Joe's Pub Has Announced the 2020 Class of Joe's Pub Working Group

Joe's Pub, a program and venue of The Public Theater, has announced the new class of Joe's Pub Working Group (JPWG), the venue's artist development program dedicated to enhancing the career sustainability and growth of performing artists. Entering its sixth year, JPWG welcomes five artists - cabaret artist Salty Brine, vocalist and composer Sarah Elizabeth Charles, musician and musical theater composer Jaime Lozano, Indian classical and crossover vocalist Roopa Mahadevan, and singer-songwriter Kirsten Maxwell - into the group, which represents the diversity and scope of the nightly programming at Joe's Pub.

Joe's Pub sits at the crux of New York City's live music and downtown performing arts scenes. The venue has come to be defined by the freedom it offers artists onstage every night of the year. Artists ranging from Sandra Bernhard, Alan Cumming, and Billy Porter to Catherine Cohen, Cole Escola, and Larry Owens have used the space to debut new material and build their communities.

Facing the constantly shifting state of the music and entertainment industry, Joe's Pub extends the Working Group to artists based in New York City. These artists are not only at a critical point in their careers, but many exist outside of the traditional parameters of the industry. "Being an independent performing artist comes with a lot of responsibilities and needs beyond purely making art. This program is a way for us to address and decipher those things for artists in a space that is accessible and inclusive," said Alex Knowlton, Director of Joe's Pub.

By furnishing a range of administrative and curatorial services, dedicated to project-based goals, JPWG offers both personalized practical and creative assistance and a group dynamic to deepen a communal atmosphere for developing new, ongoing, and collaborative work.

Past participants include Migguel Anggelo, Trevor Bachman, Bridget Barkan, Becca Blackwell, Yacine Boulares, Dan Fishback, Ali Grieb, Celisse Henderson, Juliette Jones, Larry Krone, Treya Lam, Danny Lipsitz, Dana Lyn, Erin Markey, Stephanie McKay, Michael Mwenso, Trish Nelson, Isaac Oliver, Samora Abayomi Pinderhughes, Courtnee Roze, Kaylyn Marie Scardefield, Tori Scott, Shaina Taub, Ike Ufomadu, and Julian Velard.

ABOUT THE ARTISTS

Salty Brine is a cabaret artist, playwright, and actor. He is the creative force behind The Living Record Collection, a series of cabaret performances, which weave together iconic, popular albums with cultural touchstones from classic literature to opera and beyond. Each album is performed with a live band and Brine's unique brand of memoir-esque storytelling. The Collection contains 20 shows (and counting!). Brine received a Bistro Award in Outstanding Creative Artistry for his show WELCOME TO THE JUNGLE. You can see various shows from The Collection at Joe's Pub throughout 2020.

As book writer, Brine is in collaboration with composer Alan Menken. He has been commissioned to pen the book to a new musical for the Williamstown Theater Festival with composer/lyricist Justin Levine. Selected performance credits: The Elementary Spacetime Show (Ars Nova, FringeArts); Clown Bar (Pipeline Theater Company, The Box); Vera; or The Nihilists (HERE); The Poor Of New York (Connelly Theater); Straight Talk (Dixon Place); Taylor Mac's The Lily's Revenge (HERE).

Sarah Elizabeth Charles is a vocalist and composer. Her musical stylings are unique with the intricacies of her art focusing on modernizing classics and composing distinctive originals. Currently, Charles is a member of two performance/recording projects including Manner Effect and The Enoch Smith Jr. Trio. She is also the bandleader for her own group, the S.E.Charles Quartet - with Jesse Elder (piano), Burniss Earl Travis (bass), and John Davis (drums) - performing and recording her own compositions and arrangements. She has performed at The Apollo Theater with Geri Allen, Blue Note NYC, The Iridium, Smalls Jazz Club, Zinc Bar NYC, and New York Couture Fashion Week. She has also performed at International Bern Jazz Festival in Switzerland playing opposite Jack DeJohnette, The Kennedy Center as a selected member of the 2009 Betty Carter Jazz Ahead Composers Residency, Gillette Stadium, and The Northampton Center for the Arts.

Charles graduated with a BFA from The New School for Jazz and Contemporary Music and a BA from Eugene Lang College. Since beginning her journey as a jazz musician, she has studied and worked with the likes of Jimmy Owens, Geri Allen, Dr. Billy Taylor, Sheila Jordan, Cecil Bridgewater, Reggie Workman, George Cables, Junior Mance, Richard Harper, Janet Lawson, and Carmen Lundy. With those influential forces, Charles's music has evolved to become wide ranging, touching on everything from uniquely crafted originals to contemporary arrangements of jazz standards and re-workings of Haitian folklore music. Her creative energy pours out of every work, suffused with warmth, passion, honesty, and a unique voice that binds each song in her varied repertoire.

