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!”