The LIGHT OF DAY Award recognizes artists pursuing artistic projects at the national level who demonstrate a trajectory of artistic growth, paired with the work ethic to succeed. The new grant offers each Awardee a needed boost, clearing the way for their artistic project or production to move forward. When Boise-area artists succeed at the national level, they reach back and open doors for their local artistic peers and other emerging artists. With this competitive grant, the Foundation is investing in the export of the immense local talent present in our region. Please join the Alexa Rose Foundation in applauding the 2024 LIGHT OF DAY Awardees, Jodeen Revere, Jessica Harned, Elijah Jensen-Lindsey, Daniel Ojeda, Mungo Ligoya and McKenna Esteb.
ELIJAH
JENSEN-
LINDSEY
Singer/ Songwriter
JESSICA
HARNED
Producer/Violinist
'Classical Queens: Our Time'
Musical Stage Production
In the musical stage production CLASSICAL QUEENS: Our Time, classical music, rap, poetry, and dance converge in an exciting theatrical experience that defies traditional orchestral norms. The show's storyline explores the untold stories of two groundbreaking Black women composers Florence Price and Margaret Bonds and their unlikely friendship during Chicago's Black Renaissance in the late 1920's and early 1930's.
Set against an inventive and original orchestral commission that blends electronic, trap, and orchestral music with an added dynamic layer of movement, CLASSICAL QUEENS delivers a new way to experience theatre, dance, classical and popular music—and takes the audience on an emotional journey into music history as never seen before onstage. Composer Cassidy Siobhan Robinson, Emcee: Trey Carlisle, Track Creator: Jün Campion, Co-Director/ Choreographers: Brett Perry and Mungo Ligoya, Lighting Designer Rachael Harned with Co-Concept Creator Sarah Decker. KEY DATE: CLASSICAL QUEENS premieres January 11, 2025 at the Morrison Center for Performing Arts in Boise, then will be showcased with an eye toward touring it nationally.
'Eavesdropping On A Daydream'
Official Album Release
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Elijah Jensen-Lindsey's EAVESDROPPING ON A DAYDREAM was recorded with Jeremy Jensen (at The Slopes, Boise), and masterfully mixed by venerable producer Tucker Martine (engineer and producer for Modest Mouse, Sufjan Stevens, Jim James, R.E.M., Neko Case). The yield? A deep bright sheen that reflects the joy Elijah Jensen-Lindsey felt while collaborating with close friends and family. It is an album imbued with warmth and life-affirming vibrancy. Although themes of death and loss are explored throughout EAVESDROPPING ON A DAYDREAM ultimately its message is one of deep compassion and healing; an empathetic reckoning with the heavy, wild mystery of life, and a bold pronouncement of how fortunate we are to be here, in it together. With Child has served as Jensen-Lindsey’s vehicle to explore the terrains of bedroom folk, experimental pop, and sound collage via albums with lilting melodies, wide-eyed poetic musings and esoteric recording methods. KEY DATE: In concert June 15th with Of Montreal and Tele Novella 8pm Treefort Music Hall, Boise
Photo by Rick Kosarich
Photo by Lila Streicher
MUNGO
LIGOYA
Singer/ Songwriter
Pacific Northwest Tour
Afrobeats, R&B and Soul
Growing up listening to the likes of Oliver Mtukudzi, Nina Simone, Bob Marley and Hugh Masekela, Mungo taps into a unique sound and in the words of a fan, a “Heart-Chakra-opening” positive vibe that is universally enjoyed by audiences. Mungo’s music embraces R&B, afrobeat and a soulful vulnerability, turning upside down his own truths to uncover feelings we all share as people. And to Mungo, the South African dance music genre Amapiano (synths, wide basslines and soulful piano) sounds like home. The single and music video WISH YOU'D SEE—a project Mungo shot with Director Dir Ubwino and dancer friends in Malawi—created intercontinental buzz when it racked up 10,000 views on YouTube in its first week after being released. Mungo brings uncommon showmanship and attention to detail to his craft and embodies art in all its forms—from designing and sewing the clothes he performs in onstage (and oftentimes those of his band) to creating choreography to the music he writes and produces. A versatile and evolving artist, Mungo is eager to get on the road, bringing his soulful, stylishly costumed and choreographed performances to new audiences throughout the Pacific Northwest and beyond.
Photo by Robert Allen
McKENNA
ESTEB
Singer/ Songwriter
'Home Safe' Album
Pacific Northwest & West Coast Tour
McKenna Esteb and her band are a rising musical force offering a diverse blend ranging from ballads to feminist anthems to indie rock to soulful love songs. The evolving full band delves into indie pop/rock, while Esteb, a skilled
songwriter and storyteller, crafts a space for vulnerability and emotional resonance. Over the past year her Spotify listeners have surged from 300 to 10,000 monthly listeners, a testament to the power of collaborative efforts within her local community, partnerships with artists, as well as excellent tour and booking advice and mentorship from Boise-based industry professionals. With a boost from the Light of Day award, Esteb is touring her new HOME SAFE album in Spring and Fall 2024 with her band, with hopes of captivating audiences and taking them along on her rich and varied musical journey. "I want people to recognize it’s an attainable goal to become a successful artist from Boise," says Esteb. "The key is nurturing roots, evolving with the city, and giving back to the community." KEY DATE: May 9th HOME SAFE Album Release Show 7pm at Treefort Music Hall in Boise.
