Maestra and Their Efforts to AMPLIFY Women & Non-binary People in the Musical Theater

As a special episode for Women’s History Month, music director Julianne Merrill and broadcast technology director Jessica Ryan join the podcast to talk about one of WINMI’s favorite organizations, Maestra, and their annual Amplify concert.    Maestra was founded by composer Georgia Stitt (who has been on this podcast before), and Tony Award nominee Kate Baldwin (also a former guest) hosts the third annual evening of music by Maestras like Cyndi Lauper, Debra Monk, Brenda Russell, and Lucy Simon. Their music performed by some of Broadway’s brightest stars, including: Abby Mueller, Andy Kelso, Alysha Umphress, Bre Jackson, and Blake Stadnik (yet another former WINMI guest). Amplify is a hybrid event, with in-person performances at in New York City and a virtual simulcast with online-only features by our partners at All Together Now (Jessica’s company) available worldwide on March 27, 2023. Learn more about Maestra and how you can help them Amplify women musicians. Jessica mentioned Broadway statistics on female composers, find them here on Maestra’s website. Timeline of this episode… 03:12 – Welcome and Maestra information 09:50 – Story #1: What drew Jessica and Julianne to the arts 14:07 – The pandemic’s effect on the arts 18:20 – Story #2: The intersection of technology and the arts 32:46 – How Actors Equity is (not) helping theaters embrace the digital age 38:57 – Jessica’s big and wonderful idea! 44:10 – Story #3: Maestra and the Amplify concert     Follow WINMI: Website | Instagram | Twitter | YouTube ———- Why I’ll Never Make It is an award-winning, Top 25 Theater Podcast hosted by Off-Broadway actor and singer Patrick Oliver Jones, and it is a production of WINMI Media, LLC. Background music in this episode by John Bartmann and Blue Dot Sessions is used under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License.  

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