Lumedia wins Munich Music Video Award

When you think of early classical music, images of flying poker chips, swinging lassos, and card sharks don’t usually come to mind. But at Lumedia Musicworks anything is possible, including winning Best Comedy Music Video at the Munich Music Video Awards, an IMDb qualifying competition.

In addition to live concert programming, Lumedia creates short films inspired by early music. Their latest project features one of the best “big, trashy French” harpsichord pieces, meaning highly dramatic, idiosyncratic, and over-the-top, as explained by harpsichordist Molly Hammond.

Artistic director Julianna Emanski elaborates: “We love trashy French harpsichord music, especially Royer’s. Listening to Le Vertigo for the first time, for some reason, scenes of the wild west popped into my head. They stuck. We agreed that this piece should become a silent western.”

Directed by Derrick Robert Brown, the short was filmed at the historic White Elephant Saloon in Fort Worth, Texas. Parts of the script were improvised in the moment. The title of the film The Last Haw came up unexpectedly as the Bartender threw down her apron and spewed the line “You’ve yee’d your last haw!”.

The Last Haw is an example of how Lumedia fulfills its mission to bring early music to life, and reach a wider audience through unexplored mediums. “This award takes that effort to a global audience and expands our organization’s reach in a new way,” said Brown.

The Munich Music Video Awards mission is “to expand the boundaries of traditional filmmaking” in which music plays a major role.

Lumedia Musicworks, a 501(c)3 non-profit organization, makes their short films available to watch at no cost on their website (www.LumediaMusicworks.com) and YouTube channel (www.youtube.com/c/LumediaMusicworks).

Donations are greatly appreciated.