My Charming Murderer

• • 3ARTS MATCH
  • 326% contributed

With your support, I am excited to record my début album, entitled My Charming Murderer. As the founding pianist of the ensemble, Eighth Blackbird, now celebrating its 20^th season, I have made over a dozen commercial recordings, including 4 albums that received Grammy awards for best chamber music performance. While dedicated to my group, I am keen to advance my work as a composer and individual artist as well. This album will feature music written for me and new works of my own. Compositions and performances by guest artists Nico Muhly, Michael Ward-Bergeman, and Matthew Duvall will highlight the musical connections I have with some of my dearest friends, who are amazingly talented at what they do and who I am honored to have as my esteemed collaborators on this project. This album also gives me an opportunity to explore more terrain as a composer, which I have recently taken up again after a long hiatus. Funds contributed to this campaign will be critical in helping to cover production costs, guest artist fees, album artwork, marketing, and manufacturing. Thank you for sharing in this journey to help make my project a reality.  

About This Project

This recording will feature music written for me by my good friends Nico Muhly, Michael Ward-Bergeman, and Amy Beth Kirsten, as well as performances by guest artists. Nico Muhly has written a brand new solo piano piece for me called Perpetual Motion. The title of the album, My Charming Murderer, comes from a song of the same name that Amy Beth Kirsten wrote. It comes from a large theater piece written for Eighth Blackbird called Colombine’s Paradise Theatre, in which I play the role of Colombine and sing this sad, beautiful, and honest lament about love. I had never sung a straight-up song during any performance before, and while it was scary at first, I ended up loving it. For this recording, I’ve made an arrangement of it for piano, voice, and percussion so that my good friend and colleague Matthew Duvall can join me on it. Matthew will also perform a duo arrangement I made of David Lang’s wed.

Another new piece on the album is by Michael Ward-Bergeman called Mississippi. This is an arrangement of an original song that Michael wrote after spending an entire year playing concerts every single day. He spent a lot of time near the Mississippi River and later wrote a song about that experience. I loved the simultaneous depth and simplicity of Michael’s original song, and I asked him to make this solo piano version. Michael is an incredible accordion player, and he and I also plan to record a duo he wrote for the two of us called Chamamé Federal. Lastly, in the past five years I have started composing again. My album will feature two new pieces of my own: a short Berceuse and a crazy 4-hand piano duo called whirligig that Nico will play with me.

It is my hope that this album will help advance my work as a composer and help me gain visibility in the music world as a solo artist, in addition to my work with Eighth Blackbird. 

Thank yous

Contribute any amount or choose from the levels below.

• $10
  Enthusiastic shout-out on Facebook and/or Instagram. Woot! ($0.00 is tax deductible.)
• $25
  A digital download of the completed album. ($0.00 is tax deductible.)
• $75
  A signed copy of the CD, plus all of the above. ($0.00 is tax deductible.)
• $125
  Your name listed as a sponsor in the CD liner notes, a signed copy of the CD, and an enthusiastic social media shout-out. ($0.00 is tax deductible.)
• $300
  Your name listed as sponsor in the CD liner notes, a signed copy of the CD, and 2 free VIP tickets to an Eighth Blackbird performance of your choice. ($0.00 is tax deductible.)
• $1500
  All of the above, plus I’ll cook you a delicious dinner at my house. (Reward must be claimed in Chicago at a mutually convenient time.) ($0.00 is tax deductible.)
• $3500
  I will come play a 35-40 minute recital in your home. (Reward must be claimed in the continental United States, and a freshly tuned baby grand or grand piano must be provided.) ($0.00 is tax deductible.)

---

Lisa Kaplan

Born in Motown, Lisa Kaplan is a pianist specializing in the performance of new work by living composers. Kaplan is also the founding pianist of the four-time Grammy Award-winning sextet Eighth Blackbird. She has won numerous awards, performed all …

View Lisa Kaplan's profile

• 4 updates
• 80 supporters

• Update 1: Huge THANK YOUS!

  Posted on August 04, 2016

   

  Guys! I am truly overwhelmed with the outpouring of generosity in support of my album project.  Thank you so much!  Huge thanks to my first 27 supporters who enabled me to reach the awesome 3Arts match. You all rock! More updates soon, including a sneak preview of some of the music that will be on the album...

  Update 2: A sneak preview!

