Congratulations to two winners on receiving a Paul R. Judy Center for Innovation and Research Grant for the Spring 2024 cycle:

District5 won a $5,000 grant to support “The QUEEN-tet Project: a Symphonic Drag Story Hour.” District5 is a DC-based wind quintet unafraid to program the seemingly impossible. For over a decade, they have challenged and rewarded audiences with their distinct blend of powerful music, engaging storytelling, and commitment to under-represented composers.

“The QUEEN-tet Project: a Symphonic Drag Story Hour” is a collaboration between Tara Hoot, an award-winning DC-based drag queen, and District5, a wind quintet committed to promoting new works. Our story hour creates a novel exploration into unconventional storytelling through the melding of drag and classical music. The show includes readings of banned books and centers around the commission of a work for wind quintet + drag queen by composer Christen Taylor Holmes depicting Hoot’s life advice from a drag queen’s perspective. The project is timely and cultural awareness is urgently needed; Hoot received bomb threats in response to her work promoting family story hours and banned books in the past. Our commission results in a new genre, wind quintet + drag queen, and creates a sustainable opportunity for quintets and queens to perform together and promote LGBTQIA+ voices.

Hilary Glen and a group of cellist educators won a $5,000 grant to support Resonance: A Multicultural Cello method. These method books will offer a sequential approach to learning the cello from beginner to advanced levels using primarily Latin, African, Asian, Native American, and Middle Eastern music. The final product will include cello parts, piano accompaniments, ensemble parts, piece descriptions, audio and video recordings, and an interactive website. Most standard cello method books in the United States feature repertoire from a specific demographic: Western European and/or male. This approach presents issues: it excludes musical styles and elements from other cultures; it does not teach music representative of the diverse cultures in the United States; and it implies that students can learn to play the cello only through exclusive music. With our method, learning to play the cello and learning about classical music becomes more relevant, and a way for students to more fully express themselves. It will be seen as an avenue for creating belonging.

The next deadline to apply will be in the Fall of 2024, around October 1. The Fall 2024 grant cycle will be open to all US based individuals and organizations. Learn more here and check back in August for up to date information.

Congratulations to the seven winners of the Spring 2024 IML Mentorship grant from the IML!

Brandon Berlanga won a grant for his team at Blacktop Percussion for “The SCINTILLATIONS Recording Project.” The ensemble will record SCINTILLATIONS by Sebastian Zhang, an advanced 10-15 minute percussion quartet inspired by hip-hop and rock music, commissioned by Blacktop Percussion. The SCINTILLATIONS Recording Project is meant to play a large role in the Blacktop Percussion’s newest initiative: The Scintillations Project. The Scintillations Project is a mission to promote inclusivity within the music community by working with composers of diverse racial, gender, and LGBTQIA+ backgrounds to create exciting music that will serve as a vehicle for our message.

Congratulations to two organizations on receiving a Paul R. Judy Center for Innovation and Research Grant for the Fall 2023 cycle:

Walker West Music Academy won a $5,000 grant to support Stringocracy! Call and Response as Social Activism from Vivaldi to Hip Hop – Stringocracy! In conjunction with the national election and the energy from young people to engage in social justice efforts to foster social impact, this project culminates in a 90-minute concert that explores social activism through a “call & response” approach from a cross-section of music genres rooted in the African/African American cultural experience. The ensemble of high school string students will explore improvisation, a highly democratic dialectic form, as expressions of identity through their music performance.

One City Jazz from the VanderCook College of Music won a $5,000 grant to support their new drumline. One City addresses systemic inequity in music education by providing high quality instruments and expert instruction at no cost to children from underserved BIPOC neighborhoods where instrumental music is not provided in the public schools. Those who stick with the program until the end of 8th grade get to keep the instrument to use in high school and beyond. Over 120 children attend every Saturday and play in 1 of 3 jazz ensembles, our Suzuki violin program, or the new drum line. Our world-class, majority BIPOC artistic leadership team composes original repertoire for the program that draws on the rich musical heritage of our neighborhood Bronzeville. Currently, the drumline students are using drum pads to develop basic drumming technique, rhythm reading skills, and build a warm, welcoming ensemble rapport where high standards and expectations are supported and nurtured. Congratulations to Eastman alumna Leah Schuman ’96E (MM) ’01E (DMA) on her leadership of this program!

The Paul R. Judy Center for Innovation and Research is a division of the Institute for Music Leadership (IML) at the Eastman School of Music. The Center’s research and programming emphasizes the 21st Century evolution of the innovative ensemble, influenced by both the symphony orchestra and the chamber music traditions, with a focus on creative, artist-centered ensembles that reflect new models of artistic innovation, organizational relationships, and operational sustainability.

The next deadline to apply is February 1, 2024. The February 2024 grant cycle will be reserved for Eastman students, alumni, faculty and staff, and the organizations they represent. Learn more here.

Congratulations to the winners of the fall 2023 IML Mentorship grant from the IML!

Doctoral candidate Vincent Huang ’22E (MM) received an IML Mentorship Grant for his project Golden Tiger International Music Festival – Trombone Seminar. He will be launching a weeklong trombone festival located in Nanjing, China in the summer of 2024.

Rebecca Bryant Novak, a DMA candidate in Orchestral Conducting, received an IML Mentorship Grant for her project, ad hoc, a flexible chamber ensemble. The group will be performing concerts at Christ Church Rochester and the Harley School in January 2024.

The IML Mentorship grant supports independent creative projects led by matriculated Eastman students beyond the scope of their degree. The next deadline to apply is February 1, 2024. Learn more here.