Dear Friends and Supporters of this Project:

We exceeded our goal and did so significantly ahead of the deadline. This is wonderful — and we thank you all for your support and generosity. We can now proceed with Laurie's CD on schedule. This has been a wonderful experience, a real grass-roots effort in the new viral style. We will send you your rewards, CDs, and other gifts, but still we cannot thank you enough for stepping up generously and in a timely way. You're the best!

Yours,

Bruce

Dear Friends,

We are at the final 11 days of this fund-raiser. If you haven't donated to the project, please consider making a donation, no matter how small, right now. The donations add up quickly and we won't get any of the funds if we don't raise the whole amount. I know we can do this! Laurie's extraordinary voice, her world-class artistry and her great spirit are at the heart of this project. "Do You Dream in Color?" is almost there, the goal is within our reach. If you have not watched the video, please do! And remember, there are many rewards for donations, and all donations are tax deductible. I hope you'll join me in this. 

Yours,

Bruce

Thank you for your continued support.  It is because of your belief in the project that we are already at $14,840!!!  Just a little over $5,000 to go!  We can definitely do this!

I just flew to my new home in Hawaii, and am just about to dive in, head first, to teaching students ages 8-18 in a musical theater workshop that I've started with my co-founders Jenny and Cari Taira as part of our Ohana Arts program which will encompass a huge performing arts school and festival as we grow.  The sun is shining, and I was so happy to wake up to see our continued growth on the kick-starter site.

I have some more good news!  I just received word from Houston Grand Opera that they would like me to start using my "Do You Dream in Color" project in the local schools in Houston, combined with the curriculum that is being written in conjunction with the song.  They want me and the wonderful pianist, Marija to come for a week-long residency.  Other possible venues for this will be a blindness center at UCLA, and some promotional and educational concerts/Master Classes in Kentucky where the American Printing House for the Blind is located.  So you can all rest assured that this project is going to many exciting places, and we hope it will make a very positive impact on many children and adults alike."

We are now at 63% of our goal! We're doing very well thanks to so many of you who have contributed to this project. Marija and I were with Lenore at Laurie's performance of "La Voix Humaine" in Greenwich last night. Laurie was absolutely stunning — vocally, she is completely natural, free, dramatic, and compelling — an artist of the highest order. The Poulenc opera is a 45-minute solo piece, and Laurie sang every moment of it beautifully, and she acted with power and startling realism. It was staged by Ted Huffman with great understanding and sensitivity. Dancers dressed in black moved through the darkness holding bright flashlights that were trained on Laurie in such a way as to highlight the drama, intensify her isolation from her lover (who is on the phone), and amplify the silences which punctuate the music in an extraordinary manner. Near the end, the dancers focus the lights on the audience, essentially blinding everyone. The final image is extraordinary and I won't say what it is, as there are two more performances! Laurie is truly one of the great artists of her generation, and this CD that you are helping to make possible will bring her artistry to a wide audience, nationally and internationally. Her book, also called "Do You Dream in Color?" is being published next season, and it will, with the CD, make a unique package that will change the lives of many people, and inspire all who read it and listen to her singing. Knowing Laurie and working with her, and writing music for her, has been one of the highlights of my life. I thank all of you who have helped so far, and encourage everyone reading this to pitch in and bring us to the goal. Thank you! Bruce Adolphe

More great news - we have reached nearly $12,000! Thank you all so much for your support of this wonderful worthy project! And, please, continue spreading the word!

As if making a recording and preparing to head to her summer music festival in Hawaii isn't enough, Laurie Rubin is performing at the Greenwich Music Festival in a one-woman production of Poulenc's La Voix Humaine this weekend.  I had the privilege of attending last night. It is a remarkable production - powerful and beautiful.  Poulenc set Cocteaus's play about a desperate woman in a phone conversation with her lover who is leaving her.  The audience is only privy to one end of the conversation. Laurie's singing and acting encompassed a huge emotional range, nuances of despair, courage, passion, fear. Ted Huffman's innovative and spare direction perfectly framed the story. (The opera was paired with a marvelous dance performance The Lady and The Unicorn).  If you have a chance - www.greenwichmusicfestival.org.

I'll continue to keep you posted. And, again, thank you so very much!

Lenore Davis