Poolside Performances are an exploration of experimental music, movement, and mark-making. The Verdant Kind, Music for Vocals, Strings, Birds, and Machines is an open-air sonic vision performed by Detroit native artist, Vespre. This performance is an expression of Vespre’s passion for music that exists in the beautiful tension between acoustic and electronic instrumentation. Joined by a vocal ensemble, strings, and accompanied by the sounds of our natural world, Vespre will be reimagining her original music and newer work along with paying tribute to some of the artists who have inspired her creative practice amid the verdant surroundings of the Cranbrook Art Museum grounds near the Triton Pools.
Vespre is the musical project of artist and curator, Kaylan F. Waterman. Waterman was born and raised on Detroit’s West Side in the Grandmont-Rosedale neighborhood. Her first exposure to performing was as a member of the Rosedale Park Baptist Church children’s choir at the age of 8. Throughout childhood and adolescence, she studied classical piano and cello, going on to participate as both a SPHINX student as well as a performer in the Dearborn Youth Symphony.
As a teenager, Waterman taught herself guitar and fell deeply in love with songwriting. She began performing locally while studying Biology at the University of Detroit-Mercy.
In 2010, Waterman formed a folk-soul band, The Normandies, releasing an EP called “The Shoreline” in 2014 and performing locally until 2016. In 2017, Waterman began to focus her efforts on learning digital production, performing as Vespre, and building a new band to support her project. Since then, she has curated performances for the Allied Media Conference, the Detroit Symphony Orchestra’s Sosnick Courtyard summer series, and SXSW, among others. Vespre released her debut, self-produced EP “things we want to know” in February, 2024.
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