‘Catalyst Sessions’ recap: Kasondra Rose

Streaming weeknights at 7 on the Catalyst Facebook page, The Catalyst Sessions is our way of keeping St. Petersburg connected with its ever-vibrant arts community. It’s a combination of conversation, performance, good humor – and speculation, of course, about what we’ll all be doing once the current crisis situation has ended.

On Wednesday’s edition of The Catalyst Sessions, singer/songwriter Kasondra Rose joined us – virtually -and performed a pair of beautiful original tunes.

Rose has been performing virtual concerts, streamed live from her home studio, on a regular basis during her safer-at-home isolation. There’s always a virtual tip jar on display, because as a working musician, she’s feeling the financial pinch of these difficult times.

Performing virtually, Rose admitted, takes some getting used to. “When you’re on a stage with an audience out in front of you, that’s easier.”

A one-time Top 40 singer, Rose remembers well what being in a band felt like. “When there’s a group of people with you, it doesn’t feel like so much pressure,” she said. “But when it’s just you and your guitar, it feels a lot more terrifying. But I think in a way that’s kind of what I’m always chasing – ‘what’s the next scary thing that I can get over?’”

She cleared another hurdle by joining the Florida Bjorkestra, the multi-player musical ensemble created and fronted by creative alchemist Jeremy Douglass.

“Jeremy Douglass could ask me to do anything, and I would just tell him yes,” Rose said. “He has such a great group of people around him. It is such an honor to be on the same stage as all of those musicians and singers. We always have a wonderful time.

“And even since we’ve all been self-isolating here, Jeremy has been full of creative ideas – everyone has free time on their hands, and he’d saying ‘Let’s do this,’ and everyone’s sending him videos …”

The group had a concert scheduled for April at the Palladium … a reprise of their Buffy the Vampire Slayer extravaganza, which sold out twice before.

Douglass, Rose insists, is making sure his aggregate is sticking together in the virtual world.

“So we don’t feel like we lost the gig. We feel like we’re postponing the gig until a time when everyone can feel safer and happier about being together.”

Tonight (Thursday, April 2): Bossa nova and conversation with musicians Nate Najar and Daniela Soledade.