CONTEMPORARY CLASSICAL MUSICIAN CHRISTEN LIEN ANNOUNCES EXCLUSIVE CLUBHOUSE PERFORMANCE PHOENIX RISING: A JOURNEY OF LIVE MUSIC + POETRY BY ESMÉ BIANCO, Thursday, May 27 @ 4pm ET / 1pm PT: Cosmic Balcony Club, JOIN HERE
Previous Clubhouse performances attended by thousands, including the platform’s founder, also performed for the Dalai Lama, hosted a TED talk, played Burning Man, and headlined shows
Watch Christen Lien’s official video for The Escape here
Christen Lien is a contemporary classical musician who creates stunning, emotional work based around the viola and use of loop and effects pedals. She has performed for the Dalai Lama, hosted a TED talk, and played Burning Man in addition to her own headline shows. During the pandemic, Christen has become a regular performer on Clubhouse, and has played to several thousands of fans on a weekly basis. CH founder Paul Davison joined the stage during her rooms, bringing nearly two and a half thousand followers with him, to listen to her perform.
Her regular Clubhouse room, Cosmic Balcony, has become very popular and recently she completed 33 straight days of full concerts at 3:33pm PT. On the last day, after four hours of songs, readings, collaborations and community shares, there were exactly 333 people in the room. Known for the emotional intensity, philosophical deep dives and widely diverse mix of club members, Cosmic Balcony is an experience of creative perspective that’s both interactive and multi-disciplinary.
This week, the balcony welcomes Esmé Bianco (Game of Thrones, co-creator of the Phoenix Act) to share and perform her poetry in this world premiere event with live viola by Christen Lien and guest poet Steve Connell. Join here on May 27 at 4pm ET / 1 pm PT.
On the upcoming event, Christen Lien says, In my Cosmic Balcony rooms on Clubhouse, we address deep and complex issues as a community while I perform live music for the audience, and our event on May 27th will be an example of the courage I witness often in these rooms. The public has heard of the harrowing tale of Esmé Bianco’s past, and now it’s time to move forward and witness her creative prowess and expression during her healing process. It is time for all of us to move forward and heal from the past with courage, creativity and community. It is a privilege to host the world premiere of Esmé’s poetry, and provide live music for such a historic moment in time.
Esmé Bianco says, In celebration of my birthday, and at a time of personal transformation and reemergence for so many of us, I am delighted to be sharing my poetry publicly for the first time in Cosmic Balcony. It is an honor to collaborate with the exceptionally talented Christen Lien as we explore what it means to rise from the ashes together.
Many collaborations are born out of these Clubhouse moments. Lien has recently rounded out the Clubhouse International Womenߣs Day event (CHIxIWD), performed for Hatch: She Who Inspires, showcasing women leaders. She also teamed up with Sarah Alagroobi for an art installation for Art Dubai after Alagroobi spontaneously began painting on hearing Lien perform, creating a work in response to that performance, a testament to the unique creative environment that Clubhouse can engender. Lien performed as part of the recording process for this work, with Alagroobi completing the painting. Lien has also joined Terra Naomi, Savannah Outen and Autumn Nicholas for the Monday Monday showcase on Clubhouse, in conjunction with LAߣs revered Hotel Cafe, among many other connections.
Christen Lien says: It’s been very fulfilling to perform live on Clubhouse, because the real-time responses from listeners via voice creates an intimacy that is different from live stream chat boxes on other platforms. The audience responses have been similar to my in-person concerts: a flurry of emotions and tears, people experiencing intense visuals while they listen to my performance, and an urge to co-create. The only difference is the audience can’t see how much my body moves when I make music, and they don’t see the technical use of my looping pedals and effect boards. I’m so happy that my music translates on the Clubhouse platform, because I know that my music creates a space for a lot of healing and emotional processing. The times we are in are difficult and my music has always been a salve for aching hearts. It means so much that I can be there for a live audience in this way and we are all grateful to Clubhouse for making this possible.
Be sure to tune in on Clubhouse on May 27 to get in on the live moments that continue to inspire and provoke emotional responses from devoted fans, and look out for more from Christen Lien.
Christen Lien is an avant-garde composer and performing artist with classical roots who creates an innovative brand of musical storytelling. The viola is at the heart of her music-making; however, she also incorporates multiple instruments and synthesizers, and the use of guitar effect processors and looping pedals, to create a multi-faceted landscape that bridges electronic, industrial and classical genres.
Her multimedia performances communicate stories of mythology and imagination, politics and prose, hope and empowerment.
Christen has performed for diplomats, fortune 100 executives, heads of state, royalty, celebrities, and has inspired many crowds around the globe. She has performed for His Holiness the 14th Dalai Lama, Google, the Obama White House, Burning Man, Forbes Under 30 Summit, Berklee College of Music, Nexus Global, MIT and the United States Institute of Peace. Venues such as the House of Blues and the REDCAT Theatre and museums such as the de Young, Legion of Honor and the Detroit Institute of Arts have showcased her live performances. Christen’s sound design work is on exhibit at the National Museum of Qatar, where she created sound design for a 50-foot video installation by John Sanborn, commissioned by the Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad al-Thani and the Doha Film Institute.
Her concept album ELPIS continues a long-lost story of Greek mythology and is a cautionary tale about the spectrum of hope. The album and story was adapted into a ballet production with acclaimed choreographer Amy Seiwert, where dancers were choreographed to both Christen’s live musical performance and storytelling.
Christen is an active citizen who stands up for her beliefs. While serving as the Executive Director of the Ann Arbor Film Festival, Christen won a First Amendment lawsuit against the State of Michigan to protect artists’ freedom of speech.
For more information on Christen Lien, please visit her official website, Twitter and Instagram.
