Innovative Giving Enhancement (IGE) today announces the artist collective for the fifth annual Music and Art Immersion program happening in Lisbon, Portugal October 4-13, 2019. Participants experience ten days and nine nights of concerts, jams and the many international musical collaborations at the heart of the Immersive experience.
Participants move throughout Lisbon’s diverse urban canvas as they experience a broad range of musical performances held across a palette of sublime, curious venues. With its storied history; mind blowing art, architecture and music; magnificent venues and sublime cuisine, blazing hot Lisbon epitomizes the perfect Immersion locale.
The 2019 Lisbon Music and Art Immersion is shaping up as IGE’s ultimate immersive experience fielding the most extensive lineup to date. One no longer need imagine multiple concerts and jams shifting from club to cathedral, palace to museum, quaint theater to scientific society, or in the freshly refurbished Convento do Salvador, IGE’s exquisite headquarters performance space in medieval Alfama, the heart of Lisbon’s ancient pedestrian core. They’re now the daily and nightly backdrop for the cross-cultural exchange at the heart of each uniquely crafted IGE Immersion.
The musician lineup of the 2019 Lisbon Music and Art Immersion includes:
Anders Beck & Paul Hoffman (Greensky Bluegrass)
Holly Bowling (Ghost Light, soloist)
Ross James & Scott Law (Terrapin Family Band, Phil and Friends and Cosmic Twang)
Nicki Bluhm
Mihali Savoulidis (Twiddle)
Elliott Peck & Grahame Lesh (Midnight North and Terrapin Family Band)
Natalie Cressman and James Casey (Trey Anastasio Band)
Ian Faquini
Sam Grisman
Matt Butler
For the first time, IGE welcomes an entire band to the lineup with Fruition; including Jay Cobb Anderson, Mimi Naja, Kellen Asebroek, Jeff Leonard and Tyler Thompson. These Musical Ambassadors join musical forces with a broad range of multi-genre European All-Stars for intentionally immersive collaborations and momentous improvisational performances.
IGE Founder Michael Becker notes the experience is truly like none other for participants and musicians alike: “It is one thing to see the artists in their bands, and quite another to experience them personally as they discover inspiration. IGE removes the artists from their bands and environments so that they explore, create and discover new musical contexts.” Expanding on the role of participants as creators not just as viewers he offers “each Immersion participant is an integral part of the community and responsible for the direction of the experience.”
With the fifth incarnation of the international community-building collective happening in October 2019, past Immersion participants’ express the transcendent nature of the experience. Keith Moseley of String Cheese Incident notes: “For me, the IGE immersion is truly unique. It’s not a gig, it’s not a vacation, it’s an opportunity to be who we are, among friends. Lovers of culture, of language, of food, of lifestyle. It’s about special musical collaborations in sublime settings. It’s about sharing laughter and wonder and song in enchanting European locations. It’s about tuning in to the local vibe and rhythms and soaking them up. It’s less about performing music, and more about playing it out of joy, inspiration and gratitude fueled by the immersive experience."
Paul Hoffman of Greensky Bluegrass believes: “An IGE immersion is like no musical excursion you will participate in. It’s incomparable to any vacation - becoming a community in a foreign land to appreciate culture, art and music is the way to get to know a city like you never can sightseeing alone. On Immersions you are simultaneously a traveller and at home with a group of common minded people.”
True cultural immersion occurs when IGE’s European partners, European All Stars in residence, and local friends, mesh with Immersion participants to bring direct benefit to Barcelona’s non-profits, artist communities and people. Participants Lili and Ron Zweibaum offer IGE is “an absolutely fabulous experience. A small group of like minded folks and the music and spirit that brings them together, all packaged together with some travel experience in Barcelona. We have been around the block a few times and I can say that in almost 50 years of listening to this music and being a part of this community, this was our finest experience ever.”
Complete information on immersion packages, rates, availability, and reservations are available at www.innogiven.org
