Masterworks Museum of Bermuda Art has held three month long Artist-in-Residence programmes over the years and now Free Up Productions has followed suit with a Musician-in-Residence Programme.

Free Up Productions founder Lindsey Ternent explained that the Musician-In-Residence Programme will hold a concert tonight entitled "Lady Day: A Tribute to a Jazz Legend." The concert will feature musician-in-residence Leslie Helpert with the Billie Holiday Tribute Quartet.

The event, which takes place this evening at the Fairmont Southampton's Wine Cellar, will also feature Bermuda Idol 2004 first runner up Joy Barnum.

"She has her quartet and they are based in Georgia and are pretty popular right now," said Miss Ternent.

"She will come down on March 29 at the Wine Cellar for the introductory concert, it is secret spot that not many people know of.

"It is a really great atmosphere and I think it goes along with the Bermuda old style jazz that we are looking to recapture."

Miss Ternent explained that the idea of the Musician-In-Residence Programme was something that she had thought of a few years ago.

"It seems as though I come up with these basic ideas and then they end up turning into something entirely different," she explained.

"My idea was working with a Musician-in-Residence and she was the one. I had been working with her and I knew she did these Billy Holiday Tribute Concerts, so originally I wanted to bring her down here just to do that.

"I'm not really quite sure how it ended up becoming this, but after talking to a lot of my friends who I use as advisors, the idea was formed to do something like the Masterworks Foundation does with their Artist-in-Residence programme.

"So, I figured why not have a Musician-in-Residence Programme."

She then had a meeting with the then Minister of Community and Cultural Affairs Wayne Perinchief, now Dale Butler, and he reminisced about the Bermuda music scene of yore.

"He said said that when he was younger, he remembered that bars all down Front Street had local musicians playing there, and that is not a fact anymore," explained Miss Helpert of the Minister's comment.

"It is very hard and Collie Buddz has been something of a revelation and even Heather Nova struggled for about ten years in London.

"I think that the potential for this programme to have a musician coming down here every year or even if I can get enough funding to have it continually it will benefit local musicians who don't have a chance to leave Bermuda.

"It will allow them to get experience and to meet people of all different (musical) genres.

"I think that in the short to long term, I guess five to ten years down the road; it's going to have a real impact on the quality of music available on this Island."

Miss Helpert added that with many hotels being built or renovated, this would offer another venue for local musicians.

"It is a huge opportunity for local musicians to get constant paying jobs," she said.

"It is very hard and there aren't any musicians that I know of in Bermuda that are full time musicians, which is a shame. There are many musicians in the States who live off almost nothing, but they are still full time musicians and they can't do that here."

The Musician-In-Residence Programme will also allow for another musical exchange.

"So also it is also an opportunity to have a local musician-in-residence working at the same time as the international Musician-in-Residence," said Miss Helpert.

"Not everyone gets along, but if they are working towards the same goal and they can perform at the same concert, but hopefully they want to work together."

This year, Ms Helpert will work along with a young local violinist.

"There will be a series of workshops that Leslie is going to do as with Taylor Rankin and improv workshops," she said.

"One of them is a free walk in for vocalists, so free to anyone who wants to improve their singing voice.

"Of the free vocal lessons, Leslie is not only a professional musician, she is also a yoga instructor and vocal coach, so we are going to be doing this one class that will be a three hour session that will be yoga and voice.

"Basically, she is going to be teaching you how to control breath, body and the voice. So she requires yoga mats. It is definitely something different from what they may have experienced at a vocal lesson.

"It is going to be a lot of movement, when it comes to the controlling of the breath.

"Behind the music improvisational techniques that you can use for you own life or on stage workshops are open to anyone who is 12 and up."

Interested in all round positive reinforcement, she rang up the Kaleidoscope Arts Foundation.

"I wanted to offer the programme to them to see how I could help them," she said.

"I think that Kaleidoscope has done a lot of positive things that have made it into the news and made a splash and they are doing things in a different way.

"They are also another small charity that is fighting against a lot of bigger charities to get sponsorship and it is very difficult to do that.

"I was very grateful to the Ministry for taking that big step, that leap of faith to give me sponsorship to do this. It was a wonderful surprise.

"So I am helping out Kaleidoscope Arts Foundation and I'm in talks with (Wendell) Shine Hayward, who is the head if of everything now to do with the arts."

The aim is also to have Ms Helpert carry out workshops/talks in the schools.

"I also wanted to go into the music classes to do some very casual question and answer sessions, just to show them that there is other types of music out there," said Miss Ternent.

"If any are interested in the music industry they can ask questions about what the music industry is like in America. So that is an informational library right there."

On the other side, not only does Bermuda get to have a musician, but also the musician gets to experience Bermudian culture, added Miss Ternent.

"Also as a musician, you will get to meet a lot of different types of people that you would not get to meet if you were just visiting Bermuda," she said.

"And those musicians are going to become walking billboards for Bermuda, which is exactly what we need right now."

She is also working with Chewsitck's CEO Gavin Smith, who she met when they were members of Greenrock, which is an environmental awareness charity.

"Chewstick is great and I am working very closely with Gavin Smith right now, he is probably going to be heading up the group/executive (Music-in-Residence Programme)," she said.

"We have very similar ideas and Chewstick wants to go international."

Her thoughts were that in 15 years or so, the idea could be taken to other small population towns to get that chance for cultural exchange.

"I think it could begin to get rid of a lot of ignorance, which causes fear and then war," she said.

Someone who donated her cottage for the three months has blessed the Musician-in-Residence Programme this year.

"She was very obviously an art lover by the stuff that was in her house, so I don't think that I will be able to do that again for another year, so obviously I am going to have to find a more permanent residence for musicians in the future," Miss Ternent said.

"But for this one - for three months she has a place to stay.

"I'm not sure if she (the donor) is going to want to do it for a second year in a row, but we'll see. I hope once it is out and more people know about it, it'll be easier for me to receive more sponsorship or free accommodation and that sort of stuff.

"The Government has put down money for just this year, but when the programme concludes in June, I will meet with them again, because the Ministers have also changed and I have never met with Dale Butler before.

"So I definitely want to shake his hand and see if they are interested in making it more of a yearly donation," she said.

"We are starting small and hopefully working our way up."

All proceeds go to the Bermuda School of Music.

For more information on both this weekend's concert and the workshops, please visit www.freeupproductions.com.

Time 8 pm till midnight.

Tickets $40, available from www.boxoffice.bm