{"id":2055,"date":"2017-07-16T06:32:26","date_gmt":"2017-07-16T06:32:26","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/victoriatheodore.com\/?p=2055"},"modified":"2017-07-16T06:52:26","modified_gmt":"2017-07-16T06:52:26","slug":"hotter-july-viewing-reading","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/victoriatheodore.com\/index.php\/hotter-july-viewing-reading\/","title":{"rendered":"Hotter Than July! Videos & Blog Update"},"content":{"rendered":"

IT’S BEEN A HOT MONTH ALREADY<\/strong>!<\/p>\n

#VictoriaInBeirut<\/strong><\/p>\n

On July 1, I flew to Beirut, Lebanon to perform with Maysaa Karaa<\/a>, a Los Angeles based Lebanese-American Singer-Songwriter. She’s already had some success in the USA, as one of her recordings (an\u00a0Arabic adaptation of Jefferson Airplane\u2019s White Rabbit<\/a>) was\u00a0nominated for a\u00a0Grammy Award in 2015.<\/p>\n

Mayssa and her producer \/ co-writer\u00a0Rich Jacques<\/a>\u00a0recently completed her debut album, “Simple Cure<\/a>“, and I was one of several artists\u00a0invited to perform with\u00a0her in concert in her home country. Her first concert. Sold out. Probably around 2,000\u00a0people. Pretty amazing success for an amazing young lady. Congratulations Mayssa!<\/p>\n

The concert was held\u00a0at the\u00a0Zouk Mikael International Festival<\/a>, in a stunning Roman-style amphitheater. The band was incredible, loaded with USA based musicians who’ve toured with some of the world’s greatest artists, including David Bowie, Pink Floyd and Stevie Wonder:\u00a0Carmine Rojas<\/a>\u00a0(our MD),\u00a0Scott Page<\/a>,\u00a0Marcus Nand<\/a>,\u00a0Rich Jacques<\/a>\u00a0and\u00a0Neal Daniels<\/a>. We were joined by a group of\u00a0incredible Middle Eastern instrumentalists, including\u00a0Naseem Alatrash<\/a>,\u00a0Layth Sidiq<\/a>,\u00a0Tony Barhoum<\/a>,\u00a0Gilbert Mansour<\/a> and a few\u00a0others, whose names I don’t recall…oops!<\/p>\n

I had such a great time, eating delicious meals\u00a0(with plenty of vegetarian options!\u00a0I was so thrilled!), meeting beautiful, kind , music-living people (Mayssa’s friends and family are gems), and performing incredible music while singing background vocals in English, Spanish and Arabic. I felt so international! \ud83d\ude09<\/p>\n

If you have a Facebook account, you can see part of the show here<\/p>\n

Helwa Ya Baladi \/ Stranger<\/a>,<\/p>\n

and a concert news repot\u00a0by\u00a0FutureTV :: Group<\/a> here<\/p>\n

Mayssa in Beirut<\/a>.<\/p>\n

It’s in Arabic, but even if you don’t speak the language, it’s a cool video to watch, with snippets from the performance and interviews with Mayssa and the band.<\/p>\n

Thank you, Mayssa, Michel, Mark, Salim\u00a0and everyone at the\u00a0Zouk Mikael International Festival<\/a> \u00a0for\u00a0a most beautiful experience. I\u00a0can’t wait to return to Beirut!<\/p>\n

#SORonTour<\/strong><\/p>\n

Shortly\u00a0after the concert, I left the venue and headed straight to the airport. I had to fly\u00a0to Chicago so that I could be a mentor for the School of Rock at Summerfest in Milwuakee!\u00a0Thankfully, my travel wasn’t\u00a0terribly delayed (Beirut to Frankfurt, Frankfurt to Chicago, 90 minute drive to Milwaukee), and I was able to get to\u00a0my first group of students\u00a0with 20 minutes to spare.\u00a0Now that’s the Musical Life!<\/p>\n

This annual event, School of Rock OnTour (#SORonTour), showcased over 450\u00a0students in dozens of\u00a0bands from\u00a0several of the School of Rock locations around the USA. Over the course of three\u00a0days, the students rocked the Summerfest audience from numerous stages, performing iconic rock songs with professional guest artists from legendary bands – AKA The Mentors.<\/p>\n

I was paired with guitarist\u00a0Robbie Angelucci<\/a>\u00a0to listen, evaluate and offer feedback to dozens of bands. Both of us, and all of the other mentors, were very impressed with the young musicians. We were all\u00a0taken back in time to when each of us were that age, our burgeoning thirst for music just starting. The students reminded us of how special it is to learn music; that it’s a gift. I was so excited and thrilled to be there, and to offer whatever nuggets of wisdom I could.<\/p>\n