Jaime Lozano, who was born in Monterrey, Mexico, is an accomplished musician, vocal coach, composer, arranger, orchestrator, musical producer, and musical theater director. He has been called the "next big thing" on Broadway by Lin-Manuel Miranda. Selected stage works include Tlatelolco, Myths, The Yellow Brick Road (Off-Broadway and National Tour), Carmen La Cubana (European Tour), Children of Salt (NYMF 2016 "Best of Fest" Production), A Never-Ending Line (Comédie Nation in Paris, France and Off-Broadway), Savage (UAB at Birmingham), Present Perfect (Live & In Color). Lozano's music projects include "Tlatelolco" (producer, composer, lyricist), "Carols for a Cure 2010" (arranger, orchestrator), R.Evolución Latina's "Dare to Go Beyond" (arranger, orchestrator, music director), Florencia Cuenca's "Aquí - Los Nuevos Standards" (producer, arranger, music director), Doreen Montalvo's "American Soul / Latin Heart" (producer, arranger, orchestrator, music director), and "A Never-Ending Line" (producer, composer, arranger, orchestrator).

Lozano's director credits include The Last Five Years (Spanish World Premiere), Into the Woods, Jesus Christ Superstar, The Fantasticks, Jekyll & Hyde (Mexican World Premiere), Songs for a New World (Spanish World Premiere), Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat; as well as his very own works Tlatelolco, Myths and Con Amor...Isa Colibrí. Lozano has performed sold-out shows at Two River Theater, Joe's Pub, and The Green Room 42 with his concert "Jaime Lozano and the Familia: Songs by an Immigrant," which features an all-Latinx line up of Broadway stars. He is a teacher and activist for the NYC-based not-for-profit organization R.Evolución Latina.

Roopa Mahadevan is a leading Indian classical and crossover vocalist known for her powerful, emotive voice and distinctive re-imagination of the classical Carnatic art form. Seeking to celebrate yet push the boundaries of the Indian classical idiom, Mahadevan creates unique works with vocalists and dancers from the classical, jazz, world music, and R&B/soul genres. Her "hurricane wail and command of infinite minutiae" has charmed diverse audiences from Chennai's prestigious Music Academy, to Carnegie Hall and the Metropolitan Museum of Art, to the dive bars and cultural centers of American suburbia. As a trailblazer in the South Asian diasporic arts community, she also brings critical cultural commentary, humor, and searing authenticity into her work, often using dance and theater.

Mahadevan infuses her collaborative style with visionary leadership as the director of crossover ensemble, Roopa in Flux, and the groundbreaking Carnatic choir Navatman Music Collective. Mahadevan received her formative training under Asha Ramesh in the Bay Area and was granted the Fulbright scholarship for further study in India under Suguna Varadachari. She is a regular performer at the iconic December festival in Chennai and has received the award Kala Ratna from the Cleveland Thyagaraja Aradhana. Mahadevan is a featured voice with projects like Brooklyn Raga Massive and IndianRaga, and is a soloist on several albums, including Christopher Tin's Grammy Award-winning Calling All Dawns and the Facebook Sound Collection. Mahadevan also cultivated her compositional repertoire through premiere residencies at Hedgebrook and the Banff Center for Arts and Creativity. This fall, Mahadevan released her debut Carnatic album, Roopa in Six Yards, recognized for being "as spontaneous and joyful as the singer herself."

Kirsten Maxwell is a New York-raised singer, songwriter, and artist. She was five years old when she made her stage debut. Born into a family of opera singers, Maxwell found her voice early. She performed a number of roles at the Amato Opera in NYC, including the First Spirit in Mozart's The Magic Flute. With support and encouragement from her musical parents, Maxwell continued to develop her talents into high school where she embraced musical theater and took up the guitar. By college, Maxwell was writing songs and laying the foundation for an ever-expanding musical career.

The pace of her progress has been measured in songwriting competition wins and a steady graduation to bigger and better stages. Her ability to charm new audiences often ends in standing ovations and an invitation to return. Maxwell's professionalism and commitment to her craft have awarded her the opportunities to open for rock icon Melissa Etheridge, country star Tanya Tucker, Americana rock duo The Bacon Brothers, renowned comedian Robert Klein, and the great Paul Shaffer. She was also asked to participate in a gala honoring Judy Collins, sharing the stage with such notable artists as Jimmy Webb, Suzanne Vega, Nona Hendrix, and Judy herself. She has since opened for Collins twice and will accompany her on a tour this winter 2020.

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