The Cedar Commissions
Artists announced for The Cedar Commissions
The Cedar Cultural Center is pleased to announce the recipients of the 14th round of The Cedar Commissions, The Cedar’s flagship commissioning program for emerging Minnesota-based composers and musicians made possible by a grant from the Jerome Foundation. Additional support provided by New Music USA. To date, the Commissions have supported the creation of new music by more than 80 local artists across genres.
The 2024-25 round of artists was selected by a diverse committee of Minnesota-based musicians, music industry professionals, and one Cedar staff. The 6 commissioned artists, A.P. Looze, Hibah Hassan, John Jamison II, May Klug, Phillip St. John, and Yeej Moua, will each receive $4,500 plus a $350 production stipend to compose at least 30 minutes of new musical work to debut at The Cedar on Friday, January 31st and Saturday, February 1st, 2025.
Artists receive professional development, administrative and marketing support from Cedar staff, artist photos, and mentorship from an artist-determined individual. Performances include a tech rehearsal, high-quality professional photos, an unmixed multi-track recording, and single-camera video documentation.
Learn more about this year’s artists and their projects, below!
ABOUT THE ARTISTS
Hibah Hassan (she/her):
“privileged communications”
“privileged communications” is a multimedia showcase comprising visual art, poetry, and music, created by Hibah Hassan. Raised in a Muslim household by Pakistani-immigrant parents, often with the buzz of South Asian sound and American Pop music in the background, Hibah’s artistry is defined by a strong passion for storytelling and complex lyricism. Her work is not only reflective of her experiences, but the experiences of her community. In “privileged communications”, a movement in six parts, she sets out to explore the intersection of speech and privilege, where our greatest powers are stifled. A love letter to the parts of speech, the words we don’t express, and the immense power many of us hold; the longing we have for our nostalgia-painted homelands, the sacrifices we make to avoid feeling “othered”, and the experiences that often demand we keep our heads down and work hard. Dedicated to the people who speak out against injustice and are subsequently punished; to all the BIPOC, immigrants, refugees who traded their voices for the promise of freedom; for the people who never had voices to begin with: we will make your words ours.
John Jamison II (he/him):
“Expressions of Afro-American Folklore”
John Jamison II is a Minneapolis based Thespian, Teaching Artist, and Blues Singer. John will be playing with the range of performance based expression through a theatrical exploration of Afro-American folklore with a bluesy subtext. Our oral literature brought to life with the intention to deepen the relationship between literature and flesh. Musical storytelling geared towards the alchemical celebration of the people of African descent in America.
May Klug (she/her):
“May and the Ladies”
May Klug is an experimental electronic composer/performer whose deep relationships with pieces of audio equipment and electronic instruments are a bridge through which she explores the networks of technological development, industry, and modern social life. Her performances blend electroacoustic experimentalism with the theater of pop, queer performance art, and high-femme fashion.
May’s primary instrument, and electronic collaborator, is the Casio CZ-101 synthesizer. By allowing the synth’s digital memory to decay, she generates sounds that capture the natural process of memory loss in a volatile RAM circuit with no electricity.
“May and the Ladies” is an avant-pop song cycle that will orchestrate these rich textures and complex synth voices with a live band to create catchy, danceable electronic music. The cycle’s lyrics will explore themes of assumed identity, misinformation, camp, and radical feminist politics. This work seeks to explore the role of female pop artists as innovators and early adopters of electronic instruments and experimental techniques, and to examine the archetype of the pop star as an unattainable fantasy of beauty, wealth, hyperfemininity, and virtuosity.
Phillip Saint John (he/him):
“Tribal Community”
Through his social experiences as an emcee and soul singer in the twin cities for a decade, Phillip is bringing together pieces of what he’s learned musically and socially centering community over hyper individual living. Though he is Apache Native American, his upbringing in Hastings, Minnesota came with a lot of social isolation and conditioning about the American dream. With his hometowns water supply currently polluted with chemicals and the shift of music culture due to artists focus on social media and metrics, Phillip is using the skills he’s learned from communal circles such as sound bowls, group harmonization, collaboration with other musicians, meditations & guitar to bridge us back to ourselves in a more symbiotic and inclusive way of life. A life not previously possible for his last four generations.
A.P. Looze (they/them):
“PRISM”
A.P. Looze's deepest inspiration and companion in this particular lifetime of theirs is Love. Looze will derive songs/sonic worlds through a process of channeling the Akashic Record--a sphere of consciousness that holds all unconditional love for our souls. This act of listening to love is the most precious act of surrender, often leading to the taproot of their most impassioned needs and desires. This mysterious and often ineffable realm is the place Looze strives to make Known in an Unknowable Way by way of art. It's less about understanding, and more about learning to hold the unpronounceable feeling that connects us to What Matters Most in our precious lives. Looze wishes to sing this beautiful and holy part of existence wide open--imperfectly, a little haphazardly, with wonder, humility, an earnest passion, and above all, a big 'ol sense of humor. When I offer and listen to love, what will love offer in return? Hopefully...some songs. :) xoxo
YEEJ (he/him):
“PINES”
A multi-hyphenate artist originally from Missoula, Montana, YEEJ now resides in the Twin Cities. “PINES” will be a cinematic musical journey mirroring his life. The songs will embody various genres such as pop, alternative, and traditional Hmong music through the exploration of Montana folk and country sounds. This is a love letter to his family, friends and culture. It will reflect on his time living in both Montana and Minnesota; the place that fostered his upbringing with the place that he found himself flourish as an artist and every bit in between.
ABOUT THE CEDAR COMMISSIONS
The Cedar Commissions is a flagship program for local emerging artists made possible with a grant from the Jerome Foundation. Since the program began in 2011, the Commissions have showcased new work by over 80 Minnesotan emerging composers and musicians, including Dessa, Aby Wolf, Adam Levy, Maria Isa, Joe Horton, Joey Van Phillips, Gao Hong, Dameun Strange, Vie Boheme, and many more.
“We’re grateful to continue supporting early-career artists from our varied communities. Every year, I love how each artist digs deep within to create new works from the heart - they really commit,” says Robert Lehmann, Community and Grant-Funded Programs Manager and program lead for The Cedar Commissions. “One of our priorities as a nonprofit is to support emerging artists, and we’re grateful for the Jerome Foundation’s support of the program all these years. This year, we’re particularly focusing on amping up mentorship from individual mentors within our local and national circles, Cedar staff, and the artists themselves sharing from their various levels of experience. Each performance will be strikingly different from the others, but I love that - there’s a magic in the high contrast of the genres, sounds, and subjects explored across the two evenings.”
The 2024-25 round of artists was selected by a diverse committee of Minnesota-based musicians, music industry professionals, and one Cedar staff. The 6 commissioned artists each receive a $4,500 stipend, as well as an additional $350 production stipend to be used for project-specific technical and performance expenses. Artists receive professional development, administrative and marketing support from Cedar staff, artist headshots, and mentorship from an artist-determined individual. Performances include a tech rehearsal, high-quality professional photos, an unmixed multitrack recording, and single-camera video documentation. To date, the Commissions have supported the creation of new music by more than 80 local artists across genres.
LEARN ABOUT THE 2023-24 CEDAR COMMISSIONS ARTISTS HERE.
All photos courtesy of Buck Holzemer
LEARN ABOUT THE 2022-23 CEDAR COMMISSIONS ARTISTS HERE.
All photos courtesy of Christopher Ludtke
The Cedar Commissions is made possible in part by a grant from the Jerome Foundation.
Additional support for The Cedar Commissions is provided by New Music USA.