The Mentors were an eclectic bunch, with a solid portion coming from the world of Rock. Since I’ve spent most of my career in the R&B\/Pop world, it was lovely to get to meet and bond with musicians from other genres. The Mentors were Tanya O Callaghan<\/a>,\u00a0Robbie Angelucci<\/a>, Allen Blickle<\/a>,\u00a0Dan McCafferty<\/a>,\u00a0Kudisan Kai<\/a>,\u00a0Julian Coryell<\/a>,\u00a0Tariqh Akoni<\/a>,\u00a0Phil Xenidis<\/a>,\u00a0Glen Sobel<\/a>,\u00a0Rachel Z Hakim<\/a>\u00a0and\u00a0Peter DiStefano<\/a>. I enjoyed meeting and spending time with each of you. Thank you for your\u00a0high level musicianship, your insight, talent and beautiful hearts!<\/p>\n

Thanks to Tania for the referral, VIP and VP Stacey Ryan for keeping us in check, and all of the other\u00a0SOR top brass<\/a>, including Rob Price<\/a>, Elliot Baldini<\/a> and Tony Padulo<\/a> for making it all possible.<\/p>\n

\n

INTERVIEW & PHOTOS<\/strong><\/p>\n

A few months ago, I was interviewed and photographed by the incredibly talented photographer, Amina Touray<\/a>. I was introduced to Amina by\u00a0Ciera Payton<\/a>, who referred\u00a0Amina to me as a potential model\/interviewee. #SoFlattered<\/p>\n

The photos turned out beautifully, and the interview was published in\u00a0an\u00a0Afro Elle Magazine<\/a> web article:<\/p>\n

Sound of Her Music: Victoria Theodore<\/a><\/h3>\n

@aminatphoto @afroellemag\u00a0Makeup by @niehlao Styling by @_jeslopez<\/em><\/p>\n

\n

VIDEOS<\/strong><\/p>\n

I’ve created a few short videos documenting my\u00a0Musical Life. Enjoy!<\/p>\n

Lebanon Day 1<\/a> \u2022 Lebanon Day 2a<\/a> \u2022 Lebanon Day 2b<\/a>\u00a0\u2022 Lebanon Day 2c<\/a>\u00a0\u2022 Lebanon Day 3<\/a> \u2022 Lebanon Day 4<\/a><\/p>\n

@mayssakaraa @iamscottpage @marcusnand @richjacques @nealthedrummer @laythsidiq @naseem_alatrash.cellist @barhoumkanun @gilbert_mansour<\/em><\/p>\n

SOR @ Summerfest, Day 1<\/a> \u2022 SOR @ Summerfest, Day 2<\/a> \u2022 SOR @ Summerfest, Day 3a<\/a> \u2022 SOR @ Summerfest, Day 3b<\/a><\/p>\n

@SchoolofRock @dtkindlerphoto #SoROnTour and #SchoolofRock\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n

HUMAN<\/strong><\/p>\n

It’s been 2 years since I release my first video!\u00a0I am flummoxed…time is flying ever faster…<\/p>\n

Alas, I don’t yet have a new video, but here’s a new version, with the lyrics embedded in the video:<\/p>\n

HUMAN (Acoustic, Lyric Video)<\/a><\/p>\n

\n

HOUSE CONCERTS<\/strong><\/p>\n

Speaking of hot… have live music for your summer f\u00eate! Book me! If you want to organize a house concert, it’s FREE to you as the host. Email me and I’ll send you details\u00a0\ud83d\ude42<\/p>\n

victoria@victoriatheodore.com<\/a><\/p>\n

Host a\u00a0HOUSE CONCERT<\/span><\/a>\u00a0– no cost to you!<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

IT’S BEEN A HOT MONTH ALREADY! #VictoriaInBeirut On July 1, I flew to Beirut, Lebanon to perform with Maysaa Karaa, a Los Angeles based Lebanese-American Singer-Songwriter. She’s already had some success in the USA, as one of her recordings (an\u00a0Arabic adaptation of Jefferson Airplane\u2019s White Rabbit) was\u00a0nominated for a\u00a0Grammy Award in 2015. Mayssa and her […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":2069,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[36,6,83,4,64,35,22,100],"tags":[186,192,193,191,194,190,197,189,188,187,195,196,198],"class_list":["post-2055","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-blog","category-front-page","category-interview","category-news","category-performance","category-travel","category-victoria-theodore","category-video","tag-aminatphoto","tag-artist","tag-beirut","tag-editorial","tag-lebanon","tag-lifestyleeditorial","tag-mayssakaraa","tag-musician","tag-pianist","tag-portrait","tag-sorontour","tag-summerfest","tag-zoukmikaelinternationalfestival"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/victoriatheodore.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2055","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/victoriatheodore.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/victoriatheodore.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/victoriatheodore.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/victoriatheodore.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2055"}],"version-history":[{"count":26,"href":"https:\/\/victoriatheodore.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2055\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2111,"href":"https:\/\/victoriatheodore.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2055\/revisions\/2111"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/victoriatheodore.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2069"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/victoriatheodore.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2055"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/victoriatheodore.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2055"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/victoriatheodore.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2055"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}