Weekend afternoons in the Amphitheater have seen orchestral performances, ballet galas, piano recitals, and even a mad scientist. And at 2:30 p.m. Sunday in the Amp, a different kind of art form will be on stage with The Beatbox House — a collective of World Champion Beatboxers, based in New York City and hailing from different regions of the country. The five core members of the collective — Gene Shinozaki, Kenny Urban, NaPoM, Amit and Chris Celiz — are each a soloist, educator and musician in their own right, rebranding the art as a new form of music and is pushing the boundaries of what’s possible with the human voice.
Sunday afternoon launches a weeklong residency for The Beatbox House at Chautauqua, through a partnership with Works & Process at the Guggenheim.
With a focus on educational outreach, the collective has performed across the globe, on hundreds of stages from subway platforms to the Plaza Hotel, high school cafeterias to a tour of Indonesia and Singapore, representing the U.S. State Department through the storied American Music Abroad Program.
“We depend upon our American artists to join in our country’s diplomacy,” Lee Satterfield, the assistant secretary of state for educational and cultural affairs, told The New York Times in an email for a story on the news of The Beatbox House’s American Music Abroad Program tour. Partnering with mission-driven performers like The Beatbox House, she told the Times, is part of the department’s goal to “expand the reach of music diplomacy.”
