Laura Camien:

Welcome to the Town Hall Spark Sessions. I'm Laura Camien.

Susan Blackwell:

And I'm Susan Blackwell. We are creativity coaches at the Spark File, where we help people fear less and create more.

Laura Camien:

As creatives ourselves, we are obsessed with one of the most dynamic cultural centers in New York City: The Town Hall.

Susan Blackwell:

For over a century, The Town Hall has been a champion for artistry and advocacy, amplifying the voices of icons and emerging artists alike.

Laura Camien:

And now the Spark File and the Town Hall have joined forces to elevate and celebrate artists who are gracing the stage at Town Hall and using their creativity to fight for the powers of good.

Susan Blackwell:

So, without further ado, let's get into the Town Hall Spark Sessions.

Laura Camien:

Ooh, Susie Blackwell, I have the most sparkish spark for you today. Yes, I'm so excited because I had the joy of talking to Sean Mayes, and you and I have both heard about Sean Mayes in a variety of ways from Matt Goldman and Kevin Weinbold, and people in our lives, and I'm telling you he lives up to all of it. Sean is an incredibly inspired and inspiring creative. He works all around the world as a conductor, a music supervisor, orchestrator, composer, and he just moves seamlessly between the world of Broadway and theater and opera and classical and pops, and he's just so multifaceted.

Susan Blackwell:

He just travels on a magic cloud made out of music.

Laura Camien:

That’s exactly right. Something especially special about Sean Mayes is that he is the artistic director and founder of Pops of Color, the new resident pops orchestra at Town Hall.

Susan Blackwell:

Fabulous!

Laura Camien:

Pops of Color is composed entirely of musicians of color, focusing exclusively on the repertoire that artists of color have contributed to popular music. Suze, I have seen and heard them in action. I went to this Whitney Houston concert. It was. It was beyond.

Susan Blackwell:

Wow.

Laura Camien:

Incredible, and this whole conversation with Sean inspired me to light all the candles. Light them all up, Suze, and you are about to find out why. Let's get into it with Sean Mayes.

Intro Music

Laura Camien:

Welcome, Sean Mayes. We are so thankful that you're joining us for the Town Hall Spark Sessions.

Sean Mayes:

Thank you, Laura, great to be with you.

Laura Camien:

I'm so happy. I'm happy because you and I have never met, but I have to tell you, your reputation precedes you. I can't wait to have even more people learn about you and the work that you do. Tell me about the work that you are doing or have done at Town Hall.

Sean Mayes:

I really could not speak more highly of the Town Hall. It is truly one of the best institutions, I think, that exists. That has got one foot in history, one foot in the future. I mean the Town Hall has always been a building and a groundwork for human change and human dignity, and human rights can be explored and discussed and embraced openly.

Laura Camien:

Yeah.

Sean Mayes:

And you know, even as far as the work that we do, I mean, you know, Pops of Color, is this new? Is our new orchestra? I mean, you know Pops of Color is our new orchestra and I'm really glad that people after listening to me being like, hey, you know, as far as Pops orchestral music is concerned, we need an ensemble that represents the contributions that have been happening for, you know, for decades.

Laura Camien:

Yeah.

Sean Mayes:

Especially for artists of color. If we have an ensemble that represents that, we can also you know, we can do some real, some real cool damage, Right?

Laura Camien:

And is that like good trouble and cool damage?

Sean Mayes:

I mean it... it for me again too, the the deepest need to create the ensemble really came from. I used to be a full-time classroom teacher. Like, the idea of being able to approach art from the angle of education has been so powerful for me. You know our recent concert, obviously. We launched this past February at the Hall where we did this huge concert with, in conjunction with Whitney Houston's estate.

Laura Camien:

It was amazing.

