The Open Arts Café
The West London Synagogue has no doubt led many people to do a double take, but on the fourth Thursday of the month the Open Arts Café arrives, bringing a unique programme of arts to this stunning venue.
Artistic Director Maya Levy explains: ‘In 2008, Tyne Rafaeli and I wanted to create an evening where artists of all media could show new work. Open Arts Café is a non-religious event, the WLS kindly act as patrons of the arts and enable us with the space and free food.’
Free food, cheap drinks and donations at the door that pay the artists, make the Open Arts Café one of the best performance evenings in London.
Despite presenting new work OAC has always impressed with quality, something Maya keeps an eye on: ‘Artists need to have a high enough confidence level. It needs to be entertaining: if it is a failure, it needs to be a noble failure. It is not so much an open mic night, it’s a carefully curated arts evening. Still, it’s my aim to introduce new artists, I love audience members to think “I really like this Joe Schmoe, I’m going to look him up”.’
One new artist performing on March 22 is Zosia, a musician studying at the Guildhall School for Music and Drama; ‘I started songwriting when I had to take a term out because of a neck injury. I have always been writing poetry and friends encouraged me to try lyrics. I performed at a friend’s festival and it went from there.’
Zosia started playing the violin before switching to the cello and notes her family isn’t particularly musical: ‘My mum wears earplugs when I practise!’ Her solo work is influenced by contemporary classical and Eastern European music. ‘I like working with interlocking, dissonance and suspense. There are some jazzy influences, I like to play with the textures of cello sound. I find it hard to describe but others have called it dramatic, almost visual.’
Gigging on a cello is different to playing a classical concert: ‘When I’m playing my own songs I feel more genuine than playing classic pieces, I feel like I’m being myself but it also makes you more vulnerable.’
For Zosia it all started last year at the Nine Muses Festival in Oxford after which she rolled into further performances at Pop Up Circus, and at the Creative Collective at Cafe 1001. She is looking forward to more gigging and finishing her album; ‘I would also like to see whether film people might be interested in collaborating and see if we could set something up.’
She might find her collaborator during the next OAC where visual artists also exhibit and new short films are often screened.
The OAC has a very friendly and generous atmosphere which Maya’s rightly proud of: ‘The artists rise to the atmosphere and during my own performance on the evening, I encourage the audience to participate: it is not theatre with a capital T. It’s really important to me that people have a really good night.’
Open Arts Café takes place every fourth Thursday of the month at:
West London Synagogue
34 Upper Berkeley Street
Marble Arch
W1H 5AU
Tel: 020 7535 0250
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