The Bear Playlist- presented to the Lisbon Music Study Club by Executive Director, Kandace Cleland

Kandace Cleland, executive director for Stage Left Community Arts Center presented a program called, “The Bear Playlist” to the Lisbon Music Study Club of Lisbon, Ohio (member of the Ohio Federation of Music Clubs) as part of our ongoing adventure with the NEA Big Read program in partnership with ArtsMidwest.

Stage Left was among 62 national recipients of 2022-2023 NEA Big Read grant funding to facilitate community programs. Stage Left is partnering with The Lepper Library, local school districts, and other local and regional organizations such as the Lisbon Music Study Club to identify ways to engage their local Lisbon community through programs and events connected to The Bear.

Cleland also serves as this year's current LMSC president. When it was her turn to create a program on the calendar, she quickly moved to celebrate the NEA Big Read in partnership with ArtsMidwest to make musical connections to Andrew Krivak’s The Bear. Cleland created a playlist of music that made connections to the themes of “Seasons & Survival,” “Father & Daughter Relationships,” “Grieving & Remembering,” and “Hope for a Brighter Future.”

Cleland identified Vivaldi’s “The Four Seasons: Winter” as a beautiful and stirring orchestral piece that embodied the struggles and seemingly relentless hold of winter in Krivak’s novel. She discovered the excellent YouTube video of the 35th annual Christmas Concert (December 25, 2020) held at the Basilica Superiore di San Francesco of d’Assisi in Italy. She used this performance that featured Violin Soloist, Anastasiya Petryshak and the Orchestra del Teatro Carlo Felice di Genova under the direction of Conductor Maestro Steven Mercurio as a base to her creative video which includes video footage of blizzards as well as classic paintings done by Mikhail Vasilevich, Paul Gaughin, Willard Leroy Metcalf, John Henry Twatchtman and Alexsey Savrosov.

Cleland analyzed the orchestral performance and layered the video and classic artwork to depict the winter scenes evoked in Andrew Krivak’s The Bear and at the same time feature the fine performances by the orchestra, Ms. Petryshak under the sensitive direction of Maestro Mercurio.

The Lisbon Music Study Club became affiliated with both the National Federation of Music Clubs and the Ohio Federation of Music clubs on November 7, 1947 and celebrates its 75th year this season 2022-2023.