Sean Mayes:

Thank you. Yeah, it, all these incredible, you know, like forces coming together, but really the most uplifting part of this concert, aside from having a 35-piece orchestra on this stage, all artists of Color in our community, a cohort of the best musicians that are literally on the planet playing Whitney Houston's music with her vocals, with new symphonic orchestrations, like feeling like you're in the room with her being with her family, all of these things, all of this magic happening. And then the best part of it truly was Pops of Color. We got the opportunity to create our, you know, our education component with it. So we visited four schools in the lead up to the concert, and three of those schools they came to perform in the concert and they did a surprise flash mob from the audience and performed an encore of The Greatest Love of All. And we, we talked to all these students about you know who, who is Whitney Houston, what do you know about her? And the best way of summarizing just how imminent and important this moment is is the school, the last school that we went to in the week was the Whitney Houston Academy out in New Jersey. We have grade six students. They would be born in , which is the year that Whitney Houston passed. Some of them knew who she was, some of them didn't, right?

Laura Camien:

Wow!

Sean Mayes:

So we now, to go back to your original question have found ourselves in this home, the town hall, nearly years, founded by the Suffragist movement. And if we're really getting into the weeds of it, right, like the suffragette movement which, again, largely you know, when you're looking at this as a white movement, this white woman movement that was trying to find a way of embracing all of the needs of the time and saying like, yeah, how do we create an institution and a place in New York where all voices are welcome? And so you have town hall in the thirties and forties, giving people like Paul Robeson, Marian Anderson, like all of these, incredible, you know, like the best, like all of the jazz, like Dizzy.

Laura Camien:

Dizzy Gillespie.

Sean Mayes:

Right, yes, Dizzy, Parker, like everyone you can think of right, has played on this stage before any other institution, any other building in New York would even seriously consider them. And then, once they sold out multiple shows in a row at town hall, Carnegie Hall comes knocking and is like hey, we heard you doing some cool stuff downtown. You want to come up and do that here? Launching international tours. So you feel the energy of being in this building and being like this is the thing we're doing and we're trying to just be another step in moving, moving art forward in the name of again like, as you said, creating good trouble, right?

Laura Camien:

100%. I…I just I think it's incredible what you're doing. There was not a dry eye in the house when those students came out and sang Greatest Love of All.

Sean Mayes:

Thanks, Laura.

Laura Camien:

Almost to where the people I was sitting with. We were like are we going to be able to stop crying before this is over? It was exquisite. There was so much energy in the whole place and such a celebration of Whitney and then to have the students be a part of it was just over the top. Thank you, just beautiful. I can't wait for all the other things that you're going to do at Town Hall and the fact that you have a home there Pops of Color has a home there is so exciting.

Sean Mayes:

Yeah, I, you know, I, I love to. I just…I love walking in the building, I love knowing the people who've walked there before and I love, I love trying to have the challenge of owning up to that and being like great, what are we going to do that is befitting and honoring of so many people who were so brave?

Laura Camien:

How are you navigating this moment in time as a creative and, knowing, like, how vital this moment is?

Sean Mayes:

We are people who are tasked with believing that the things we do and the work we create are important enough to I mean, you know, as simply as we can say it, to change humanity, to change minds, to change hearts, to move life forward. You know, we're always in dangerous times, and they're more dangerous now, and so you know again, like that, that's that for me, I think, is my guiding hope, is where I say look, I, if I can make my voice and I can use my decisions to be like great, I'm going to do as much as I can. That matters, and I think we'll help people feel and help people consider not just themselves but the people sitting next to them as they sit and they listen to something I'm like, then that I've… I've done my job, right?

Laura Camien:

I had a friend once tell me just in the simplest terms. It was just a little statement that I've never forgotten. He just said “Well, music opens the heart.”

Sean Mayes:

Yeah.

Laura Camien:

And I was like, yeah, it does. Music opens the heart and we're in this moment right now, where I look at what you're doing. I can’t think of anything more important than trying to open people's hearts so that they can see each other, and have empathy for each other and be humans together, as Susan and I like when we work with our clients, like they're creatives of all different kinds, and just the act of remaining creative in these times, I think is vital, because the one thing we do know is that if we all stop and curl up in a ball and try to sleep through it, it's over.

