#WeAreNewMusic Spotlight:
Christopher Cerrone

Christopher Cerrone Photo: Molly Sheridan

Christopher Cerrone’s thought provoking yet emotionally charged music takes a great deal of inspiration from his voracious reading. His career trajectory roughly parallels the history of New Music USA and over the past decade, New Music USA has offered key support for some of his most significant musical projects, most notably his immersive Italo Calvino-inspired opera Invisible Cities, which was a finalist for the 2014 Pulitzer Prize in Music. It was a joy to learn that one of the things he has been actively reading, since he was 18 years old, is our web magazine, NewMusicBox!

Christopher discusses New Music USA’s impact:

“It was such a pleasant reminder that I have been supported consistently by New Music USA over the years, from those early CAP grants when to the most significant ones later on. The financial support was key, but the imprimatur of the organization, with its thorough vetting process, has also helped many of these projects come to life. In short, every step of the way, NMUSA has been there to help things along.

 

Surely, the funding of my first album, Invisible Cities, was key, both in helping make that project happen, but also the focus by a granting organization helping out with high-quality documentation is quite rare, so getting that first record out there was such an important moment for me, which abetted so much future work.

 

Of course, money is always nice, but it’s also really amazing to be featured among a genuinely diverse group of creators and to feel like part of that community.

 

Making art—particularly composing—is very lonely, and the community building that NMUSA does helps you remember that we can, if we choose, be in this together. I’ve been reading NewMusicBox since I was 18 years old (almost 20 years!) and looking back on this vicennial of nerding out, I am so thankful.

 

I’d love for us to make good on really opening up the field to more kinds of music and people by genuinely expanding access to a larger group of people, and for them to have the same opportunities I have been so lucky to have.”

Explore Christopher’s Work Funded by New Music USA: