Gabriela Lena Frank with composers and faculty in her 2019 Creative Academy of Music. Front row (left to right): Gabriela Lena Frank, Rajna Swaminathan, Clifton Ingram, Sam Weiser, Patricia Wallinga, Shane Cook, Stanford Thompson. Middle row (left to right): Ben Kreith, Charlton Lee, Stephanie Neumann, Erika Oba, Andrew Rodriguez, Kathryn Bates (with baby Corwyn). Back row (left to right): Jonathan Mitchell, Kerwin Young, Jonah Gallagher, Jeremy Lyon.
“In a normal year, [composer Gabriela Lena Frank’s] farm would have been bustling with young composers,” writes Corinna da Fonseca-Wollheim in Friday’s (10/23) New York Times. “Since 2017 it has been the home of the Gabriela Lena Frank Creative Academy of Music, an innovative training institution that aims to foster diverse compositional voices. The core program is a yearlong apprenticeship spread over multiple short visits, but the academy also nurtures performers and facilitates commissions for its graduates. The virus [and California wildfires] forced its activities online … Ms. Frank, 48, said she has long been concerned about the music industry’s business as usual…. Diversity and sustainability have been preoccupations for Ms. Frank … In her music it’s [her] Peruvian heritage that comes through most clearly, with folk melodies woven into high-spirited pieces full of vibrant colors, slicing rhythms and volatile textures … In founding her academy, she set out not only to nurture new voices but also to encourage alternative musical careers, grounded in activism and service…. She hopes more musicians will embrace opportunities to work in their communities, dislodging received notions of career prestige…. Ms. Frank has funded the program through private donations and is able to offer scholarships to 90 percent of participants.”
