With their Special Opportunity Grant, Olly Bangia attended the 2025 Arts Empowering Life Summer Residency in Boston, MA. They learned from renowned faculty members and connected with chamber percussionists from across the US, as well as recorded in a professional recording studio and observed the mixing and mastering of his own recordings. Bangia also collaborated with new musicians to put together a chamber music concert at the end of the week-long festival, and attended panel discussions with accomplished percussion professors from around the country. Bangia says, “This experience gave me insight I didn’t know I needed, whether it was in panel discussions, the experience of professionally recording in a studio, and the musical collaboration with percussionists from all over the country. This has been a great opportunity to learn about many aspects of being a musician in the professional world!”