Making Music Memorable: M³ Festival Hits Brooklyn

As the dog days of summer come to an end, the 2nd annual Mutual Mentorship for Musicians Festival returns to Brooklyn at the Roulette Intermedium from September 21 to 23. 

Jen Shyu / photo by Steven Schreiber/ courtesy of the artist

Better known as M³, this festival celebrates the brilliance and musicianship of 21 composer-performers as they share with audiences innovative and groundbreaking pieces in the jazz and creative music scene. 

Initially created by vocalist-composers Jen Shyu and Sara Serpa, the mission of M³ is a platform that exists to empower, elevate, normalize, and give visibility to women, non-binary musicians, and other historically underrepresented gender identities. Through a cohort model, these musicians collaborate to create harmony through original compositions. 

Sara Serpa / courtesy of the artist

“This year’s festival musicians from M³’s 3rd and 4th cohorts are hands down some of the most groundbreaking composer-performers in the world today, each with a stunning clarity of vision that you’ll rarely if ever find gathered together in one place,” says Shyu.

When COVID-19 forced lockdowns in New York City, Shyu and Serpa collaborated to begin M³, due to their own experiences of having limited access to women and non-binary mentors as they began their careers. Most of their mentors were male musicians.    Through this, they “combined concepts of mutual mentorship and group support to create a model to address the gaps and imbalances in the music industry,” as stated on their website. 

What sets this festival apart from others is the unique style in which the cohorts operate. For some time, these musicians have collaborated remotely, never meeting face-to-face. With the opportunity to not only showcase their work, but to also meet one another for the first time, there is hope that the festival’s atmosphere will be charged with creative energy, fostering an environment of harmony and artistic exploration that can only arise when like-minded visionaries come together, as mentioned in the official press release.