NEFA's Creative City Announces PATCHTAX AND MANNA SINGERS GALA CONCERT

The New England Foundation for the Arts Creative City program announces Patchtax and The Manna Singers, a public gala concert of popular songs, which will take place May 8, 2018 at 7pm at Cathedral of the Church of Saint Paul, located at 138 Tremont Street in Downtown Boston. The concert is free and open to the public.

A weekly rehearsal at Cathedral of St. Paul with Manna Singers, led by Patchtax's Eve Boltax.

In 2016, Eve Boltax of the chamber music duo Patchtax met Libby Gatti, a chaplain in the MANNA community (Many Angels Needed Now and Always) at the Cathedral Church of St. Paul in Boston. Through many conversations, they decided to offer more music in the MANNA community-- a group of homeless and recently homed adults. Over the past eight months, through their Creative City grant, Boltax and Mary Joy Patchett have collaborated with Gatti and Reverend Cristina Rathbone to teach the group about the power of choral singing.

"Singing is such a powerful therapeutic modality," Boltax shares, "and the MANNA community is such a vital and loving community. We create a space to uplift -both through the individual and collective voices of the community. Over time, it's been rewarding to build relationships with this special community. The church and the singers have met us with such commitment to both doing the work and the joy for singing. MANNA not only seeks to welcome people across differences of class, wealth, race, and mental ability, but also to empower all people to claim their place as essential members of the community." "Song brings us together and raises us up," shares The Rev. Cristina Rathbone, Canon Missioner at The Cathedral Church of St. Paul. "Under the leadership of Eve and MJ, The MANNA Singers b brings joy to our community every Tuesday afternoon -- no matter what. As one of our MANNA Singers, Al, says: 'our voices are different, but we share the same spirit, nothing on this earth can silence our voices. We are the MANNA Singers. Hallelujah! Hallelujah! Hallelujah!'"

Patchtax is dedicated to redefining the parameters of new music. The duo, comprised of saxophonist Mary Joy Patchett and violist Eve Boltax, was founded in 2013. At its core, patchtax is a chamber music ensemble with a non-traditional instrumentation exploring unconventional performance practices. Patchtax's repertoire includes a broad range of original arrangements of early to modern classical pieces to contemporary works including new commissions. Working within a discipline that has deeply embedded traditions, patchtax creates unique worlds on stage, addressing the need within the classical music community to seek new ways of relating to 21st century audiences. https://patchtax.com/

MANNA (Many Angels Needed Now and Always) is a ministry of and with the homeless community in downtown Boston. Through MANNA, the ministry seeks to welcome folks across differences of class, wealth, culture, race and mental ability, and also to empower all people to claim their place as essential members of the community-as everyone has gifts to give and to receive. According to Manna, "we need each other and we gather each week to serve, to pray, and to create together."http://www.stpaulboston.org/index.php/community/manna

Creative City was launched in 2015 by New England Foundation for the Arts with hopes to support individual artists to enliven neighborhoods and engage communities. The grant program has awarded $445,000 to 46 projects in five rounds of applications. In addition, Creative City has also awarded $27,000 to 27 community partners ($1,000/each) to support/collaborate with the individual artist project (more partner applications are in process now). The deadline for the fifth invitation for individual artist applications was September 25, 2017. For grant eligibility and criteria, visit https://www.nefa.org/creative-city-grant.