The Seedlot Project 

In 2006, in an effort to bring contemporary music to the more rural areas of upstate New York, Anaar Desai-Stephens invited a group of passionate new music performers and composers to her haven in East Meredith, New York. For four blissful days, the musicians rehearsed brand new music in an old church; practiced a motet for four car horns in the middle of a hay field; harvested their neighbors' tomatoes (and ate them!); helped build a strawbale house; experimented with sine waves; and wrote, explored, and performed new music.

The project has blossomed into a collaboration with Ensemble Pamplemousse. The Seedlot Project is now an annual summer celebration of the diversity to be found in the performance and education of contemporary music.  2007 saw the initial teaching efforts of Seedlot; three members of the festival taught two 5-day workshops in "The Exploration of Sound and Music" to children ages 5-15.  These workshops- intended to open the door to simple electronic instruments and their endless possibilities- were a resounding success, and inspired Seedlot to seek out more educational avenues.  Teaching is now an integral part of the the Seedlot Project, and plans for workshops intended to more fully engage the Upper Catskill community are in progress for 2008. 

Click here to hear a sample of the work completed by the participants of the 2007 workshop.