By Patrice Wilson

Elizabeth Kowalski wants to bring art to the people.  

“That’s part of my purpose, to do art and to be an artist, but to also create space for other artists and bring that to the people,” said Kowalski, the recipient of a 2023 ASC Creative Renewal Fellowship to refresh her creative energy and develop her creative capacity.

A Charlotte native and composer, producer and creator of multi-disciplinary artistic experiences, Kowalski began studying music when she was a child.

“I was fortunate enough that my parents put me into piano lessons when I was little,” she said. “I picked up flute in middle school band and I gradually started learning improvisation and composition.”

During her final years of high school, Kowalski took her musical training to a new level. 

“I actually homeschooled myself the last two years of high school,” she said. “I wanted to be a touring keyboard piano player. I heard Olympic athletes in high school home schooled and trained for like 6 hours a day and I was like, ‘Man, I want to do that but for music,’ and I did that.”

After graduating with a major in piano from UNC Charlotte, Kowalski experienced an unfortunate incident that changed her musical trajectory – but not her devotion to music. When she was 21, she was hit by a car shortly after finishing her piano coursework.

“I couldn’t even hold a piece of paper or a glass of water in my left hand,” she said. “So, I pretty much finished the degree and couldn’t even use it.”

Daunted but not discouraged, Kowalski’s focus shifted to developing her portfolio in composition and she earned a master’s degree from UNC Greensboro. Upon graduation, Kowalski was faced with a decision – moving to L.A., New York or Boston to pursue opportunities in one of those cities or making a go of it in Charlotte.

“I was just seeing a lot of my music school classmates doing odd jobs and there wasn’t really anything for us to do for work,” she said. “But my nieces were just being born and I didn’t want to miss them and my parents getting older, so I decided to start putting on festivals small scale. I didn’t know what I was doing – I learned everything on the internet by just doing my research and I delivered.”

Kowalski began Neon Rose Productions after choosing Charlotte.

“Neon is for marketing and advertising; Rose is for love,” she said. “Those two things propel everything that I do.” She has been “bringing art to the people in a way that moves” ever since.

Kowalski is using her fellowship to work with established festival producers and engage in networking opportunities that will build her abilities to continue impacting Charlotte-Mecklenburg’s creative scene. She hopes to implement some of what she learns ahead of the Stargazer Music Festival, SkyFall Edition III, in November. Kowalski founded Charlotte New Music, which is presenting the event.

“Nobody taught me how to do this,” she said, so with her fellowship, “I am going to learn more from people who know, have been established and can teach me more about [producing]. I want to be more effective at curating larger spaces for people to come together. I want to be a more effective leader.”