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Meet Julianna Emanski of Lumedia Musicworks in Frisco

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Today we’d like to introduce you to Julianna Emanski.

Julianna, please share your story with us. How did you get to where you are today?
I have been involved in music my whole life, attended six-week long music summer programs since I was 9 years old through high school. I continued on the path of music throughout my college studies in Philadelphia, Dallas, Seattle and then back to Dallas for my Doctoral Studies at the University of North Texas in Vocal Performance with concentrations in Vocal Pedagogy and Music Entrepreneurship.

I draw on over ten years of interdisciplinary experience acquired while performing and collaborating with musical and other fine arts organizations around the country. Such experience has afforded the opportunity to see the inner workings of a number of ventures while constantly asking questions about business structures, protocols, and strategies. During this time, the greatest lesson I have learned is that opportunity is the one consistent and most precious resource available to musicians.

While living in Seattle, I met with opportunity in 2013 by filling a niche in the cultural life of the surrounding community. With some close colleagues, we launched a successful baroque ensemble – Queen City Musicians, of which I served as artistic and executive director. After a robust fundraising campaign, followed by a full season of three performances with revenues left for the next season, I left Seattle and Queen City Musicians to further my education in UNT’s doctoral program.

Living in North Texas has allowed me to further expand my skill set, while developing a passion for helping other artists meet their aspirations. In 2015, I drew on my love of photography to start Finer Things Photography, a company dedicated to personal marketing in the fine arts community. Under our consultation, clients have created an array of publicity materials utilizing photography, website design, and social media. One of our most successful groups has been Denton’s own nationally-acclaimed Bassinova Quartet.

While the photography business continues to thrive, I now serve as the founder, artistic director, and president of the board for Lumedia Musicworks, which just launched on September 9th, 2017. Lumedia is a classical music ensemble in the Dallas-Fort Worth Metroplex, specializing in baroque repertoire, video production, and multimedia live shows.

Our goal is to create dynamic classical music videos that bring new audiences to our live concerts across the area. The concerts themselves will be widely accessible to the broader community, as we offer suggested donations in place of admission at the door, in addition to advanced ticketed seating options. I am privileged to lead a diverse team of musicians, a videographer, a graphic designer, and two members of the financial industry as we generate promotional material, put together our first events, and establish our brand. My photography and website design skills also help greatly!

Throughout my career in classical music, I have sought and continue to build relationships that have yielded abundant opportunity for current and future endeavors. Along the way, I strive to demonstrate unwavering passion, commitment and dedication to the arts; open-mindedness and inquisitiveness toward those with greater experience; clearly-established goals; and a constant flow of ideas, refined into successful and unique projects. Informed by these values and emboldened by past and present successes, I aim to be a leader in the field of music entrepreneurship.

Overall, has it been relatively smooth? If not, what were some of the struggles along the way?
We faced significant challenges – artistic, logistical, and of course financial. The artistic challenges were to be expected, given the collaboration between four musicians who had at least slightly differing visions for the group; this touched on such areas as marketing, programming, and the overall scope of our endeavors. Fortunately, we’re friends and see ourselves as something of a family, listening to one another with an open mind. While it’s fair to say that nobody fully got their way had we each been left to our own means, we’ve achieved a synthesis of ideas amounting to something far greater than any of us have imagined, and so far, audiences are responding well. At the same time, we’ve all had to leave our egos at the door.

Our logistical difficulties were due to the simple fact that everyone in this group has a day job. This still presents a challenge, especially with concert seasons for other groups and the school year now in full swing. Fortunately, passion has carried us this far; our sense of fulfillment and commitment to seeing Lumedia’s success has often fueled us in getting home from our long days, preparing quick dinners, and setting about more work. Fortunately, we also have a wonderful support system among our founding members. Making Lumedia more collaborative and less dictatorial than other ensembles has proven useful not only in bringing together the best of our visions, but also in reasonably delegating tasks to each according to skill set and available time. While one person is working on securing venues or contracting the design of our publicity materials, another is editing scores or hiring musicians. Operating this way, we could move quickly in spite of our individually-demanding schedules outside of the project – though we’ll admit, it’s been an adjustment.

