Music Ambassadors: Macon is pleased to welcome recording artist Sophia Bastian to our fair city for a preview of the MAM project. While the full MAM project will start up in September 2013, we wanted to work out the kinks well ahead of time and formally introduce our community to the project. Bastian will spend the weekend in Macon – kicking off Friday with a free concert in Mercer Village before spending Saturday at a private house concert for friends and patrons of the MAM program and then capping off the weekend with a free performance at College Hill’s Second Sunday in the Park.

Check back soon for a full re-cap of Sophia’s weekend at the inaugural MAM event.

As a child growing up in Munich, Germany, Sophia Bastian studied classical ballet and fell in love with the performing arts. At some point along the way—“I can’t say just when or how”, she says—her love for music took over. After high school, she knew she wanted professional training “to be a more prolific musician, to have enough musicianship to communicate myself as a singer.” Plus, she’d always “enjoyed the structure of performing arts institutions.”

With a love for, and foundation in, classic soul and jazz, Bastian started looking for schools. “There aren’t any classic soul institutes,” she says with a laugh. So, the singer enrolled in CUNY’s undergraduate jazz program to study under the legendary Sheila Jordan. Last year, Bastian recorded her debut self-title EP with Charlie Dos Santos. Dos Santos—a former VP of A&R for Caliente/Atlantic Records—produced the Grammy-winning album ‘Permiso Que Llego Van Van’ by Los Van Van and has worked with Public Enemy, Jennifer Lopez, They Might Be Giants and numerous others. Dos Santos helped Bastian pick songs from her demos—all written by Bastian—and lined up stellar session musicians in New York.

Now—even as an unsigned, self-managed and independently produced artist—Bastian is generating serious buzz in popular music circles. She’s opened for The Roots. Her first single, “Breaking,” has been added to the rotation on BBC Radio, mtvU and Sirius XM’s “The Loft,” and the accompanying video has been featured on MTV and VH1.

When an audience member at a recent New York show told Bastian that she’s heard her song on NPR, “my heart jumped—I got so excited.” She explains, “Besides the music, this is what I work on. Trying to be my own manager, PR person, label. Trying to figure out how I can get my music in front of these radio stations and blogs that I respect. NPR is the biggest on my list.”

Music Ambassadors: Macon is thrilled to welcome Bastian to the hometown of Otis Redding
and to help spread the word on this talented up-and-coming musician.

Friday, June 7th – FREE Performance in Mercer Village @ 12:00pm

Saturday, June 8th – Private Performance

Sunday, June 9th – Second Sunday in the Park @ Washington Park* @ 6:00pm

* Rain Location: Grant’s Lounge