Isabelle O'Connell

To Attend and Perform at the Contemporary Music Conference: “New Music Gathering”, Baltimore, MD

The New Music Gathering is an annual four-day conference dedicated to the performance, production, promotion, support, and creation of new concert music. Taking place at the Peabody Institute of Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore, the focus of this conference was on “Communities.” The conference featured concerts, lecture recitals, roundtable discussions, and talks. The Keynote address was given by Marin Alsop, Music Director of the Baltimore Symphony, whose outreach initiatives include ‘OrchKids’, a program providing music education, instruments, meals, and mentorship to Baltimore’s neediest young people. Isabelle believes it is important to keep the classical music tradition alive and relevant through the music of today’s living composers. The theme of this conference made it relevant to the community music setting of Diller-Quaile, as it involved building musical communities through teaching, faculty concerts, and outreach. At the conference, Isabelle identified possible new repertoire for students by today’s living composers, and shared these discoveries with piano faculty through a workshop or presentation.