.com. When requested, USA non-profit status for charitable deductible contributions to this project will be possible through the Bradetich Foundation. www.bradetichfoundation.org. Further information from Barry Green barry@innergameofmusic.com.
There is also a gofundme set up for this project, and Kolstein’s has contributed a bass and bow for auction to support Anna’s Promise. Visit the Anna’s Promise website for complete details about this project.
Here’s a line-up of the performers for this project and the country in which each will be performing:
- South Africa: Leon Bosch
- Sweden: Jan Alm
- Mexico: Andrés Martín
- Brazil: Marcos Machado
- Argentina: Juan Pablo Navarro
- Israel: Michael Klinghoffer
- Australia: Steve Reeves
- China: Heran Yang, Tian Yang Liu
- Germany: Claus Freudenstein
- Norway: Dan Styffe
- Switzerland: Enrico Fagone
- Spain: Diego Zecharies
- Italy: Giuseppe Ettorre
- Turkey: Esra Gul
- France: Theirry Barbe
- Austria: Christine Hoock
- Bulgaria: Irina-Kalina Goudeva
- Hong Kong: Chan Shiu Hang Olive
- Thailand: Pongsathorn Nowbassist Surapab
- Japan: Kazuhiro Tanabe
- Russia: Artem Chirkov
- United States: Barry Green, Jeff Bradetich
- Singapore: Gennadi Mouzyka
- Greece: Vassilis Papavassiliou
- Poland: Irene Olkiewicz
- Denmark: Andreas Bennetzen
- Canada: Ali Kian Yazdanfar
- United Kingdom: Chi-Chi Nwanoku
- Rumania: Catalan Rotaru
- Taiwan: Yi-Jung Su
- South Korea: Ha Young Jung
- Serbia: Svetozar Vujic
- Czech Republic: Jiri Hudec