The Café Royal Cultural Foundation NYC has awarded a 2021 Summer Fall Grant to Catherine Brookman (she/her) a performer/composer based in Brooklyn. Originally from Baltimore, her art pop project is called Sullivann and she is currently working on her first solo effort, a double album, produced with Chris Botta at Figure8,called “If a song fades out, it’s playing forever somewhere” to be released in 2022 after her debut EP, Elements.

Catherine used to go to shows and whisper in her friends’ ears when a song faded out, that the implication was it would somewhere, somehow be playing forever. She has trouble with endings. Catherine can’t stop writing about this past year so she’s embarking on a double album recording project.

The music deals with the experience of time passing, collapsing, unfinished business, heartbreak, loneliness, depression. “I’m making a case for admitting how much we need each other, for unapologetic vulnerability.”

Past performances include Meredith Monk's ATLAS with the LA Philharmonic directed by Yuval Sharon (Walt Disney Concert Hall), the 2020 Vanguard Gala Honoring Laurie Anderson, Julius Eastman’s Joy Boy with the LA Philharmonic (The Ford), an all-night drone concert with Grammy-nominated LA ensemble Wild Up, supporting jazz and pop acts Esperanza Spalding (Baltimore Symphony) and Lorde (Electric Lady), in Dave Malloy's Natasha, Pierre & the Great Comet of 1812 (Off-Broadway) and Hair (Broadway). She composes music for theatre and film and her work has been seen/heard at Lincoln Center, The Public, Ars Nova, Nitehawk Cinema, HERE Arts, rooftops, parks, galleries, apartments and more. As a composer/performer she has created full-length scores for Give it a Go with collaborator/choreographer Lisa Fagan (2020 Target Margin resident artist), solo live-scores for William Burke's Variations on the Main (JACK), PIONEERS#goforth (JACK), choral music for The Shes (The Public), and Rady&Bloom's The Upper Room (NYTimes Critic's Pick, New Ohio). Catherine is excited to receive a MacDowell Fellowship 2021/2022 and will be in residence there this coming Winter/Spring.

During the pandemic, Catherine drove to Kanarraville, Utah and stayed in an airstream on her friend's family's farm, to Colorado where it was snowing in June. She hiked a lot of solo 13-mile hikes around Colorado, New Mexico, Arizona, California, she saw 6 bears in 3 days while running. She went skydiving and passed out in the sky; then woke up in the sky. Catherine called producer, Chris Botta, and told him what she had been up to and he said “you need to come home and let’s make a record”.

Please visit Sullivann’s Instagram, and website for more information.