Congratulations to the following winners of a Paul R. Judy Center for Innovation and Research Grant:
- Rising Artist Foundation: Fourth River (Fall 2024)
- Brass Beyond: Statewide Side-by-Side (Spring 2025)
- Lakes Area Music Festival: 2025 Festival (Spring 2025)
The Rising Artist Foundation elevates a broad spectrum of voices in American music. The Foundation fosters creative and professional growth in the early stages of a musician’s career to nurture uncompromising artistic expression. Their grant will support their project, “Fourth River,” an autumn 2025 collaboration between nonprofit The Rising Artist Foundation and established local music collective, Honcho.
Named in homage to the city’s underground, essential aquifer, this program will help artists nourish and navigate their creative careers with clarity. The program will offer financial, creative and professional support to Pittsburgh’s vibrant music community. Full program details and application requirements will be announced soon.
Rising Artist Foundation
Rising Artist Foundation
Brass Beyond
Brass Beyond (BB) is a 501(c)(3) pending organization that empowers pre-professional female and gender expansive brass musicians through workshops and performance opportunities emphasizing community, founded by Catie Hickey ’07E.
The Statewide Side-By-Side will be a one day event of workshops and performances hosted on an Illinois university campus. The side by side model emphasizes the “windows and mirrors” concept of mentorship first piloted by Emily Style in 1988. Style affirms that in order to imagine a future self, students need to see their own personal identities reflected in the mentors they encounter on their learning journey. The day will include a warm-up session, instrument-specific masterclass, panel with invited guest artists, and rehearsal/performance component of brass ensemble music that represents differentiated performing levels and female/gender expansive composers.
The Lakes Area Music Festival sparks connections between its central Minnesota community and the nation’s top classical performers to create transformative musical experiences. Now in its 17th annual season, the Lakes Area Music Festival (LAMF) brings over 200 of the world’s top classical musicians to rural central Minnesota for three weeks of chamber music and orchestral performances, as well as an original opera production. In addition to its main stage concerts, LAMF fills this rural area with opportunities for education and enrichment areas including a week-long day camp for elementary-aged kids, free community events, and an outreach initiative which brings performances to jails, domestic abuse shelters, and elder care facilities. The festival was founded by Scott Lykins ’09E, ’11E (MM), and John Taylor Ward ’10E.
The next deadline to apply is October 1, 2025. The Fall 2025 grant cycle will be open to all US-based applicants, while the Spring 2026 cycle will be limited to those with Eastman affiliation, including alumni, and current faculty, staff, and students. Learn more here and check back in August for up to date application information.
More about the Rising Artist Foundation:
The Rising Artist Foundation was founded in 2019 and fully incorporated as a 501(c)(3) nonprofit in 2021. Friends Ben Rafson and Nereya Otieno combined their decade+ expertise in artist/record label management and nonprofit strategy, respectively to provide emerging musicians in the US and its territories with resources and industry education to have agency over their careers. Inspired by numerous countries around the world who allocate significant funds to supporting artists, recognizing the economic and cultural value they bring to modern life, the foundation aims to bring the same systematized support to the US — focusing on artists from underserved communities.
The foundation began Office Hours, a monthly music industry educational series in collaboration with United Musicians and Allied Workers (UMAW) in autumn 2024. After finding success in Los Angeles and New York, the series is expanding to Philadelphia, Denver and Seattle. In addition to getting young artists in the room with industry professionals, the program provides resources on crucial information that is often difficult for emerging and independent artists to obtain.
As a small organization, the work the Rising Artist Foundation pursues is ambitious in scope. They have received grants from Sony Global Justice Fund, The Flora L. Thornton Foundation, the Bertha Lebus Charitable Trust, and Rock-It Global. The need for their work is evidenced by the support of notable board members Moses Sumney and L’Rain, the lasting relationships they make with their grantees and the thousands of artists who access their educational resources. They are excited for the future, and creating a more equitable music landscape for all young people hoping to pursue a career as a music artist.
In 2022, the foundation ran its first grant program OVERTONES. Developed in collaboration with internationally acclaimed musician Nicolás Jaar and his record label Other People, the 8-week program supported eight emerging electronic musicians in Los Angeles with a financial grant, music making tools, health coverage and an industry education curriculum that hosted 22 guest speakers from different corners of the music industry. The program resulted in a compilation release, a sold out showcase at legendary venue Catch One and international press coverage from the likes of Resident Advisor, BBC Radio and Document Journal among others.
More about Brass Beyond:
Founded in 2023, Brass Beyond, NFP is dedicated to providing opportunities for music education and performance for pre-professional female and gender expansive musicians. Brass Beyond’s signature event, the Windy City Trombone Retreat, takes place each summer at North Park University. The organization also hosts jazz jam sessions for students ages 14-22 and is planning the statewide side-by-side concert for high school musicians.
More about the Lakes Area Music Festival:
The Lakes Area Music Festival (LAMF) of Minnesota was established during the summer of 2009 when founding director Scott Lykins returned to his hometown of Brainerd, Minnesota with four colleagues from the Eastman School of Music. To create an outlet for their musical gifts, these musicians put on six free concerts and enlisted guests from the Minnesota and St. Paul Chamber Orchestras to participate. Each concert drew successively larger audiences and based on the community’s demonstrated desire for musical enrichment, the organizers expanded the scope of the festival each season, improving the programming and raising the standard of quality each year.
Now celebrating its 17th season, LAMF has become one of the nation’s fastest growing music festivals. 250 musicians from the nation’s top orchestras and opera companies converge in central Minnesota to perform chamber music, orchestra, and opera. More than 60 activities will take place over six weeks, from mainstage performances to education activities for all ages, to community outreach bringing musicians out of the concert hall and into area libraries, shelters, jails, and more. Highlights of the season, titled “Myths & Magic”, will include: Berlioz’ Symphonie fantastique; Wagner’s Ring Without Words; an original production of Humperdinck’s Hansel & Gretel; symphonies by Mozart and Shostakovich; and Chausson’s Concerto for Violin, Piano, and String Quartet. All concerts are offered for free or with pay-as-you-wish to make them accessible to the socioeconomically diverse community of central Minnesota.
The festival was created by students from Eastman as a means of professional development and musical inspiration for them and their colleagues. Today it serves as an annual reunion for dozens of Eastman alumni, with Scott Lykins ’09E ’11E (MM) and John Taylor Ward ’10E serving as the organizations founding Artistic Directors.
Lakes Area Music Festival
