About Melodic Vision
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
Compelling photographs are projected on a large elevated screen, while evocative, often familiar, sounds flow from the instruments of the musicians playing below. Their melodies range from rich, melancholy pieces to lively, toe-tapping dance songs, sometimes classical or Latin, other times folk, jazz, or pop. The image above includes scenic panoramas, animated people, vintage engravings, and intimate moments.
 
What brings this unique combination of striking visual images and beautiful music together? It’s Melodic Vision, a creative team that delights in taking audience members on multimedia journeys through different places, times, and cultures.
 
Melodic Vision’s Artistic Director is Susan Wilson, a highly respected photographer, writer, educator, and lecturer. Music Director Rebecca Strauss is a violist and violinist known as a fine performer, professional businesswoman, and beloved educator in the Boston arts scene. The music group performing with them will vary with the program, but always features the finest talents in Greater Boston.
 
Melodic Vision grew out of Susan’s love for photography and history, Rebecca’s love of music and multiculturalism, and their mutual interest in enlightening and educating through art and storytelling. Their debut project together—Soul Survivor, first produced in 2002 at Lesley University in Cambridge, Massachusetts—began as a healing journey and grew into a program that touched others deeply at every performance. Discovering that the work of creating a show and the audience response were equally rewarding, they agreed to pursue other topics and projects as “Melodic Vision.”
 
Their shared love of travel, nature, and diverse styles of music have led them to Mexico, South Africa, Europe, and back home to Boston, exploring subjects ranging from powerful and difficult contemporary social issues to explorations of peoples and places. Their highly acclaimed works include Noche de Muertos: Welcoming Our Ancestors Home, a collaboration with award-winning Latin band Sol y Canto, and Sacred Grounds, Sacred Sounds: A Journey through the History, Mystery and Music of Père Lachaise Cemetery in Paris, and Classic Black, a show highlighting the music and stories of select black classical composers.
 
 In 2008, Melodic Vision also began producing intimate and informative workshops, seminars, and talks by other artists and colleagues like political activist/performer Holly Near and Doreen Banaszak, author of the acclaimed Excuse Me, Your Life is Now!.
 
When you bring Melodic Vision to your site—presenting existing shows, or programs created specifically for your institution—you increase visibility, raise needed funds, invite media coverage, and share an important message. Weaving music, photography, and history into a seamless artistic event, Melodic Vision creates enlightening, heartfelt journeys that are both educationally engaging and spiritually transforming.
    
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
Working with Melodic Vision—Sample Scenarios:
 
         • A college French Department and Art Department join forces to sponsor a performance of Sacred Grounds, Sacred Sounds at their school. Melodic Vision is also hired to do classroom workshops—about telling stories through imagery and music— prior to the evening performance.
 
    • During Black History month, a high school’s music and social studies departments present a performance of Classic Black. Classroom teachers do follow- up over the next few school days, discussing and listening to the black roots of, and influences on, other genres of American music.
 
    • As part of a new installation, a museum hires Melodic Vision to research, assemble, shoot, and edit a series of historic and contemporary images for a DVD slide show to be played on a 56-inch flat screen. Since the narrative is in the form of caption slides and the background is beautifully performed, rights-released music, the program creates an auditory ambience rather than distraction for guests looking at other nearby displays.
 
•A corporation commissions Melodic Vision to create a piece that educates the public about their philanthropic efforts. The program is performed live and videotaped at a gala kickoff fundraising event, then regularly rebroadcast on public television and the internet.
 
          • A medical clinic needs a marketing tool to show the positive impact of therapies they offer. They commission Melodic Vision to create a program on personal healing stories to present at workshops.
 
          • A town needs to keep a developer from building a mall next to a beloved park and river. Melodic Vision is hired to create a show demonstrating the beauty and environmental necessity of local open spaces. The performance is played in the park and broadcast on TV.
 
• As part of their 150th anniversary celebrations, an historic site hires Melodic Vision to create a program about its rich cultural past. Performances are a highlight of a series of open houses during its anniversary year.
 
 
Copyright © 2008 Melodic Vision
All photos copyright © Susan Wilson
“Melodic Vision has a strong sense of the relationship between art, ideas, social change and the power of telling the story of every day life. It was a pleasure to work with an organization that values the long-term ripple effect of artists and thinkers gathering.  The relationship between artists and presenter is essential. Melodic Vision is both, and therefore has sensitivity for the whole of the event.”
 
—Holly Near,
   singer & activist