Twine introduces summer artist-in-resident concert series

Broadway is coming to Line Avenue.

Twine’s Sunday Music Series:

“Yours Truly — The Songs of Zhailon Levingston and Drew Ley” invokes the Broadway experience. The summer series is a two-part development: the process and the product.

During the artist-in-residence process Zhailon Levingston and Drew Ley will turn Twine, located at 1513 Line Ave., into their workshop composing music and writing lyrics to create new songs. An ensemble of performers will perform the songs over the course of several weeks.

“Drew and I will use this space to write music and then every Sunday have a performance of our original works with other people singing it,” Levingston said. “It’s going to be a concert series, and in the theater world, it’s what is called a ‘song cycle.’” Willie Jones, the Shreveport country singer who was a nalist on “The X-Factor,” kicked off the series. Each Sunday a different singer will perform selections by Levingston and Ley that are crafted for the artist’s speci c musical style and unique voice. The line-up will include Dez Duron ( nalist on “The Voice”), Christina Langston (contestant on “American Idol”), Missy Wise (local recording artist) and Jared Watson (artistic director for Stage Center).

All performers in the Sunday Concert Series are from Shreveport, including Ley and Levingston. Ley is an up-and-coming composer. Levingston is a student at The American Musical and Dramatic Academy in California/New York and is majoring in performing arts.

“We are trying to create something for people where there was a void in activity. We have a vibrant music scene in Shreveport, one of the best of any city I’ve been in. But we believed Sunday was missing something.”

Levingston sees this series as a way to introduce local talent to Shreveport and introduce a new experience. Levingston said he wanted a place where he and his group of artistic friends could perfect their craft.

“The project bene ts so many different facets,” Levingston said. “It gives the singers an intimate place where the public can see them perform while they are still working on branching out. It gives me, as an artist, a chance to write for speci c voices, speci c styles, speci c tones and a chance to experiment with collaborating with a composer. It gives [Ley] a chance to collaborate with lyricists.”

The series also bene ts Twine as it opens its doors to a project that is rare to a restaurant setting. “It gives the audience a place to go that is like nothing else they have experienced and encourages art in a way that is different from anything else in Shreveport,” Levingston said.

The seed was planted for the artist-inresidence project last year after Levingston’s rst time dining at Twine with friends. “It has really cool art and cool energy that was randomly in Shreveport,” Levingston said. “I was like, ‘Oh my gosh, this is awesome! I’m so glad this is here.’ “From the moment I walked in, I just knew that there was a group of young artists who would love a place like this – to express and eat great food.”

Soon after his introduction to the restaurant, which had just opened in April 2012, Levingston went to college where he spent time living in Hollywood, Calif., and Manhattan, N.Y. All the while, he searched to no avail for a place like Twine. One day Levingston met an artist in New York who introduced him to the idea of an artist-in-residence, a project that for an allotted time provides artists with a venue to re ect, research and produce their craft while meeting and working with others in the community. He immediately knew he wanted to bring the work style back to Shreveport.

During Twine’s artist-inresidence, Levingston and Ley will work in the Wine Room, a room off of the main dining area, viewable through a glass window. The public may stop in to view and/or discuss the artists’ work.

“It’s about the process, not the product,” Twine owner Rick Rose said. “It’s always about the journey, not the end result.”

The idea for the performance concert night was inspired by a New York café Levingston visited called 54 Below, a Broadway nightclub located below the famed Studio 54.

“It’s where young people go to see other young Broadway actors perform,” Levingston said. “It’s Cabaret style; they serve cool food, and it’s very intimate.”

Bringing the dramatic atmosphere to Twine, the performers will take stage upon the bar top as the audience dines. “I’ve always looked in my life to complement and augment something that is already there, not to compete and not to distract, but to take what’s already there and make it a fuller picture,” Rose said. “I’m trying to bring Broadway to people who love it, hate it, need it or go only once a year a chance to experience Broadway without having to buy a $600 plane ticket to get to New York.”

“It creates a different environment each time,” Levingston said. “You know you’re coming to a Sunday Concert Series, but you’re going to hear different kinds of music, different kinds of voices in an environment with an energy that makes you want to come back.”

For more information about the artist-inresidence and Sunday Concert Series, call Twine at 754-4024.

– Tiana Kennell

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