Stuart’s Opera House in Nelsonville, Ohio presents a Backstage Evening with Haley Heynderickx on Friday, April 5th at 8:00 pm. Haley Heynderickx will perform a solo set with the audience sitting right on the Stuart’s stage with the her! Sheers will open the show. Heynderickx is a 2018 Nelsonville Music Festival alumni and crowd favorite and has received plenty of acclaim for last year’s debut album I Need to Start a Garden. Through soft acoustic guitar picking and deftly accented trombone sighs, Heynderickx’s music immediately recalls folk music of the ’60s and ’70s mixed with a love of jazz radio. But Heynderickx’s singing—her vocals that range from sultry to operatic—belie a tenacity in her soul. Tickets are on sale now at (740) 753-1924 or www.stuartsoperahouse.org.

It takes a mix of skill and luck to tend a garden well, but it’s impossible without a certain amount of amount of kindness tended. While the cyclical nature of gardening seems inherent, in some ways, Heynderickx is just beginning. Her debut album, named I Need to Start a Garden out of a search for calm through these waves of uncertainty and upheaval, was released in 2018 via Mama Bird Recording Co. For the empathetic singer/songwriter, the reasons for seeking such acceptance and understanding stem from a life of paradoxes. Heynderickx grew up in a religious household in Oregon, closely identifying with her Filipino roots, but also straddling multiple cultural identities.

Now residing in Portland, her faith is not overt, but her introspection and continued struggle for self-actualization are easily accessible and relatable.Likewise, the tracks on I Need to Start a Garden reflect these seemingly disparate elements. Through soft acoustic guitar picking and deftly accented trombone sighs, Heynderickx’s music immediately recalls folk music of the ’60s and ’70s mixed with a love of jazz radio. But Heynderickx’s singing—her vocals that range from sultry to operatic—belie a tenacity in her soul. It’s a balance, then, between exposing and protecting herself on I Need to Start a Garden. Heynderickx vacillates between between powerlessness (opener “No Face”) and empowerment (lead single “Oom Sha La La”). But her generosity of spirit remains the constant throughout the whole album.

Sheers will open the show. Sheers’ music cuts in ways where expressive & ambitious pop vignettes become expansive songs.” (Impose Magazine) Sheers is the neo-classical pop project of harpist and singer Lily Breshears, who draws inspiration from the likes of Claude Debussy, Olivier Messiaen, and Rihanna. The result is “exceedingly strange but beautiful, like something you’d find in a futuristic speakeasy” (Portland Mercury). At the age of 27, Breshears has finally accepted she has never and will never be a child prodigy.

Haley Heynderickx plays Stuart’s Opera House in Nelsonville, Ohio on Friday, April 5th at 8:00pm. This is an all-backstage show, the audience will sit on the stage with the performer. Sheers will open the show. General admission tickets are $19.50 in advance or $24.50 at the door. For more information call (740) 753-1924 or visit our website at www.stuartsoperahouse.org.
X