Finally, we continue to address the formidable challenge of raising $25,000 (With a stretch goal of $30,000) for a successful first season. Although only time will tell how we’ve overcome this challenge, we’re happy to be off to such a wonderful start. In just one months’ time since we’ve launched our fundraising campaign, we’ve met 55% of that goal thanks to an anonymous donor who has pledge to match all funds, dollar for dollar (for our last month of the fundraiser) and our now able to fund the Fall portion of our concert cycle. We accomplished this much by putting ourselves out there as aggressively as possible. We’ve been handing out brochures, sharing our launch video with as many individuals as possible, and exploring the possibilities of social media to their fullest; the latter has included daily – sometimes hourly – posts on our Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter pages. We’ve also been keen to raise awareness well outside traditional patronage circles, hence the “Collaborate” component of our season. This year, we’ll be playing a 500th-Anniversary Reformation-themed concert with a new church in Rockwall, and in the new year, we’ll be collaborating with the North Texas Traditional Dance Society in presenting an open dance party of traditional country dance in the English folk tradition. So far, we’ve caught the attention of individuals who have not even been to a classical music concert! Essentially, we aim to not just cater to the market as it is – we want to expand the market.

Please tell us about Lumedia Musicworks.
When you think of the Texas music scene, thoughts of the boot-strappin’, Stetson-wearin’, guitar-strummin’, belt-buckle-gleamin’, heart-break singin’ country genres likely come to mind. But that is not all the Lone Star State has to offer, especially in Dallas. With the booming Texas economy and major business headquarters moving in – not the least of which include Toyota and JP Morgan – the metroplex will benefit from a boost in its cultural life, particularly in the performing arts.

Looking past the big names such as Dallas Opera and the Dallas or Fort Worth Symphony Orchestras, there are many other established local ensembles that provide rich cultural offerings. Specifically highlighting those dedicated to baroque music, Dallas is home to several organizations worth mentioning for their longevity and quality: Dallas Bach Society (established 1982), Orchestra of New Spain (established 1989), and Texas Camerata (established 2004).

Since the founding of these groups, many young performers have trained and continue to play under their auspices.  At the same time, the DFW population has grown at a rapid pace, and demand for performing arts activity has increased dramatically with it.  It seems that it’s is about time for new ensembles to emerged. In the past year the newest generation of classical musicians have been the American Baroque Opera Co. (ABOC) and Lumedia Musicworks – all of which are transforming the concert scene by evolving it from the traditional to the modern age.

Lumedia Musicworks creates an entirely different vibe that does not easily fit the familiar mold of classical music performance, ushering forth a clear vision to bring baroque music to popular and often untraditional milieus where it can be enjoyed, appreciated, and understood by new audiences. We do this by presenting accessible live performances and creating cutting-edge music videos that extend the reach of the classical music locally and globally, thus aiming to captivate, collaborate, and innovate. Each concert season consists of two live “Captivate” performances in the DFW metroplex, two “Collaborate” projects with local organizations and businesses, and two “Innovate” music video releases. In particular, our music videos are filmed and edited using contemporary themes and cinematic techniques, but instead of being inspired by the latest club’s sounds, we tell a visual story inspired by baroque music.

If you had to go back in time and start over, would you have done anything differently?
I probably would have gotten an MBA??

But I love what I do so so much. I don’t think I would change a thing except maybe have gotten 501 (c)3 status a few years ago so Lumedia Musicworks would be eligible to apply for larger grants that require two years of existence to qualify for their application.

Contact Info:


Image Credit:
Finer Things Photography

Getting in touch: VoyageDallas is built on recommendations from the community; it’s how we uncover hidden gems, so if you know someone who deserves recognition please let us know here.

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