Photo by Conner Schumacher
JODEEN
REVERE
Writer/Solo Performer
'The Persistent Guest'
Fringe Festivals Show Debut
Jodeen Revere's THE PERSISTENT GUEST: A Sex, Chemo Drugs, and Rock and Roll Saga is a dark comedy and true story about a woman's trifecta of breast cancer diagnosis. "This is no sad bastard cancer story," says Revere. The show is a raw and often funny story about a woman who not only faces her mortality multiple times, but looks at the toll of a lifetime being a heedless giver with zero boundaries. The show is also an immersion into Revere's particular psychedelic experience of chemo treatment. Revere and Boise Contemporary Theater's artistic director Benjamin Burdick developed a fully-staged production which premiered at Boise Contemporary Theater in October of 2022 for a very successful three week run. The show went on to be performed at United Solo Fest in New York City in October of 2023. Now Revere
seeks to build on its success and share THE PERSISTENT GUEST at Fringe Festivals throughout North America in its most elemental form and original concept: the actor, her stool and no net.
Photo by Lila Streicher
DANIEL
OJEDA
Choreographer/Dancer
‘Persona’ Choreography
New York City Debut
When onstage, a dancer adopts a performance persona – a fierce, athletic, and seemingly invincible embodiment – but like a battery, or a doomed star, while their time alive is powerful, it is brief, and begs the question: What happens to these personas if the curtain never falls? Choreographer/dancer Daniel Ojeda has been invited to stage his work PERSONA with AVIDance's multi-piece repertory show in New York at Theater of St. Jean to live musical accompaniment, then on to Dallas and Denver as well. Ojeda's aim with his choreography is to build worlds and to find new and challenging ways to tell stories within the world of dance. Originally from Queens, NY, for more than a decade Daniel Ojeda has been an active creator in Boise in the roles of dancer, choreographer, actor, curator, videographer, musician, and producer. Beyond dancing and choreographing with Ballet Idaho, Ojeda has won the hearts of our region's most dynamic organizations including LED, Project Flux, The Idaho Film Society, The Morrison Center, and Treefort Music Fest. Collaboration is always at the center of Ojeda's work, and now he seeks to bring with him the talented Idaho artists he has met and grown to respect to the national stage. As he strikes out on his own to expand his artistic range, Ojeda's adopted home state is of the belief there's nothing he cannot do.
KEY DATE: CARMEN and WALKING MAD, Ojeda's final performances with Ballet Idaho,
May 3-5th Morrison Center for Performing Arts.
Photo by Adam Wright
Media Kit
QUOTES
Elijah Jensen-Lindsey
"Elijah Jensen-Lindsay is a beautiful and inspiring artist, a generous collaborator and the quintessential creator. Whatever he creates is sure to be wholly original and a gift to the masses. He is ripe for SO much, and his time is now."
Lauren Edson, Artistic Director LED
"Elijah Jensen-Lindsay is an extraordinary artist and person who is intent on living a considered life. I am consistently surprised by his curiosity and versatility. He is a remarkable musician and visual artist who seeks unusual connections between forms, genres and people. I have listened to the recording "Eavesdropping on a Daydream." and in this album Jensen-Lindsay has succeeded in making beautiful music, music that deserves to be heard."
William Lewis, Painter
Jessica Harned
"Jessica Harned has a strong vision for her work and the ability, passion and drive to see it through. I’ve worked with many talented artists from around the world throughout my 20-year career, and as a musician and producer, Jessica is one of the most exciting talents I have ever met. She has the potential to tour the production we will see at the Morrison Center, and I have no doubt will be touring more work in the future, all made in Boise. As the venue for "Classical Queens," we’ve been in many conversations and I am so impressed with Jessica's hard work, dedication and openness to a new process. Jessica Harned has the vision and drive we look for when working with an artist."
Laura Kendall, Morrison Center for Performing Arts Executive Director
McKenna Esteb
Mungo
Ligoya
Jodeen Revere
Daniel Ojeda
"Jessica Harned has a strong vision for her work and the ability, passion and drive to see it through. I’ve worked with many talented artists from around the world throughout my 20-year career, and as a musician and producer, Jessica is one of the most exciting talents I have ever met. She has the potential to tour the production we will see at the Morrison Center, and I have no doubt will be touring more work in the future, all made in Boise. As the venue for "Classical Queens," we’ve been in many conversations and I am so impressed with Jessica's hard work, dedication and openness to a new process. Jessica Harned has the vision and drive we look for when working with an artist." Laura Kendall, Morrison Center for Performing Arts Executive Director
QUOTES
Elijah Jensen-Lindsey
"Elijah Jensen-Lindsey is a beautiful and inspiring artist, a generous collaborator and the quintessential creator. Whatever he creates is sure to be wholly original and a gift to the masses. He is ripe for SO much, and his time is now."
