Headliners

Playing around

By Amanda Heironimus

Kate Pivoriunas

For one evening, the Arena District's bustling Spice Bar will fall silent. Or at least relatively so.

On Saturday, Capitol Square Rotary hosts its third-annual Music in the Round, an intimate performance by three singer-songwriters.

In an attempt to restore some liveliness to the Rotary club image, chapter President Lee Bass says he was looking for a musical project to aid community-based nonprofits. Former president Kirk Horn suggested a performance format he'd seen used in Nashville.

"I loved the concept," Bass says. "The artists sit facing each other, surrounded by the audience. There are only two rules: the artists must play songs they've written themselves, and must play them on the instruments on which they were written. The audiences get to see the creative process up close and personal. They hear the artists talk about their songs, particularly the emotions experienced before, during and after the song's creation."

Taking the stage this year are Jason Quicksall, Donna Mogavero and Kate Pivoriunas. "We try to find a good mix of some of the best local and regional songwriters, or those that started here and are now somewhere else," Bass says.

Pivoriunas falls into the latter category. The Toledo native penned her first songs just before moving to Columbus to attend OSU. Here, she emerged in the scene with folk-rock band A Modest Proposal. As graduation approached, Pivoriunas had to choose between putting her journalism degree to work or pursuing music as a career.

Her story thus far sounds like fodder for a movie script, and it only gets more Hollywood-friendly. When two of her childhood friends announced they were headed to New York City, Pivoriunas saw it as serendipitous.

"I figured if I went to New York, where I'd be mixed in with the best and the worst, I'd find out if [music] is what I'm meant to be doing with my life," she says.

And so far, so good. After two and a half years in Brooklyn, she's dug her feet into the scene there, forming a new backing band and hosting an open-mic in Greenwich Village. Now she's ready for a homecoming.

"It's great to come back to Ohio. I love Columbus, I miss it," she says. "There's going to be a lot of old friends there that I haven't seen, and I can't wait to show them what I've been doing for the past two and a half years."

Two of those friends will share the bill with her. "Jason's a buddy of mine and I totally admire him as a songwriter. I've gigged with him and Donna, and I can't wait to do it again," she says.

Quicksall's pop Americana and Mogavero's folk-rock sensibilities make the musicians apt stage-mates.

And all three share a sense of social responsibility. "If I can use what I have to get attention for a charity, that's awesome," Pivoriunas says. "A really important part of being someone who's in the spotlight is to use that to get attention for the causes that need our help."

The beneficiary in this case is the Rosemont Center, which provides counseling and other services to Columbus' troubled young people and their families.

Attendees will also have the chance to snag a copy of Pivoriunas' limited-release Lion Songs. She describes the four-track sampler as "raw, stripped and simple." Recorded with several friends, including fellow Columbus transplant Megan Palmer, only 100 copies of Lions Songs will be pressed.

And should you need any further prodding to attend Music in the Round this year, Mogavero offers one more reason to get out of the house: "Good karma."

April 17, 2008

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