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As we start the New Year, Creative SEA is in a good place. We offered many events and gatherings over 2025 which brought in folks of all ages and backgrounds, and indicated that we are on the right track. The Elevate grant from City of Austin’s Economic Department really helped, and we have applied for this year’s funding cycle. We’ll know in March what our yearly budget will be, so until then we are focusing on smaller community-building get togethers. …

This pithy Dickens quote never seems to go out of style: “It was the best of times, it was the worst of times…” 

2025 was a rough year in many ways, but a lot of good things happened.  For Creative SEA, we provided some meaningful and fun community programming, and were rewarded with increased community outreach.  New musicians attended our monthly jazz jam, new faces showed up at the Community Song Workshops and Interactive Concerts, and our seasonal concerts, Earth …

The Christmas season can be culturally complicated in a society with diverse beliefs and traditions.  Most people just want to share the spirit of love, caring and maybe some eggnog, but it’s never quite that simple.  

So it was for Austin saxophonist and bandleader Paul Klemperer.  “For years I did an inclusive Season of Light music show.  It seemed to make sense, partly because of my own mixed Christian/Jewish family background.  But over the years it started to feel …

2025 has been a productive year for Creative SEA so far. For the final quarter (Sept-Dec) before the buzzer goes off, we have some great public performances scheduled. These include A) the monthly Community Jazz Jam (now at a South Austin venue); B) an Interactive Concert, to explore popular songs in English and Spanish; C) the 14th Annual Texas Festivus Celebration (date and location coming soon).

In addition, Creative SEA hosts smaller informal community-building events. These have several interlocking purposes: …

Creative SEA had a pretty full year in 2024. The organization consolidated funding and programming, and this has given us momentum for 2025. As the founder of Creative SEA, my community-oriented music projects were an important starting point for the organization’s programming, but I want to see these programs evolve and deepen through the creative input and inspiration of our community partners. One of our priorities for 2025 is to incorporate visual arts into some of our programs, definitely not …