  Posted on August 21, 2016

   

  Hi Friends!  I am just so humbled to be nearing my stretch goal.  Enormous thanks to all of you who have so generously donated to my campaign. It is truly appreciated and so incredibly meaningful to me to have your incredible support.  I'm sharing this link with a sneak preview of Nico Muhly's Perpetual Motion which will go on my album.  Enjoy!  xxoo

  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D20q3lg81H0

  Update 3: My Charming Murderer Update!

  Posted on March 23, 2017

   

  Hi Friends!  

  I hope that Spring has sprung in some fashion wherever you are.  I wanted to let you all know that I am looking at recording all the music for My Charming Murderer this coming Winter.  Likely in December/January.  The home where I will be recording is best used for this project during the winter months, and the logisitcal feat of bringing everyone together who is needed for the album will work out best during collective down time, which is always around the holidays.  So that is the PLAN.  I am very excited about everything and once everything is "in the can" as they say, I hope that the post-production time line will be relatively short, 4-6 months.  So I imagine the release of my album which you all so generously have helped support, will be in Fall of 2018.  Perhaps that seems far off to some of you, but to me it actually seems like it's right around the corner!  Cheers to all of you and THANK YOU again for your support.  You guys are awesome.  

  Update 4: Update: The excellent reason why my album isn't recorded yet....

  Posted on December 20, 2017

   

  Dear Friends, 

  As the holiday season is upon us and the New Year approaches I wanted to take this moment to update you all on My Charming Murderer.  I plan to record next December, one year from now, and then I hope that the record will release by Aug 30, 2019.  The reason for the delay is a great one- This past May I became a mom.  I believe most of you already know this already anyhow, but I figured I'd make it official by updating you all here.  :) 

  Frida is just over 7 months old now and is just the best baby.  She is curious, happy-go-lucky and loves banging on her red toy piano.  As I've needed some time to settle into being a mom, I figured the album could sit on the back burner for a little bit, while we both got our bearings.  But never fear!  I can't wait to record the album next December.  

  I thank you all again for your support and I wish you all a joyous holiday season and a happy, healthy and productive 2018. 

  Love, Frida and Lisa 

  

• Thank you to the following for contributing to 3Arts with the recommendation that we support this project.

  • Jeffrey Goldwasser

  • Julie and Jeff Shaw

  • Judy Sickle

  • Margaret Barrett

  • William White

  • Lawrence Dunn

  • Liz Gately

  • Julia Bentley

  • Mark Babbitt

  • maya Beiser

  • John Graham

  • Stuart Gerber

  • helen jameson

  • Catherine Bent

  • Nina Schmidt

  • Brian Rosen

  • Sherri Wilson

  • Karin Steinbrueck

  • Michelle McQuade Dewhirst

  • Nadia Sirota

  • Ned McGowan

  • Timothy Rolland

  • Patricia Barber

  • Christopher Cerrone

  • Paul Dellevigne

  • Bird Cupps

  • Derek Cole

  • Joe Francavilla

  • Javier Orman

  • Elyssa Dole

  • Kate Bensen

  • Brian Harris

  • Harry Gottlieb

  • Eli Kaplan

  • Daniel Schlosberg

  • Robert Honstein

  • Carol and Don Meares

  • Adam Marks

  • peter mcdowell

  • Andrew Norman

  • Lee and Rona SCHWARZ

  • Derek Bermel

  • Jacob Cooper

  • SIOBHAN BURKE

  • Cassie Shankman

  • Richard Parry

  • Lorraine & Ken Kaplan

  • Martha Feldman

  • Annie Higgins

  • Christopher Hagen

  • David Ludwig

  • Nicholas Photinos

  • Marley Lewis

  • Jessica Levine

  • robert simonds

  • Mark Volker

  • Justus Schlichting

  • Judy and Bob Duvall

  • Judith Monson

  • Jonathan Smith

  • Lori Kaufman

  • Tamar Muskal

  • Elizabeth Liebman

  • Rajeev Kahn

  • Jon Satrom

  • Carlos Rafael Rivera

  • Michael Avitabile

  • Tim Brown

  • Anne Orchier

  • Dan Trueman

  • Sarah Snider

  • Nancy Fishman

  • Elly Fishman

  • Martha Councell-Vargas

  • Daniel Visconti

  • Elke Overton

  • Eric Miranda

  • Barbara Anderson

  • Martin Garcia

  • Mary Joyce

3AP Presenting Partner:

 Additional support provided by: