MAMAs Announce Elimination of Registration Fees;

Registration Now Open

The Madison Area Music Association is kicked of its eigth season with an event to mark the opening of registration for the next awards show.  The Registration Kickoff Event took place on the Promenade Terrace at the Overture Center on October 15th from 5-9PM.  Artists  stopped by to renew their annual membership and  also dropped off recorded materials. These recorded materials will be uploaded to artists’ profiles for them, allowing them added simplicity when entering their materials into the desired award categories.

There are several key changes being made with the MAMAs this year. The most notable, and the one that should please artists the most, is the elimination of the $10-per-entry fee that artists paid to enter their music. The MAMAs charged this fee to keep the organization solvent during its start-up years and to cover the lack of corporate sponsorships due to the economic downturn over the past several years. Now the award categories will be sponsored by area businesses. This allows the MAMAs to replace the lost revenue with smaller, more affordable sponsorships.

The membership donation of $5 remains for the time being. This money is the chief means by which the MAMAs does its charitable giving (The MAMAs is a 501 (c)(3) exempt organization whose mission is to provide musical instruments for Madison-area youth and to further their music education. To date the MAMAs have given nearly $35,000 in funds and instruments). The $5 membership is a donation that goes to a separate bank account and is not mingled with other operating funds. The $5 membership also provides a disincentive for those who would attempt to manipulate the online voting system.

Other key changes include:

• Changing the “Urban/R&B” genre classification to “Hip-Hop”
• Changing the “Pop” genre classification to “Pop/R&B”
• Adding an “Interpretive Song of the Year” award for cover songs released during 2010
• Related to the “Interpretive Song” is the fact that all “Song of the Year” entries must be original works.
• Moving the DJ Performer of the Year and the Cover Band Performer of the Year awards to the People’s Choice Awards (write-ins).

The Registration Kickoff  also featured performers. Multi-MAMA winner Jessi Lynn, John Masino, last year’s Guitarist of the Year and Joe Bainbridge performed. There was also a special performance by Bonnie Greene’s Musik Makers,  a string section made up of youngsters. The MAMAs is a proud supporter of Music Makers.

The MAMAs Kick Off a New Year With Lots of Changes

MAMA, Inc. has announced that registration is open for the 7th Annual Madison Area Music Awards. You can link to the registration site at their homepage: www.themamas.org.

Musicians have until January 15th, 2010 to submit their eligible songs, videos and albums. Categories are also available for the Performer of the Year awards which do not require music to be released during 2009. In addition, a 2009 release is not required to enter the Vocalist and  Instrumentalist categories which were expanded last year to cover guitarist, bassist, keyboardist, drummers, etc. There are three categories for youth musicians: Youth Ensemble, Youth Vocalist and Youth Instrumentalist. An overall Artist of the Year category is again being sponsored by Smart Studios and the recipient receives a day of recording at Smart along with other winnings. Write-in categories are available for other music-related areas such as Live Music Venue, Local Music CD and Record Outlet, Local Music Radio Station and several more.

Fans can register to vote now as well, and may do so right up until the last day of voting in the final round.

Registration as a musician or fan requires a $5 membership donation that goes directly into the MAMAs’ charitable fund. The MAMAs is a non-profit organization that works to put musical instruments in kids’ hands and to fund youth music programs. The MAMAs website contains a complete history of charitable giving the organization has accomplished.

What’s New For 2010

The big news right now is that the MAMAs have moved to the Capitol Theater in the Overture Center, bringing the awards show back to Madison’s downtown. Through the Overture Center’s Community Partnership Program, a new application-driven outreach effort, the MAMAs qualified to use the space and equipment at little to no charge.  MAMA, Inc. sees this as a major step toward getting the city more involved with their efforts.

The other big news is that the MAMAs have adopted a new approach to sponsorships, seeking out sponsors at a manageable level to sponsor award categories. Broadjam, Inc., the company that also contributes their online voting systems for the MAMAs use, will be sponsoring the album categories.  Each eligible album will receive one sponsored entry, which means it won’t be subject to the $10 registration fee. For instance, an album could be entered into the rock genre and Broadjam’s sponsorship will be $10. If the artist wishes to submit the album into another genre, blues for instance, then the $10 registration fee once again applies. Likewise, Good-n-Loud Music, a long-time supporter of the MAMAs and youth music programs, will sponsor the instrumentalist and youth categories.  Local Sounds (www.localsounds.org) will be sponsoring the write-in categories, also known as the People’s Choice Awards, picking up the costs of the trophies.

