Tag: fellowships

30 Fellows Selected for Inaugural Blackbird Creative Lab

In addition to award winning and boundary breaking, Eighth Blackbird is adding some serious mentoring to their activities. Thirty early-career musicians have been chosen to receive fellowships to the Blackbird Creative Lab, a newly launched two-week summer training program taking place Ojai, California, this June. The selected fellows will focus on the process of creating new work, including “developing a performance aesthetic, nurturing one’s curatorial vision, and building an entrepreneurial foundation,” all of which will culminate in a pair of public concerts, June 23 and 24, at the Besant Hill School’s Zalk Theater.

In addition to Eighth Blackbird ensemble members, the faculty will include composers Jennifer Higdon and Ted Hearne, as well as director/filmmaker Mark DeChiazza. During the session, an array of guest artists will complement the faculty: composer Steve Reich, composer/performer Pamela Z, flutist/composer Ned McGowan, and from the Ojai Music Festival, curator Tom Morris and producer Elaine Martone, who also serves as director of the Blackbird Creative Lab.

More than 200 candidates applied from around the world; the 30 selected will attend tuition-free, inclusive of room and board.

They are:

Justine Aronson, soprano
Erika Boysen, flute
Dan Caputo, composer
Danny Clay, composer
Viet Cuong, composer
Jordan Curcuruto, percussion
Fjóla Evans, composer
Robert Fleitz, piano
Bryan Hayslett, cello
Molly Herron, composer
Invoke, string quartet
Molly Joyce, composer
Matt Keown, percussion
Tamara Kohler, flute
Sammy Lesnick, clarinet
Kaylie Melville, percussion
Benjamin Mitchell, clarinet
Kate Outterbridge, violin
Passepartout Duo, piano + percussion duo
Evan Saddler, percussion
Jeff Stern, percussion
Michiko Theurer, violin
Dylan Ward, saxophone
Aaron Wolff, cello
Phoebe Wu, piano
Jocelyn Zelasko, soprano

Read more about the Blackbird Creative Lab and the inaugural class of fellows here.

Julia Wolfe Named 2016 MacArthur Fellow

Julia Wolfe is among the 23 recipients of 2016 MacArthur Fellowships. She was recognized for the creation of music that “combines influences from folk, classical, and rock genres in works that are grounded in historical and legendary narratives. Often described as post-minimalist, Wolfe demonstrates an openness to sonic possibilities, with choral elements and instruments such as the mountain dulcimer, bagpipes, and body percussion often augmenting string and orchestral arrangements.”

The Bang on a Can co-founder and co­–artistic director is noted for the integration of music, movement, and visual elements in her work. Currently associate professor of music composition at the Steinhardt School at New York University, Wolfe won the 2015 Pulitzer Prize for her piece Anthracite Fields, which explored the complex history of the coal mining industry.

The MacArthur Fellowship is a “no strings attached” award that comes with a stipend of $625,000 to the recipient, paid out in equal quarterly installments over five years. More information about the 2016 MacArthur fellows and the awarding process is available on the MacArthur Foundation website.

Hamilton Creator Lin-Manuel Miranda Named 2015 MacArthur Fellow

Playwright, composer, and performer Lin-Manuel Miranda, 35, has been named one of 2015’s MacArthur Fellows. The MacArthur Foundation’s website noted that he reimagines “American musical theater in works that fuse traditional storytelling with contemporary musical styles and voices. Well-versed in the structure and history of musical theater, Miranda expands its idiom with the aesthetic of popular culture and stories from individuals and communities new to Broadway stages.”

His critically lauded Hamilton (2015) explores the potential of hip-hop to reframe history. This further develops musical work he delved into with his Tony-winning production In the Heights (2007).

Lin-Manuel Miranda

Lin-Manuel Miranda
Photo courtesy the MacArthur Foundation.

Lin-Manuel Miranda received a B.A. from Wesleyan University in 2002. His other theater credits include co-composer and co-lyricist of Bring It On: The Musical (2011); actor in revivals of tick, tick…BOOM! (2014) and Merrily We Roll Along (2012); new original music for a revival of Working (2012); and the mini-musical, “21 Chump Street,” for This American Life (2014). He is also a member of the improv hip-hop group, Freestyle Love Supreme.

Learn more about Miranda on the MacArthur Foundation’s website.

Mimi Lien Photo courtesy the MacArthur Foundation

Mimi Lien
Photo courtesy the MacArthur Foundation

Mimi Lien, a set designer for theater, opera, and dance who worked on Dave Malloy’s Natasha, Pierre, and the Great Comet of 1812 among other immersive sets, was also among this year’s round of 24 fellows.

There are three criteria for selection of fellows: exceptional creativity, promise for important future advances based on a track record of significant accomplishment, and potential for the fellowship to facilitate subsequent creative work. The MacArthur Fellowship is a “no strings attached” award which comes with a stipend of $625,000 to the recipient, paid out in equal quarterly installments over five years. The foundation does not require or expect specific products or reports from MacArthur Fellows and does not evaluate recipients’ creativity during the term of the fellowship.

(–from the MacArthur Foundation’s website)