Orchestral Conducting with Mark Shapiro at Juilliard – Evening Division, Spring Semester 2024

Thanks to the support of The Clifford-Levy Creativity Grant, I was able to register for this class in Fall 2023. After only six weeks of lessons, I can already sense how beneficial it has been musically and personally. Mark Shapiro has challenged me to conduct from memory, thus triggering me to study the music in depth and allowing me to hear more and more voices simultaneously. As a result, I am discovering how to listen to symphonies and practice in my head anywhere I go. Developing this focus and musical enjoyment has acted as a meditation and inspired me. Additionally, our group class is highly stimulating, and Mark Shapiro’s kind and sharp mentoring approach is a fantastic source of artistic and overall energy. I have also noticed how his teaching is affecting mine and how developing my listening, group management, and attention is benefiting my classes. For all these reasons, I am grateful to be a recipient of a grant to help cover the tuition expense for the spring semester.

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Duo Noire’s Quarter Century Soundscape

To provide support to the classical guitar ensemble Duo Noire in their commissioning of a new collection of groundbreaking compositions for guitar duo by some of the leading composers of our generation. The commissioned work(s) will be recorded and released as a full-length album under the American Composer's Forum record label, Innova. Each composition will represent a drastically different compositional aesthetic, ranging from guitars with vocal backing tracks, to purely acoustic, to guitars with electronics, to jazz and classical fusion composers, to film composers. The album will feature new music which strives to seriously reflect the modern world and the diverse musicians and soundscapes of our time.

Duo Noire has a vision for what the classical guitar can be and how it can break away from the past 70 years of traditions in order to speak to a new generation of listeners. Our last album, Night Triptych, was life changing for me and only exists because of the seed money granted from Diller-Quaile and provided by The Clifford-Levy Creativity Grant. It was an "album of the year" in multiple publications and allowed our duo to tour across the country at several of the top classical guitar organizations in the United States. Being able to share that success and experience with my students has been invaluable. Aside from forging new and deeper connections with luminaries in our field, this type of project can help to raise the profile of the Guitar Department, which in turn increases student retention and the recruitment of first-rate guitar faculty. Similar to our previous album, the hope is that these works will get Diller-Quaile mentioned in myriad international press and artist bios at major guitar events, and that some of the composers will go on to win prestigious awards and prominent positions in the music field. Of the three composers we previously commissioned through The Clifford-Levy Creativity Grant, two were later nominated for GRAMMYs and the third just won a MacArthur "genius grant."

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Fanny Hensel Mendelssohn: “The unconventional ornament” CD recording of her piano works

During the months of May-June 2024, I will make a CD Recording of already published and unpublished Fanny Hensel Mendelssohn piano compositions. This will enable the listener to better appreciate Hensel's music and the composer's unique musical voice. By undertaking this project, the aim is to inspire and to contribute to the growing body of knowledge on Fanny Hensel's music and promote her works to a wider audience. It is truly admirable how Fanny Hensel dedicated herself to composing, despite the lack of recognition she received during her lifetime. Her passion for music is evident through the creation of over 450 pieces. She didn't create music for fame or approval, but rather out of a pure inner drive to express herself. Fanny also generously wrote new pieces for the artists who performed in her concert series. It's unfortunate that her brother Felix Mendelssohn, who was already a well-known composer in Germany at the time, received more recognition than she did. This highlights the struggles faced by women who were denied their rightful place in the creative space. Gender inequality has been an issue for centuries, affecting the treatment of women across various sectors and areas of life. By adding my voice to the increasing number of recordings of female composers, I am helping to break down barriers and pave the way for future generations of women in music. I would like to encourage my fellow colleagues and students to join me in this pursuit of creativity and inspiration. I hope to inspire and empower more young women to follow their dreams and pursue their passions in the arts.

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