M3 Festival Celebrates Networks of Support and Empowerment for Artists of Marginalized Genders

Attending the Mutual Mentorship for Musicians (M3) festival felt akin to sitting down at a warm dinner party. Friends greeted each other with bear hugs; strangers met each other with enthusiasm. The three-day event was held at Roulette in Brooklyn, from Sept. 21 to 23, and showcased the vast variety of artists who have participated in the M3 program, which seeks to empower composers of historically underrepresented genders from across the world, in intersection with race, sexuality, or ability, through mentorship and collaborative commissions. Over the course of the weekend, the room lit up with celebration and excitement that rushed among audiences and artists alike.

Vocalist, composer, and multi-instrumentalist Jen Shyu and vocalist and composer Sara Serpa founded M3 in 2020. The two artists have a history of working toward more inclusive and equitable spaces in the arts through initiatives like the We Have Voice collective, and M3 is their latest endeavor. Shyu and Serpa started M3 because they realized that artists of underrepresented genders needed more opportunities to support and learn from each other. “I didn’t have any women mentors, at all,” Serpa told WBGO in 2022, just before M3’s first in-person festival. “We started realizing: what did we miss and lack during our education, and what are we still missing? Even though now we are kind of established, mid-career musicians, what are we missing in our careers?”

It’s no secret that composers of underrepresented genders have historically received fewer opportunities for their music to be performed, and that these artists often don’t have the chance to serve as mentors, perpetuating the cycle. M3 seeks to close this gap. To choose participants, M3 looks at a pool of artists from an open call and from nominations by past members. The program lasts for 10 months, beginning with the fall equinox. The first cohort began during the summer solstice of 2020, and since then, they’ve hosted five groups of 12 artists each. Shyu and Serpa spin a wheel to randomly pair up the members, encouraging connection between artists of different backgrounds. Artists participate in online meetings with both the full cohort and their session partner, and each artist is offered a $3,000 commission, workshops, a performance, and the option to contribute to M3’s anthology of essays.

In post-performance interviews at this year’s festival, many artists expressed that they sought more opportunities to connect with other composers of historically underrepresented genders, just like Shyu and Serpa did. Many recalled how their Zoom calls offered them space to openly discuss identity, socio-political landscapes, and issues in the music industry across borders and backgrounds. And, as a whole, the festival showed how the program has broken down barriers and created space for people to explore music together. Not every set was perfect, but that didn’t matter much — each musician carried with them a spirit of joy, freedom, and togetherness, inviting the audience into the M3 ethos.

The 2023 festival featured 21 artists who participated in M3 over the past three years, accumulating nearly 12 hours of music and presenting vignettes of frenetic electronics, folk songs, and ecstatic jazz. On night one alone, we heard everything from Fay Victor and Rebekah Heller’s interlocking, whispering improvisations to Layale Chaker’s Arabic Maqam-meets-free-jazz ensemble pieces to Duo Maratin’s intimate, acoustic folk music.

The chamber performances often bridged genres and styles, highlighting how M3 builds community across eras and traditions. Duo Maratin’s set enmeshed Ria Modak’s ethereal guitar with Angela Varo’s flamenco-influenced violin, putting a new spin on centuries-old Urdu poetry. A collaboration between pianist and vocalist Goussy Célestin and drummer Frankie Patcher united lush Haitian folk-inspired and spiritual music with thick, hard-driving patterns. SONG and Saxreligious’ music seesawed between somber meditations composed by SONG and buoyant melodies written by Saxreligious. A highlight was violinist and composer Layale Chaker’s “Radio Afloat” suite; the trio of Chaker, pianist Philip Golub, and drummer Adriano Vincentino meditated on land, power, and politics with a tumultuous blend of Arabic maqam melodies and bursting freeform improvisations, mixing the twinkling, dreamy melodies with ardent bursts.

Many new groups took the stage throughout the festival; some had just met in person for the first time. Yet the ensembles felt surprisingly connected, each artist in tune with the next. Barbara Togander‘s  turntable performance with synth player Cecilia Lopez — their first set together as a duo, though they’ve known each other for a while — showed an effortless connection between the two artists as eerie scratches and sharp, staticky gusts swirled beneath broken-down words, creating a frenzy.

On night two, vocalist The Sabbath (Gabi Motuba) and bassist Liany Mateo performed for the first time after having just met. Their music cloaked the room in a sense of intimate stillness, gently interweaving pensive melodies and shimmering throughout the room with each sigh. Ruth Naomi Floyd and Vino Wu finally got to meet in person after many Zoom calls between the United States and China. Their ardent jazz ensemble set, with pianist Aaron Graves, reed player Bill Murray, and drummer Ronnie Burrage, exemplified their mutual interest in capturing turmoil, joy, and freedom at once. The performance drew on new compositions as well as blues and gospel songs; most memorable was their showstopping arrangement of “Trouble So Hard,” a captivating and defiant arrangement that highlighted Floyd’s deft vocal skills.

Some of the new ensembles created through M3 have continued to collaborate — a testament to the organization’s ability to create wide-ranging networks. The duo bright bright (guitarist Jessica Ackerley and vocalist/synth player Joan Sue) formed during the 2021 winter solstice M3 session. On night three, their music mixed swirling layers of Turkish vocals about the difficulties of immigration and electric guitar pulses that swarmed beneath and among the words. They jolted on and off together, lurching forward like a boat sailing on the open ocean and weathering the storms and silences.

The festival also offered regular collaborators the chance to try something new. Trumpeter Milena Casado and multi-instrumentalist Morgan Guerin have performed together in a variety of ensembles, but their moody duo performance swam between reverb-soaked trumpet loops and otherworldly Moog beeps and swishes. Though their instruments contrasted — Casado’s trumpet soared while Guerin’s synths jostled — they moved together like a wave gently flowing onto the shore.

Elsewhere, the festival allowed for special reunions. Pianist Francesca Tanksley and drummer Newman Taylor Baker, who hadn’t played together in 13 years, performed a selection of Tanksley’s vibrant compositions. Their groovy songs felt electric, derived from years of experience making music together despite the years that have passed since they’d sat down for a show. Particularly arresting was “Dance in the Question,” a spitfire song made of a snappy, repeating melody and laid-back rhythms that exemplified how collaboration lives beyond the moment and into the future.

At the end of the festival, the musicians invited us to party and the audience cheered and clapped. But it wasn’t just the final moments that felt like a party; this was a three-day chamber music extravaganza, to be sure, but it was also a celebration of the act of collaborating. M3 reminds us how music can unite and empower — through friendship, mentorship, and support, and the sound that’s born from it.

 

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