November 1, 2007
Dear All:
It's been eight months since I've written anything to you and much has happened, is happening and will happen that I want to mention.
First, my apologies for the recent false alarm about the ABC Word News Tonight interview with Charles Gibson as "The Person of the Week". My piece was moved to a Friday in November and we were not notified in time to pass the change onto you.
In August the Governor of New York, Eliot Spitzer appointed me to the prestigious New York State Council on the Arts. It is an appointment that requires state senate approval and that was given just last week. I begin serving officially in December. We are a 20 member board in control of a 55 million dollar annual budget. Individual artists and arts institutions can apply for grants through the Council which has created 15 separate divisions of the arts: Architecture, Arts in Education, Dance, Folk Arts, Electronic Media, Film, Music, Theater, etc.
nysca.org
In mid-September I visited Oslo, Norway where the Nobel Peace Prize winner
is chosen and honored each year. Then I returned to the US and participated
in a Women, Power and Peace Conference in Upstate New York to which all the
living female recipients of the Nobel Peace Prize were invited to attend: Wangari
Maathai (2004), Shirin Ebadi (2003), Rigoberta Menchú Tum (1992), Jody Williams
(1997), Aung San Suu Kyi (1991) and Betty Williams (1976). We were privileged
to have Rigoberta Menchú Tum, Jody Williams and Betty Williams come and address
the conference. Aung San Suu Kyi's invitation was purely symbolic due to her
circumstance, no one expected her to attend. But it was not a foreign, oppressive
regime that prevented Shirin Ebadi (the first women judge in the history of
Iran) from attending but our own government which denied her a visa. These
women were so humble and so courageous. It was such an honor to meet them and
sing for them on the opening night of the conference.
nobelwomensinitiative.org
nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/peace/laureates/index.html
The Give Us Your Poor CD is now available and you may have read elsewhere here on the site about a concert to promote it in Boston on November 16th at The Strand Theater. All the musicians who performed on the track I produced for the album, "There is No Good Reason" will be joining me on stage. I understand that Buffalo Tom has just joined the bill. It would be great to see you at this show.
giveusyourpoor.org/moviecd/cd.php
giveusyourpoor.org/events/concert.php
The Cowboy Junkies live DVD Trinity Revisited is now available. This is the 20 year reinterpretation of their debut album with Ryan Adams, Vic Chestnutt and me sitting in. It looks and sounds great and you can see excerpts of it on the Junkies site:
cowboyjunkies.com/
Something magnificent to behold is Christy Moore's version of my song "Motherland".
youtube.com/watch?v=Qm1mpkHc9VQ
I am planning a week of live shows the first week of January in New York City at the Hiro Ballroom in the Maritime Hotel. I plan to debut several new songs as well as re-interpret older material. This will be the first full live performance of mine in NYC in four years and there is no plan to tour elsewhere.
Advance tickets will be available through nataliemerchant.com soon.
I have been invited to perform for two nights with The Boston Symphony Orchestra in May of 2008 in a concert series called Edgefest. Three pop artists and three emerging composers are chosen each year for the series. The symphony will perform 45 minutes of my music arranged for any configuration of players from string trio to full orchestra. I plan to debut new material during these shows.
I've been invited to collaborate with a dear friend and musician from Sicily named Carmen Consoli during the summer of 2008. Carmen has been asked to put together a summer-long program of events for the Auditorium Parco della Musica in Rome and has asked me to sing with her for the final concert of the series. This is going to be a very special program and I'll tell you more about it as it develops. I have known Carmen for 12 years. In addition to becoming one of the most famous female pop stars in Italy during that time, she was also the voice of The Mafiosa in my Ophelia film. You can learn more about her and her most recent album Eva Contro Eva (which is incredible) here:
carmenconsoli.it/
During the past year I have written an album of children's music and intend to begin recording in March of 2008. This sort of project has been on my back burner for many, many years. Now that I have a child and am more tuned-in to what interests, bores, delights and frightens children, I've been moved to write specifically to them. One important observation I've made is that children are far more sophisticated than so much of the entertainment they are offered but they don't want to be considered adults either, there is a very particular point of entry to a child's sense of wonder and humor. I'm very excited about this project and you will definitely be hearing more about it in the coming year.
That's all for now.
Take Care,
Natalie
