An upcoming concert will offer the music of two Alaskan all-stars to an audience organizers hope spans the state —if not even further.
Perseverance Theatre’s second Perseverance People Power Concert is scheduled for 7 p.m. Friday. The virtual, pay-as-you-can concert will feature Anchorage-based singer-songwriter Witty Youngman and Juneau’s Annie Bartholomew.
Irene Martinko, who is producing the concert, said the concert has an unintended theme of “amazing female singer-songwriters from Alaska.”
The concert series as a whole aims to feature performers from throughout the state and connect audience members from the safety and comfort of home.
“I am so proud that during the pandemic our artists have said, ‘Yes,’ and concertized to bring us all through the challenging times of this pandemic,” said Leslie Ishii, Perseverance Theatre’s artistic director, in a news release. “It continues to be our honor and pleasure to lift up the extraordinary talent of Alaska. I am so excited for us all to enjoy the original works and unique voices of artists— Witty Youngman and Annie Bartholomew.”
[Missing live music? Perseverance Theatre to offer Zoom-based concert]
Ishii will also serve as host of the concert.
Bartholomew is a songwriter and performer who will be familiar to many in Southeast Alaska. Recently, she was the recipient of a 2020 Rasmuson Foundation Project Award to record an album of songs inspired by narratives of women during the Klondike Gold Rush.
Youngman, who was born and raised in Arizona, moved to Alaska in 2014, according to Perseverance Theatre. Youngman has been playing guitar since she was 14.
“The music that I write and perform is music that moves the listener to another understanding — complex fingerpicking guitar and lyrics grounded in poetry are what I like listening to, so I explore it through different subjects,” Witty said in a news release. “My originals tell a story of the person I have been working toward or against—I do not focus only on good or bad but growth through all I’ve experienced.”
Bartholomew, in the release, praised the unique characteristics of a virtual performance.
“I think virtual concerts are special because you get to see folks in their homes,” she said. “There’s no bar noise to distract in the background. They can be super intimate and show a side of artists rarely experienced in a live venue.”
That’s a quality that Martinko praised, too.
“It’s weirdly an intimate kind of concert,” Martinko said. She added that she was told that at the last concert, the chat function available to concert-goers was widely used.
That’s something that could stretch the fabric of tight-knit regional arts communities to include people who otherwise might be unable to catch such a performance.
“You get people who you don’t usually get to interact with, which is cool,” Martinko said.
• Contact Ben Hohenstatt at (907)308-4895 or bhohenstatt@juneauempire.com. Follow him on Twitter at @BenHohenstatt
Know & Go
What: Perseverance People Power Concert
When: 7 p.m., Friday, May 7
Where: Online.
Admission: Tickets are available in a pay-as-you-can structure for $5, $10 or $25. They can be purchased online at https://www.ptalaska.org/people-power-2/.
