TrueFire Educator and friend of the ‘Fire, Stephen Bennett, is hoping to create a recording of his 6-part Powhatan Suite using a professional symphony orchestra (based in Germany). Help make it a reality!

Here’s what Stephen has to say about the project (get the full details here):

“I am launching this KickStarter campaign to try to raise the funds to record the rest of the Powhatan Suite. If I can raise $35,000, the bulk of the funds will go for hiring the orchestra and the recording personnel to record the other 5 parts of the Suite. The rest will go to producing a cd and a limited number of vinyl LPs.

The recording would contain the full orchestral version of the Suite (about 35 minutes of music), as well as my original guitar-based version (probably with one or two of the pieces remixed).

This is simply too big a project for me to undertake on my own. Without a successful Kickstarter campaign, probably over time, I would still eventually get the rest of the Suite recorded by an orchestra. But for the sake of getting the music out into the world sooner, as well as for musical and recording consistency, I would like to have this same orchestra record the whole work. If I am successful, recording will take place sometime this summer.

Since my dad kicked in $500 years ago to help me create my first recording, I haven’t asked anyone for help with a recording project. I’m not really asking for it now: it’s more that I’m saying hey – I’ve got this music that I believe in and it will take me a long time to be able to make it available for people to hear – if I have to do it myself. But if enough of you are sufficiently intrigued by the portion of the Suite that I have already brought to life, the campaign will be successful and the music can escape the confines of my computer. I expect the recording to be scheduled for this summer and then I would expect to have copies in your hands by year’s end. I think that November is likely.

I’ve never run a campaign like this or attempted to pre-sell a cd before. It would be absolutely amazing to have this succeed. But if I have learned anything in my 59 years, it’s that amazing things sometimes do happen! And of course, if I don’t try, I’ll always wonder if it might have worked.

If this campaign manages to exceed its goal by, it might become possible for there to be video footage as well. I am not yet certain how I would distribute that – probably by putting it on a thumb drive – but I will happily cross that bridge if and when it comes in to view!

Thanks for reading this and, as always, thanks for listening to my music!”