About the Alumni Enterprise Awards
This award funds innovative ideas in areas including artistic expression, audience development, education, community engagement, social justice, and technology.
This award opportunity is available to all Music Academy alumni. Proposals must align with or challenge the Academy’s mission to further classical music education while cultivating discerning, appreciative, and adventurous audiences. Awards granted for alumni projects range from $2,500 to $20,000 based on scope and scale.
Winners will sharpen their business skills while attending the all-new Entrepreneurship and Innovation Residential and will expand their professional networks as participants of the Classical Evolution/Revolution Conference.
$60,000 was awarded this year to seven alumni. In addition to four winning projects, three new Innovation Awards were given in support of thinking that will push the industry forward in bold new ways. New Fast Pitch Awards will also be offered to 2019 fellows, who will have the opportunity to pitch their biggest and brightest ideas for cash prizes totaling $3,000. Read about our winners and their projects below.
The Alumni Enterprise Awards are generously supported by Regina and Rick Roney and the Ladera Foundation.
About the 2019 award-winning projects
John Popham ('05, 06): The Resonant Lens: A Musical Videography
This vibrant videography series will bring musical works to life, resonating with viewers emotionally, socially, and culturally, presented in Brooklyn, NY and Louisville, KY. A modular project structure will be used to reach a variety of audiences: virtually, through interactive content on a dedicated website; person-to-person, in live performance supplemented by videography; and remotely, via screenings and gallery exhibits.
Brenda Patterson ('00): Ready.Set / Armida
The Director of Music of Victory Hall Opera [VHO] seeks to invent a modern, modular stage set that is affordable, transportable, and reconfigurable. With the Ready.Set Competition, VHO, opens up to designers and architects the challenge of creating a modular set design. The winning set will be used in VHO’s groundbreaking production of Haydn’s Armida, a Virginia Premiere, in October 2019.
Steve Perdicaris ('86): Crescendo 2020
Mr. Perdicaris co-founded Music Mission San Francisco which provides free after-school music instruction that culminates in public performances at the Mission Cultural Center for Latino Arts and the San Francisco Conservatory of Music. With the support of the Music Academy of the West, additional teaching artists will be added with the goal of establishing a chamber orchestra for San Francisco’s underserved children.
Bernardo Bermudez ('11): The Enchanted Tail
The Enchanted Tail is an original children’s fairytale opera in English set to music from traditional opera repertoire. In May 2019, 5,000 elementary school students will travel to the Balboa Theater in San Diego to watch the orchestral debut of the opera. All 42 San Diego School Districts will attend with 64% of participants qualifying as Title 1, low-income schools.
3 Innovation Award Winners
3 Innovation Award Winners
2018 Enterprise Award Winners
Ben Bliss ('12): MESS Core Ensemble
Under the leadership of stage director Paul Curran, the group spent five days preparing operatic scenes for a Manhattan performance on the final day of their Initial Ensemble Session, geared toward a millennial demographic.
Evan Shinners ('09): The Bach Store
A pop-up storefront in NYC where those walking by can see and hear musicians play Bach every day, for five hours a day, over 30 days. Learn more in the New York Times feature article by Michael Cooper: A Pop-Up Shop That Offers Bach Preludes, Fugues and Condoms
Brenda Patterson ('00): The Forgotten
A Halloween double-bill that interweaves Humperdinck’s Hansel and Gretel with Menotti’s The Medium, The Forgotten explores American poverty, economic anxiety, and teenage gender identity.
Molly Carr ('07) & Anna Petrova ('17): Novel Voices
This debut album for the Carr-Petrova Duo premiered this fall as part of their “Refugee Awareness” concert in Carnegie Hall, mounted to raise awareness about the lives and struggles of refugees across the globe.
Theresa Kim ('06): International Music Sessions
The founding director of International Music Sessions launches Social Integration Workshops, offering 5-weekend musical workshops to young people from diverse communities.
How to Apply
When to Apply
2019 Applications are now closed. 2020 Applications will go live in September, and the deadline to apply will be November 30, 2019.
Purpose
- Advance social entrepreneurial endeavors/projects in classical music – bold and diverse initiatives developed and implemented by Music Academy alumni.
- Support innovation in areas including but not limited to artistic expression, audience development, education, community engagement, and technology.
- Provide funding and mentorship that generates positive learning outcomes for Music Academy alumni.
Criteria
- Open to all alumni of the Music Academy of the West. Applications submitted on behalf of multiple individuals or ensembles must have at least one Academy alumni in a leadership role.
- Supportable activity includes proposals that align with or challenge the Academy’s vision to make a unique and enduring contribution to the world of music by advancing the development of the next generation of great classically trained musicians and cultivating discerning, appreciative, and adventurous audiences.
- Non-supportable activity includes proposals that request funding for private instruction, competitions or contests, audition expenses, tuition costs, or any charges related to purchasing equipment or instruments.
- Selected winners are invited to participate in the Music Academy Entrepreneurship and Innovation Residential in March 2019 as well as the Classical Evolution/Revolution Conference in June 2019. Failure to attend these program components will jeopardize funding outcomes.
- Completed applications must include a formal project title and general categorization, a project narrative, a timeline for implementation, a proposed budget, value and impact metrics, and any other details necessary to comprehend the vision and breadth of the initiative.
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Send us your up-to-date contact information to receive 2020 award application details as they are announced.