Introducing Stream Stand
Stream Stand is the product of Ben Fortunato and Karen Gonzalez's vision for their Arts Management and Entrepreneurship Master of Arts Capstone project. Ben and Karen came together with a shared passion for presenting diverse musicians in the jazz industry, allowing them to tell their stories to audiences from all walks of life, catering to the virtual world the pandemic brought upon everyone.
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Stream Stand’s primary goal was to showcase a group of selected artists and add a human element to their music. People who watched season one of Stream Stand had the opportunity to donate to an “artist fund” where donors’ money was distributed evenly between each musician to provide a relief stipend to alleviate financial losses incurred due to the pandemic making live music impossible.
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Stream Stand was a success releasing four episodes showcasing women in jazz and a workshop hosted for free to audiences covering the "Building of Online Careers for Musicians." Ben and Karen raised $2,334 between April 11th-May 10th, all of which paid for administrative costs, workshop facilitation by a guest artist, musician stipends, and reserves for future projects. Karen and Ben were awarded the Dreyfus Graduation Award by The New School College of Performing Arts for their hard work and dedication to Stream Stand and the Arts Management and Entrepreneurship program.
Ben Fortunato
Ben Fortunato is a guitarist, composer, and teacher based in New York City. He graduated from The New School, with a BFA in Jazz performance and a Masters of Arts Management and Entrepreneurship. He has studied with notable musicians such as Peter Bernstein, Julian Lage, Kris Davis, Oz Noy, Hal Galper, Vic Juris, and Jonathan Kreisberg.
Performance highlights include traveling to Slovenia to perform in the 2019 Velenje Jazz clinic, Reggie Workman’s Coltrane Ensemble, New School Studio Orchestra directed by Ingrid Jensen, the Richard Boukas Choro Ensemble, New School’s (Un)Silent Film Festival, Andrew Lippa’s “The Wild Party” at NYU Tisch School of the Arts, and performing with Mike Stern at the Alternative Guitar Summit.
Fortunato was born in Princeton, New Jersey, and grew up in a musical family where he was exposed to all different kinds of music by his father, who is also a producer and pianist. He picked up the guitar at the curious age of 4 and never let go. As his obsession for guitar grew, other instruments such as piano, saxophone, and eventually bassoon made it into his musical practices. In high school and college, additional string instruments such as banjo, mandolin, cavaquinho, and ukulele were added to his assortment of instruments.
Now at age 23, Ben has an extensive private teaching studio consisting of over 20 students, plays regularly at clubs such as Groove, Silvana, Shrine, Vynl, DROM, Rockwood, and more; while also frequently working as a pit musician for NYMF, various off-broadway productions, and NYU.
When he isn’t playing music, he’s studying for law school. Fortunato has ambitions of becoming an entertainment lawyer and representing fellow artists in a court of law.
Karen Gonzalez
Karen is a vocalist, teacher, activist, entrepreneur from Colorado Springs, CO. Karen obtained her Bachelor of Music degree from the University of Northern Colorado in Music Business with a Jazz Studies emphasis and an Arts Entrepreneurship Certificate. Karen recently received her Master of Arts in Arts Management and Entrepreneurship from The New School.
Karen’s work revolves around creating equitable and inclusive spaces for underrepresented populations in the performing and visual arts. Karen is working towards starting a nonprofit that will provide opportunities to middle school and high school students of color looking to pursue higher education in the arts, mentorship she wished she had entered college. This initiative is inspired by her experiences in music school and calling out how race and socioeconomic status can primarily affect your performance in a performing arts college setting. Additionally, this nonprofit will allow students to prepare for the potential challenges that may occur as they pursue the next step in their education or career.
As a musician, Karen specializes in Jazz and Contemporary music singing styles in Jazz and Pop music. In addition, she teaches private voice to students ranging from ages 5-50 and enjoys every minute of it in her free time. As an Entrepreneur, Karen is a self-taught graphic designer who offers her logo, website design, and illustration services.
She dedicates this capstone project to the Fajardo School of the Arts in Fajardo, Puerto Rico, wherein a serendipitous moment she discovered this school and was inspired to apply for grad school to pursue her MA in Arts Management degree.
