New Work Tour Support Program

The California Presenters Board of Directors launched its New Work Tour Support Program in 2006 with funding from WESTAF, and with its own substantial and continuing financial commitment. The goal of the program is to support the creation, block booking and touring of new work.

To date, California Presenters New Works tours have met with resounding success, independently generating several successful tours. In addition, five projects have been selected to receive Presenter Tour Support grants: the National Council for the Traditional Arts’ Music from the Crooked Road: Mountain Music of Virginia (2006); Perla Batalla’s Discoteca Batalla (2006); Romulo Larrea Tango Ensemble’s TANGO 1st CENTURY (2007); Trey McIntyre Project’s The Sun Road (2008) and Mitchell Rose’s The Mitch Show (2010).

Program Goals

• Stimulate the creation, production and touring of new work in the performing arts;
• Foster collaboration between presenters in California and the western United States through block booking;
• Increase access to high quality artists in culturally, economically or geographically underserved communities; and
• Increase community engagement between artists and communities.

Check Artistic Project Proposal and Presenter Application sections for New Work Tour Support guidelines and applications.

California Presenters is proud to partner with the National Council for Traditional Arts to bring this tour to the west coast.

The Country Blues Tour

The Country Blues Tour is a multi-generational exploration of acoustic southern blues, curated by the National Council for the Traditional Arts (NCTA) and presented in partnership with California Presenters, that spans both the geographical and musical roots of deeply rooted American traditions. It brings together, for the first time, an exceptional group of American country blues masters. The program will feature pre-blues Mississippi fife and drum ensemble Sharde Thomas and the Rising Star Fife and Drum, Piedmont blues guitarist and songster Warner Williams, Mississippi hill country bluesman Reverend John Wilkins, blues harmonica wizard Phil Wiggins joined by buckdancer Willette “Willie” Hinton. 

The Country Blues Tour package includes all costs for entourage travel and accommodations; audio engineers; excellent promotional materials including poster artwork and beautifully-designed educational program books for free distribution to all audience members. The tour can provide a variety of social media content to market and promote the concert. This can include YouTube videos, a customized YouTube channel highlighting tour musicians and behind-the-scenes content, interviews with the artists, and media articles that can be posted to your Facebook pages as well as Twitter feeds. The NCTA will also have a unique Facebook page created for the tour so all presenters can link to the page in order to access artist content, and connect with other venues, fans, and communities along the tour. Thoughtful curation and production will frame the program in ways that deepen understanding and appreciation of the artists and the tradition each represents. The tour is designed to play in venues of all sizes. As with all NCTA tours, The Country Blues Tour will offer top quality educational K-12 programs, master classes and workshops. NCTA will design outreach and residency activities tailored to the specific needs of each presenter’s local community.

Tour Availability: 2012-13 Season. Contact tours@ncta.net for more information. Click here for informational pdf.