Grantee Database

Grant Year

2025-26

Grant Program

Impact Projects

Award Amount

$18,250.00

Project Description

With support from the California Arts Council, SYNCHROMY will produce Urban Birds: The Plasticine with San Pedro-based artist Ashton Phillips by holding ten oral history workshops designed for San Pedro’s marginalized community members who are disproportionately impacted by Diesel Particulate Matter. The workshops will equip participants with the tools to carry out their own oral history practice and create intercommunity archives of stories that may otherwise be erased. With permission from workshop participants, the sound and language of the participant’s stories will become the fabric of a performance built through collaboration, experimentation, and care at Angels Gate Cultural Center in San Pedro, California. This project draws out previously untold, unheard human and ecological stories to notice the interconnection between humans and our environments, and to localize these stories to the immediate environment.

Organization Summary

LIVE MUSIC PROGRAMMING
Synchromy produces 6-8 live music programs annually, motivated by our mission to support underrepresented composers and produce projects with a purpose. Our 2023-24 season features 6 programs, comprising 14 live performances and 9 world premieres by LA composers; programming for the 2024-25 season is in progress. Tickets are free or low-cost. For paid events, we distribute free tickets through partner organizations. A number of our events take place outdoors, and we produce new and ongoing works online.

SUPPORT FOR COMPOSERS
Synchromy supports composers’ artistic, professional, and community development. In 2022, we increased our commissioning fee to $1500 at minimum, and pay composers, musicians, and crew equitably. We support the creative process from inception through production and beyond. We provide composers with high-quality documentation and press kits, which are crucial in obtaining further funding and performance opportunities. At a community level, we hold Composer Welcoming Committees each month, inviting composers who are new to Los Angeles to meet with our artistic directors and pitch ideas. We are currently developing Calculator for Creativity in conjunction with universities across LA to help student composers transition to professional life.

COMMUNITY ENGAGEMENT
Synchromy believes that an effective way to diversify our audiences, serve the underserved, and continue to grow is through collaboration. We began our collaboration initiative in 2018 and have continued this initiative through our current fiscal year. We partner with the Audubon Society, the LA Conservancy, as well as Monk Space, Chapman University, SpacePants, AutoDuplicity, and Basic Flowers. Our goal over the next two years is to create five new partnerships per year in our new Pasadena home, including collaborations with outreach facilities (homeless shelters, low income housing, and the like), educational bodies, and to offer childcare for audience members through collaborations with church nursery facilitators.

Organization

Synchromy

Address

1390 North Arroyo Blvd

Pasadena

91103

County

Los Angeles

Region

South – Los Angeles & Orange

Phone

(360) 305-7825

Congressional District

California Assembly district 43

State Assembly District

District 43

State Senate District

District 24

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