Music Academy of the West Invests in Alumni Innovation
2021 Alumni Enterprise Award Winners Announced
Six winners will receive $85,000 in grants that advance social entrepreneurship and seed the industry with new ideas and platforms
Winning projects go global with multi-continent imprint, receiving robust creative support and mentorship from the Music Academy’s Innovation Institute
Total value of grants awarded since 2018 reaches $320,000 distributed to 26 alumni
The Music Academy of the West’s mission expands exponentially as its more than 7,000 alumni are challenged annually to create projects that:
- Support innovation in areas including artistic expression, audience development, education, community engagement, social justice, and technology;
- Advance social entrepreneurial endeavors/projects in classical music;
- Generate positive learning outcomes.
"It is imperative for us to help give artists a voice to react to our complex world. These awards offer them investment in their vision for the future. Their projects will have an immediate impact on their communities and spark new thinking about how music is performed and presented globally."
Scott Reed
Music Academy President & CEO
Clive Chang
"The winning projects represent incredible enterprise and ingenuity in the creative pursuits of Academy alumni. It's thrilling to see the impact these musicians are having on peer artists and audiences, along with the education and legacy they offer the field of music."
The 2021 Alumni Enterprise Award Winners:
- Camila Barrientos Ossio (clarinet ‘11, ‘12) and Bruno Luiz Lourensetto (trumpet ’12) will offer real-time, online video concerts for COVID patients across Latin America and beyond in Música para Respirar 24/7
- Rich Coburn (vocal piano ’14) is creating a BIPOC Voices: The Library of Music for Voice and Orchestra by BIPOC Composers, a database of orchestrated vocal works by Black, Indigenous, and other Composers of Color, featuring samples of many previously un-recorded works
- Cristina Cutts Dougherty (tuba ’20, ’21 and a 2020 Fast Pitch Award Winner) is heading The Resilience Project, a book which aims to secure the legacies of historic women in brass by detailing their orchestral careers and pedagogy from the 1940’s to today
- Adanya Dunn (mezzo-soprano ’14, ‘15) will present InsideOut: Pop-Up Concerts & Walking Concert Tour (Red Light Arts & Culture). These will be a range of indoor and outdoor, socially-distanced concerts (following a range of COVID protocols), in Amsterdam’s Red Light District
- Christina Giuca Krause (vocal piano ’13, ’17 and a winner of the 2017 Marilyn Horne Song Competition) evolves Composition of a City: Digital, a Chicago-based musical education and mentorship endeavor bridging classical music and hip hop
ABOUT THE 2021 AWARD-WINNERS & PROJECTS
Camila Barrientos Ossio
Unknown Title
Camila Barrientos Ossio is the Principal Clarinet of the Orquestra Sinfônica Municipal de São Paulo. Originally from Cochabamba, Bolivia Camila has played with the New York Philharmonic, Saint Paul Chamber Orchestra, and Miami Symphony, among others. She has performed in venues including Carnegie Hall, Berlin Konzerthaus, the Kennedy Center, (le) Poisson Rouge and other unexpected concert spaces such as the St. Peter’s Basilica in the Vatican and the Island of the Sun in lake Titicaca. A passionate chamber musician, she is a former member of the award-winning quintet The City of Tomorrow. She earned both her bachelor’s degree and master’s degree from the Manhattan School of Music, and has appeared at the Banff Center of the Arts in Canada, the Britten Pears Festival in the UK and the MostArts Festival in Alfred, New York.
She is the co-founder and co-artistic director of La Sociedad Boliviana de Música de Cámara (The Bolivian Chamber Music Society.)
Rich Coburn
Unknown Title
2021 Alumni Enterprise Award winner
vocal piano ('14)
Project: BIPOC Voices: The Library of Music for Voice and Orchestra by BIPOC Composers
Database of orchestrated vocal works by Black, Indigenous, and other Composers of Color, featuring samples of many previously un-recorded works; in partnership with Amplified Opera, Black Opera Productions, the Association for Opera in Canada (formerly Opera.ca), and the Canadian Music Centre in British Columbia.
Rich Coburn leads a dual career as a musician and educator. Musically, he works as a pianist, organist, vocal coach, music director, and arranger. He teaches entrepreneurship at McGill University and helps musicians and entrepreneurs across Canada to collaborate, negotiate, and better navigate the sometimes-tricky relationships of their careers and lives.
Rich also shares:
"I have performed across North America and China. I have had the wonderful opportunity to perform music for two pianos with my twin brother. But a decade into my career as a musician, I realized that though this is who I am, it is not all of who I am. I began asking myself how I could do the most good in the world.
