The Center for the Arts hosts inaugural songwriting festival

News release

GRASS VALLEY — The Center for the Arts presents the first-ever New Songs Festival, for growing the next season of songwriters, with four days of songwriting workshops and evening concerts for the attendees and general public to attend, beginning April 27.

Songwriters are at the heart of our arts community and this is where we begin to grow the next generation of songwriters. New Songs is a threeday songwriting festival featuring three full days of workshops, three evening concerts, multiple breakout and coaching sessions, studio space, a panel discussion with professional songwriters and a professional production on stage in front of a public audience.

Included with a ticket is a robust package that includes VIP Songwriters Reception, one ticket to a concert each night of the festival, three days of workshops with lunch provided by The Center, three days of studio use, coaching/feedback sessions, songwriters panel discussion, and culminating in a performance on a professionally produced stage (encouraged but optional). The evening concerts will feature wonderful talent in the songwriting arena such as Keith Greeninger, Laurie Lewis, Iris DeMent and Ruthie Foster, with many of these same artists leading the workshops.

New Songs Fest is hosted by Rita Hosking, songwriter, artist, performer and teacher. Hosking earned a bachelor’s degree in religious studies from the University of California, Davis, with coursework focusing on world religions, culture, psychology and creative writing. She then earned a California teaching credential in social studies from California State University, Sacramento, and honed her storytelling and organizational skills with more than 10 years of eighth-grade U.S. history students. While music always remained an interest, Hosking gained perspective into the universal human psyche from an intellectual standpoint that would later be integrated with her own story. The music she produces today is an amalgamation of her university studies, teaching experience, motherhood and the humanity that has moved her since her childhood in the hard-hitting mountains of Northeastern California.

Greeninger and Lewis will share the stage together with two full sets for an evening performance at 8 p.m. April 27. As a singer-songwriter, Greeninger paints intricate portraits of the human condition with powerful melodic images, deep engaging guitar rhythms and husky, heart-wrenching vocals. His masterfully crafted tunes and powerful presence have earned him the top songwriting awards at the prestigious Telluride Blue Grass Festival, The Kerrville Folk Festival and The Napa Valley Folk Festival.

For nearly four decades Lewis has gathered fans and honors for her powerful and emotive voice and her versatile, dynamic songwriting. She is a sought-after recording producer and an equally skilled teacher, mentor, inspiration and a ground-breaker — across genres, geography and gender barriers.

DeMent’s songs are her way of healing our broken inner and outer spaces. On her transcendent new record, “Workin’ On A World,” she faces the modern world — as it is right now — with its climate catastrophe, pandemic illness and epidemic of violence and social injustice — and not only asks us how we can keep working towards a better world but implores us to love each other, despite our very different ways of seeing. She will perform at 8 p.m. April 28 with opener Pieta Brown. Foster’s latest album provides a guide for how to move through the world with equal parts compassion and resolve. “Healing Time” finds Foster pushing her boundaries as a singer and songwriter more than ever before, creating a truly live-sounding atmosphere with the help of her band, which sounds refreshingly loose and lived-in throughout these 12 songs. Foster will perform at 8 p.m. April 29 with opener Royal Wood.

“Songwriting has always been a healing experience for people. Our community has certainly undergone life stressors lately and, so, this seems a perfect time to bring people together in sharing their hearts through song,” said Amber Jo Manuel, executive director of The Center for the Arts.

“New Songs Fest will be a unique mix of world-class, evening concerts and daytime songwriting curriculum, all held at a state-of-the-art sound theater in the picturesque Sierra foothills. In one word — uplifting,” Hosking added.

New Songs Fest is a beautiful opportunity to hone the craft of songwriting with leading experts in the field. Attendees will elevate their talent to profound heights and have their hearts and minds filled with new techniques and abilities, leaving them confident to share their songs on the stage at The Center for the Arts, 314 West Main St. in Grass Valley, on April 30.

For tickets and more information visit thecenterforthearts.org/newsongs-fest-2023 or call (530) 2748384.