Sean Mayes:

Yeah, yeah, absolutely.

Laura Camien:

What is sparking you right now, like what's getting you creatively excited?

Sean Mayes:

I mean, I'm really inspired by work, honestly, just other work that's brave right now and I know it's a hard thing to do. I went to see the new play Giant with John Lithgow, and when you talk about work that is so necessary right now, it's very interesting, based around the life of Roald Dahl, the author, as well, or a very specific spot in his life. It is one of, truly, the best things I've ever seen. It takes a mirror and it holds a mirror up and it goes…boom. You know, I'm inspired by going to see things like that. I want to see more musicals that do that, to be very honest, we need more musicals that do that. You know we need more of everything that does that. But that's you know I and I get it…listen. Sometimes we just need to go to the theater and be like cool, like that was a fun time, but but we could have fun and like, mess people up too I mean that's the best right.

Laura Camien:

Yeah, like I had a great time and I can't stop thinking about this thing that I learned, or that I thought, or a reflection of myself that I you know. Maybe I don't even like that reflection, but now I need, like I have to look at it, it's the best, the best. So we're starting with Giants.

Sean Mayes:

It's a real good starting spot, for sure.

Laura Camien:

All right, all right. Last question it is so clear you work really hard, you are committed to your creativity. What's it all for?

Sean Mayes:

I know, actually. My “why” of it is the same as when I went into teaching and I have a lot of people who say to me they're like, oh, I I've never heard of a conductor, or you know, a supervisor, productions like around the globe or or locally, even going into this from, from teaching, and even when I was in the classroom I was trying to inspire people. One of one of the most beautiful like images I've ever seen of like teaching and the idea of, you know, giving back, and, and um and sharing and community and mentorship, is this um, it was this image of this super tall candle that's got its wick lit at the top and, um, you know, in front of that candle are, like, all of these tiny little candles with wicks that are unlit, and the description of it was something to the effect of, you know, teachers use their light to light other people's lights.

Laura Camien:

Yes!

Sean Mayes:

Yeah, it sounds so cliche, it sounds so metaphorical, but it really. It really isn't like man, like what we, what we do, is really important. We give people the permission to, to be brave in feeling for themselves, and I'm telling you, like, if we, if, if we don't like, I mean you. You want, you want to see what a world of people who are not emotionally connected and not, and too emotionally afraid to be their best selves and help those around them be their best selves. It’s not—

Laura Camien:

I don't want to see that world.

Sean Mayes:

No.

Laura Camien:

Sean Mayes, I say let's light all the candles.

Sean Mayes:

Hey, there we go, let's do it. That's a good one. That's a good one to leave on. We're selling merch.

Laura Camien:

You and me, let's light all the candles. Thank you so much. I feel very inspired.

Sean Mayes:

Thank you, Laura. Yeah, the pleasure has been mine. Thanks again.

Susan Blackwell:

Thank you so much to our guest, Sean Mayes, for joining us for the Town Hall Spark Sessions, and thanks to the team at the Town Hall who make all of this possible.

Laura Camien:

The Town Hall and this episode of the Town Hall Spark Sessions were made on the lands of the Lenape people.

Susan Blackwell:

If you'd like to learn more about the Spark File, creativity coaching and how we can support you as you clarify and accomplish your creative goals, visit thesparkfile. com, and you can follow us on socials @ thesparkfile. To learn more about the Town Hall and their exciting upcoming events, go to thetownhall. org, follow them at Town Hall NYC and visit them at 123 West 43rd Street in the heart of New York City. It's all happening at the Town Hall.

Susan Blackwell:

And if something you heard inspired you to use your creativity for the powers of good, we are writing you a forever permission slip to make that thing that's been knocking at your door. It's your turn to take that spark and fan it into a flame.

Laura Camien:

We're going to wrap it up with the Town Hall Ensemble—take it away!

Exit Music