An Evening With Joy Askew, Lauren Balthrop, & Oropendela

Joy Askew has enjoyed an embellished career playing alongside music icons such as Peter Gabriel, Laurie
Anderson, Joe Jackson, Rodney Crowell, Jack Bruce and Quincy Jones. She has performed with her own band on stages from NYC’s CBGBs to festivals in UK, USA, Japan and Europe and opened for David Bowie and David Byrne among others.

Now as a re-invented musical poet she has been a dedicated songwriter since the late nineties and her ninth album as an artist, Everything Is Different, was released in May 2022.

She also sings in a choir that was featured on a Sufjan Stevens EP,collaborated with a British brass band and
released a downtempo jazz electronica album along the way.

A folk-pop singer/songwriter in the lineage of Carly Simon, Joni Mitchell, and Carole King, Lauren Balthrop makes captivating, candid music propelled by her crystalline voice. Her “bell-clear vocals” and sophisticated, folk-leaning pop songwriting have earned her praise from major music publications across the country, including Stereogum and Audio Femme. She’s a valued performer who has collaborated with a wide range of acts, from singing on notable Bob Weir, Kevin Morby, Elizabeth and the Catapult, and Benjamin Booker records to touring and performing with Kevin Morby, Lucius, Sara Bareilles, Bob Weir, Benjamin Booker, and Michaela Anne.

Known for developing different characters and experimenting with various genres over the course of her career, Balthrop’s songs have been featured in HBO series Bored to Death, EPIX series Get Shorty, coming-of-age drama film The Myth of the American Sleepover (produced by Moonlight’s Adele Romanski), and a Match.com commercial which won the Gold Lion award for Best Use of Music at the 2011 Cannes Advertising Festival.

Lauren’s second full-length solo album Things Will Be Different – released August 12, 2022 on Olivia Records – showcases her characteristic clarity and crisp, luminous vocals while revealing a fresh, more intimate sound.

Joanna Schubert, the Brooklyn-based singer/keyboardist/composer/arranger behind Oropendola, creates kaleidoscopic chamber pop filled to the brim with energy and emotion. Her debut full-length album, Waiting for the Sky to Speak (recorded with Zubin Hensler) will be released on March 17th, 2023 with Spirit House Records and Wilbur & Moore Records. It is an imaginative and colorful chimera of a collection peppered with the raw theatricality of Kate Bush and FKA Twigs; the off-kilter humor of Miranda July; the surrealism of Alice in Wonderland; and the melodic core of Joanna’s childhood soundtrack (90s pop, jazz standards, and the Beatles).

The Oropendola live crü is a rotating cast of of 1-7 musicians, including synths, clarinet, flute, and 3 part harmonies. Joanna has also been a touring member of Half Waif and Barrie, sung with Grammy nominated Gnawa musician Samir Langus, and currently plays in Brooklyn bands Nicomo and beccs. When she isn’t making music, Joanna is helping other humans make music. She teaches lessons in piano and songwriting, has led contemporary vocal groups, and writes and music directs eccentric musicals with kids. She lives in a 5th floor walk-up with her almost-8 year old cat Moose, and frolics in Greenwood Cemetery every chance she gets.