Although the Song and Performance categories don’t have sponsors this year, MAMA, Inc. feels that next year each category may have a sponsor, drastically shifting the costs to sponsors and away from musicians. Though everyone in the MAMAs organization wishes the event were fully funded sooner, the revenue from registrations is what has allowed the MAMAs to stay in the black and survive, even through financially troubled times. Shrewd cost-cutting measures employed in 2009 also helped to see the organization through an economically questionable period.

There are only a few changes to the award categories. This year the MAMAs is bringing back the Hard Rock/Punk category, which was eliminated a few years ago due to lack of participation.  A new write-in category, Studio Sound Engineer was also added after confusion arose last year over a new Live Sound Engineer award (many people wrote in studio engineers).

What’s to Come

There are many more announcements forthcoming from the MAMAs and several future press releases are planned. For now, here is the calendar of significant dates:

October 5, 2009 – Open registration

January 15, 2010 – Registration ends

February 1, 2010 – First voting round begins

March 18, 2010 – First voting round ends

March 27, 2010 – Nominee Announcement Party at the Brink Lounge

March 28, 2010 – Final round of voting starts

April 28, 2010 – Final voting ends

May 8, 2010 – 7^th Annual Madison Area Music Awards – Overture Center, Capitol Theater 

Red Carpet at 6PM, Awards Show 7-10 PM

YOUNG VOICES OF MADISON – Friday, May 19, 2006 – Live from the Overture Center for the Arts

(2006   Audio for the Arts)

written by Judy Brady

Under the direction of Scott Foss, the Young Voices of Madison presented a multi-faceted and engaging choral concert, “A Quodlibet Mass,” at the Overture Center for the Arts last May. Foss, who conducted the choir and the Young Voices of Madison Orchestra, constructed a program that embraced the talents of seven regional high school choirs (Madison East, West, LaFollette, and Memorial; McFarland, Middleton and Mt. Horeb). In the liner notes, Foss explains his use of the term “quodlibet” as an overarching concept, one that reflects the reality of choosing material appropriate with the experience levels of the various choirs while pushing the creative envelope for everyone involved. Foss describes the YVM concert as a refreshing program with a “whimsical combination of familiar composers and compositional styles.” The listener, however, should not let “whimsical” suggest a lack of seriousness or professionalism—Young Voices of Madison represents a highly versatile and unswerving ensemble dedicated to creative excellence and musical vitality.

True to his word, Foss’s eclectic program weaves its way through a solid orchestral introduction from 20^th-century American composer Aaron Copland (although not “Copeland”…as the notes indicate) to Italian violin virtuoso Antonio Vivaldi to selections from the beloved Fauré Requiem, specifically the “Pie Jesu” and “Agnus Dei.” Foss chose soloists from the larger chorus to suit the particular needs of each selection, usually with satisfying results. Perhaps, however, on “Pie Jesu,” one soprano could have handled the task better than two; on this particular piece, the young women’s voices don’t mesh as well as on others (for example, the three female soloists on track 3, Vivaldi’s “Quoniam Tu Solus Sanctus,” seem especially suited to each other’s vocal timbres).

The most satisfying selections may feel the least familiar. Canadian composer/pianist Ruth Watson Henderson (b. 1932) has developed a distinct choral style clearly demonstrated in “Sing All Ye Joyful.” The full chorus displays the tantalizing combinations of modern harmonies that the human voice can exploit to the fullest, proving that simple alterations to conventional voice phrasing can create a mesmerizing textural ambience (especially noticeable three minutes into in the piece). Likewise, “Sanctus” by the prolific composer/publisher Craig Courtney is performed with full chorus and no orchestra, highlighting the complexity and overlap of melodic lines and the unfettered grace of sacred choral music.

Kudos to the Young Voices of Madison Orchestra and the recording engineers at Audio for the Arts for capturing and enhancing the nuance and atmosphere of the performances.