It seemed to me that our biggest challenges weren’t climate change or the eventual surpassing of human capability by Artificial Intelligence. It was the difficulty we have working together. So I trained as a mediator to learn about conflict resolution. I began volunteering at a suicide prevention hotline to learn about changing people’s opinions. I began leading workshops on empathetic communication.
Though I still work as a musician, I spend an increasing amount of time helping people across Canada to disagree better. As a result, they are better able to collaborate, negotiate, network, and navigate and sometimes perilous relationships of their personal and professional lives."
Cristina Cutts Dougherty
2021 Keston MAX Winner
- Cristina is a graduate student at Curtis Institute of Music where she studies with Craig Knox and Paul Krzywicki;
- The 2021 Alumni Enterprise Awardee served as an instructor for the Colburn School Jumpstart Program from 2016-2019 and is a Performance Today 2021 Young Artist in Residence.
Adanya Dunn
Unknown Title
2021 Alumni Enterprise Award winner
mezzo-soprano ('14, '15)
Project: InsideOut: Pop-Up Concerts & Walking Concert Tour (Red Light Arts & Culture)
Inside and outdoor, socially distanced concerts, following a range of COVID protocols in Amsterdam’s Red Light District.
Canadian-Bulgarian mezzo-soprano Adanya Dunn (she/her) is the 2020-21 recipient of the Hnatyshyn Foundation Developing Artist Grant and a District Winner of the 2020 Metropolitan Opera National Council Auditions. She is also a three-time grant recipient from the Canada Council for the Arts. Adanya was named by the CBC as one of Canada’s “Top 30 Hot Classical Musicians Under 30” and was featured in The Globe & Mail as one of six Canadian women who are “turning opera on its head and making the future bright for the art form.” Currently based in Amsterdam, Adanya studies with Don Marrazzo and coaches with Nathalie Doucet.
A versatile performer, her 2019-20 season highlights included Mozart’s Così fan tutte as Dorabella with the Bergen Symphony Orkest, Sesto in Mozart’s La clemenza di Tito with the Conservatorium van Amsterdam, Berio’s Sequenza III at Belgium’s Festival 20/21 with the New European Ensemble, and various concerts in Amsterdam’s Dutch National Opera and Het Concertgebouw.
In the upcoming 2020-21 season, Adanya debuts at the Muziekgebouw aan ‘t IJ in December 2020 in the Jonge Grote Zangers series in an in-person and livestreamed recital from the Grote Zaal with baritone Rolfe Dauz and pianist Nathalie Doucet. Adanya also performs an opening recital in the Grote Zangers series and performs a concert tour in the Netherlands with Irish pianist Seán Morgan-Rooney in their POPARTSONG Duo, showcasing popular and art music styles through original compositions and arrangements.
Adanya is an alumna of Dawn Upshaw’s Graduate Vocal Arts Program, the Music Academy of West, the Rebanks Family Fellowship & International Residency at the Glenn Gould School, the University of Toronto, and the Conservatorium van Amsterdam.
Born and raised in Toronto, she was a resident performer with the interdisciplinary arts collective FAWN Chamber Creative and was the Co-Founder of the innovative chamber music series The Happenstancers. Adanya has performed with companies such as Against the Grain Theatre, Soundstreams, the Luminato Festival, Tapestry Opera, and the Canadian Music Centre. Through consistent collaboration with composers, librettists, and collectives.
Adanya’s diverse musical interests has led her to pursue musical activities in various roles such as Co-Founder of Red Light Arts & Culture, the vocalist in the poly-genre electronic project #operEMIX, and Artistic Director of a new project Rosebud Opera: Queering the Opera Narrative.
Christina Giuca Krause
Unknown Title
2021 Alumni Enterprise Award Winner
vocal piano (‘13, ‘17)
Project: Composition of a City: Digital
Chicago-based musical education & mentorship endeavor bridging classical music and hip hop
Hailed as a “sensitive partner” by the New York Times, Romanian-American pianist Christina Giuca Krause enjoys a dynamic career as a performer, collaborator, vocal coach, and educator.
Heard on the stages of Carnegie Hall’s Weill Recital Hall, Steinway Hall, and Preston Bradley Hall, Christina is a 2013 and 2017 alumna of the Music Academy of the West, and has also performed at Aspen Music Festival and International Musicians Seminar in Prussia Cove, England. She has been a member of the music staff at the Houston Ballet, SongFest, Opera Theatre of Saint Louis, Chicago Opera Theater, Music of the Baroque, and the Lyric Opera of Chicago’s Patrick W. and Shirley G. Ryan Opera Center.
