Disruption. Action. Change: Week 2

Today kicks off week 2 of the Disruption. Action. Change. series. This week, our guests include Garrett McQueen, Executive Producer of Trilloquy, and composer Joel Thompson.

Meet our Guests:

Garrett McQueen spent the first decade of his career as a professional bassoonist, performing with groups including the Knoxville Symphony, the Saint Paul Chamber Orchestra, and the Detroit Symphony Orchestra. Determined to impact a bigger change in the arts, Garrett later transitioned into the field of broadcast media, and since 2016, he’s been the host and producer behind nationally syndicated public media content at the intersection of race, contemporary culture, and “classical” music. Garrett also works as Executive Producer of the TRILLOQUY podcast, and as a member of the leadership teams of the American Composers Forum, the International Society for Black Musicians, and the Black Opera Alliance. 

Joel Thompson is an Atlanta-based composer, conductor, and educator, best known for the choral work, Seven Last Words of the Unarmed, which was premiered November 2015 by the University of Michigan Men’s Glee Club and Dr. Eugene Rogers and won the 2018 American Prize for Choral Composition. His pieces have been performed by the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra, Tallahassee Symphony Orchestra, Atlanta Master Chorale, Los Angeles Master Chorale, EXIGENCE, and the San Francisco Gay Men’s Chorus. Currently a doctoral student at the Yale School of Music, Thompson was also a 2017 post-graduate fellow in Arizona State University’s Projecting All Voices Initiative and a composition fellow at the 2017 Aspen Music Festival and School, where he studied with composers Stephen Hartke and Christopher Theofanidis and won the 2017 Hermitage Prize. His opera, The Snowy Day, based on the book by Ezra Jack Keats, will premiere December 2021 at the Houston Grand Opera.

Read Their Blog Posts:

Head over to the University of Michigan’s EXCEL Log to read blog posts authored by each guest!

Register for the Zoom Conversation:

We will host a Zoom Session and Q&A with Garrett & Joel on Thursday, March 18 from 4:30-6pm EST. The session is FREE though a brief registration is required. Visit iml.esm.rochester.edu/DAC to register today!