Lauren Edson, Artistic Director LED
"Elijah Jensen-Lindsey is an extraordinary artist and person who is intent on living a considered life. I am consistently surprised by his curiosity and versatility. He is a remarkable musician and visual artist who seeks unusual connections between forms, genres and people. I have listened to the recording "Eavesdropping on a Daydream." and in this album Jensen-Lindsey has succeeded in making beautiful music, music that deserves to be heard."
William Lewis, Painter
Jessica Harned
"Jessica Harned has a strong vision for her work and the ability, passion and drive to see it through. I’ve worked with many talented artists from around the world throughout my 20-year career, and as a musician and producer, Jessica is one of the most exciting talents I have ever met. She has the potential to tour the production we will see at the Morrison Center, and I have no doubt will be touring more work in the future, all made in Boise. As the venue for "Classical Queens," we’ve been in many conversations and I am so impressed with Jessica's hard work, dedication and openness to a new process. Jessica Harned has the vision and drive we look for when working with an artist."
Laura Kendall, Morrison Center for Performing Arts Executive Director
Mungo
Ligoya
Daniel Ojeda
"I’ve seen Jessica Harned navigate the world of the orchestra where she was the only black musician. Jessica Harned is uniquely qualified to bring the story of Florence Price and Margaret Bonds to life with CLASSICAL QUEENS: Our Time....She has rightfully attracted the attention of some wonderful people who have signed on, and she deserves it all."
Grant Olsen, Artist, Musician, Alexa Rose Fellow 2024
"Daniel Ojeda's work is world class. When I watched PERSONA I was blown away. New York City opens doors for artists, and I knew we had a responsibility to bring this work to a live audience. Audiences will walk away from this experience wanting to see more of Ojeda."
Emily Speed, Artistic Director, AVIDance
"Daniel Ojeda's work for Pegasus Contemporary Ballet beautifully highlighted the individuality of each dancer and brought the soul of Dev Wulf's music to life. It was a true pleasure working with him in the studio and I am grateful to call him a friend. I send my Congratulations to Daniel on this fantastic award."
Diana Crowder, Pegasus Contemporary Ballet, Dallas
"Mungo is a multifaceted artist with tremendous talent as an entertainer, delivering engaging dance and music for a very diverse audience. His love for people is evident in his work. The relatable and inclusive way Mungo and his band perform is definitely worth sharing across the land! I support Mungo wholeheartedly"
Dayo Ayodele, Afrosonics
"Working with Mungo is like a ray of sunshine - bright, invigorating, and important. Each song has a positivity and complexity that keeps one on their toes and if you are at a show, dancing! He lets the sunshine flow through him."
Brenda Francis, Recording Engineer, Idaho Sound
Jodeen Revere
"The Persistent Guest allows us to sit with a raw, hilarious, heartbreaking story and walk out - transformed."
Denise Simone Actor, teacher, director
McKenna Esteb
"I had the pleasure of seeing The Persistent Guest at The United Solo Theater Festival in NYC. Jodeen Revere is a powerhouse storyteller. She masterfully weaves comedy into a deeply personal and dark experience." Adam Enright, Actor (Hedwig and the Angry Inch and Good Bitch Goes Down at Boise Contemporary Theater)
"Told with warmth and wicked humor" American Theatre
"Thought-provoking story of a very human experience."
Broadway World
"McKenna Esteb is a talented singer and songwriter who follows in the tradition of Joni Mitchell, moving away from observational song writing and instead, turning herself inside out. Her voice is powerful and vulnerable at the same time. Esteb brings the rare artistic combination of talent and business savvy. She works hard and forges her own path."
Jodi Eichelberger, Surel's Place
"I have met few artists who pair work ethic and talent to succeed as McKenna Esteb does. Pursuing a career in the arts requires a level of resilience that McKenna embodies perfectly. They will utilize any resource around them to bring their project and dream to fruition and it is something I and the art community admire. McKenna creates with a passion that derives from their heart in search of connecting with audiences and themselves on a deeper level. When attending one of their shows, it is impossible to not be compelled by their presence and be warmed by the lyrics of their songs." Ryan Marsh, Backyard Artists
"Jessica Harned has a strong vision for her work and the ability, passion and drive to see it through. I’ve worked with many talented artists from around the world throughout my 20-year career, and as a musician and producer, Jessica is one of the most exciting talents I have ever met. She has the potential to tour the production we will see at the Morrison Center, and I have no doubt will be touring more work in the future, all made in Boise. As the venue for "Classical Queens," we’ve been in many conversations and I am so impressed with Jessica's hard work, dedication and openness to a new process. Jessica Harned has the vision and drive we look for when working with an artist." Laura Kendall, Morrison Center for Performing Arts Executive Director