As the pianist winner of the Music Academy of the West's 2017 Marilyn Horne Song Competition, Christina and soprano Hannah Rose Kidwell gave a recital tour that included sold-out performances in Houston, Santa Barbara, and New York City. They premiered Jake Heggie’s These Strangers, a new song cycle written for them for this tour. Christina also played in Carnegie Hall’s 2018 “The Song Continues” series in masterclasses with Renée Fleming, Graham Johnson, and Marilyn Horne.
Christina has performed many works by living composers and assisted in the premieres of new operas, most recently Terence Blanchard’s Fire Shut Up in My Bones (Opera Theatre of Saint Louis) and Dan Shore’s Freedom Ride (Chicago Opera Theater). She is a founding member of contemporary piano duo 4x5 with composer Benjamin Krause.
Christina holds a bachelor's degree from the Oberlin Conservatory and master's degree from Rice University’s Shepherd School of Music. Her teachers include the late Emilio del Rosario, Monique Duphil, David Breitman, Brian Connelly, and Frank Corliss. Christina was also a recipient of the Postgraduate Collaborative Piano Fellowship from the Bard College Conservatory, where she worked with the Graduate Vocal Arts Program under the direction of soprano Dawn Upshaw and pianist Kayo Iwama.
Christina is currently the Artistic Director of LYNX, a Chicago-based nonprofit organization dedicated to amplifying diverse voices through new song commissions, inclusive recital programming, and innovative educational initiatives. Christina is on faculty at Lutheran Summer Music Festival and also works at Hope College, where she is a Lecturer in Music and Coordinator of Accompanying.
MORE ABOUT THE PROJECT:
Composition of a City is a songwriting program is the educational program of LYNX that uses hip hop and classical art song to empower students to share their stories through original songs. LYNX is developing a digital curriculum to be used in Chicago-area schools, featuring high-quality videos, lesson plans, creative prompts, and performances showcasing Chicago's diverse artistic community.
Award: $20,000
The 2017 winner of the Music Academy’s Marilyn Horne Song Competition is the Artistic Director of LYNX, a nonprofit art song organization that amplifies diverse voices through new song commissions, inclusive performances, and innovative educational programming. She is currently on faculty at Hope College and Lutheran Summer Music Festival.LYNX’s initiative Composition of a City addresses the challenges facing youth on Chicago’s South Side by providing students with positive mentorship and a safe musical outlet to share their stories through a curriculum incorporating elements of both hip hop and classical music.
LEARN MOREABOUT MUSIC ACADEMY OF THE WEST
Founded in 1947, Music Academy of the West offers year-round programming for the local community and talented musicians from around the world. Each year, 140 fellows ages 18-34 are selected by merit-based audition from more than 2,000 applicants worldwide to participate in an eight-week Summer School and Festival to prepare them for 21st-century careers. At the Summer Festival, they receive opportunities for advanced study and frequent orchestral, chamber, recital and masterclass performances under the guidance of more than 70 internationally renowned faculty and guest artists. Each fellow receives a full scholarship for tuition, room and board. In 2018, the Music Academy began a partnership with the London Symphony Orchestra (LSO) that brings LSO musicians to Santa Barbara to teach and perform, and sends twelve Keston MAX Fellows to London for ten days of training and performance with the orchestra. Career-advancing opportunities for fellows and alumni are offered through the Academy’s Innovation Institute. Summer Innovation Seminars bring together industry leaders and cutting-edge artists to engage fellows and audiences in discussion about the present and future state of classical music, while the annual Fast Pitch Awards give fellows a platform to present their pioneering ideas. The Academy’s Alumni Enterprise Awards have provided $320,000 in grants for forward-thinking projects in artistic expression, audience development, education, community engagement, social justice and technology; recipients of the awards are also invited to attend a five-day Innovation Residential. Academy alumni create entrepreneurial careers in music and beyond and are members of major symphony orchestras, chamber orchestras, ensembles, opera companies, and academic faculties throughout the world. Music Academy of the West also provides music education locally through Sing!, a free, after-school choral initiative for seven-to-twelve-year-olds from 28 schools in Santa Barbara County. The Academy presents more than 150 public events annually in four campus venues and in sites across Santa Barbara and online. For more information, visit musicacademy.org.photos courtesy of the artists header collage content: top row: Camila Barrientos Ossio and Bruno Luiz Lourensetto share the power of music with those affected by COVID; as part of Red Light Arts & Culture, Adanya Dunn serenades Amsterdam (Photo: Marijn Schulte Photography) bottom row: Cristina Cutts Dougherty profiles leading women in brass; Composition of a City and Christina Giuca Krause educate by connecting hip hop and classical music; Rich Coburn’s Voices Library highlights a range of BIPOC composers Released: January 14, 2021 Kate Oberjat Director of Marketing and Communications Music Academy of the West koberjat@musicacademy.org