Invited annually, graduate schools of music present the Presser Graduate Music Award to an outstanding graduate music student whom they select. The program is designed to encourage and support in a special way the advanced education and career of truly exceptional graduate music students who have the potential to make a distinguished contribution to the field of music. The Award is a cash stipend of up to $10,000, which is made available to a graduate student designated by the institution.
Samantha Williams
Samantha Williams received the Award in 2020-2021 from the University of Michigan. Her project “American Patriots,” a theatrical song-cycle production, examines patriotism from three different American perspectives. American Patriots consists of nineteen newly commissioned songs set to the text of unaltered interview transcripts conducted with sixteen Americans who identify as African American, Indigenous American, and white Working-Class American.
A composer from each background was commissioned to write six songs for the show with the texts from that perspective. By putting diverse perspectives in dialogue with one another and creating an interactive performance experience for the audience, this project has sought to create productive discomfort and dialogue about how seemingly disparate groups of Americans wrestle with the ways we relate to patriotism, what it means to be American, and the access or lack thereof to the American Dream. In our increasingly polarized society, American Patriots asks audiences to entertain perspectives other than their own and to practice the crucial skill of listening across difference.
The Process
In working on this project, I was committed to a new methodology “intentional storytelling”; collaborating with marginalized communities and allowing them to present themselves in ways that feel authentic to them was critical to the mission of this project. In order to do this, I translated the verbatim theatre approach into a musical language, using the unaltered texts from interviews I conducted with 35 Americans as the lyrics for this provocative performance. I centered a system of checks and balances to ensure that I collaborated with each community rather than extracting: paying interviewees for their time, having each interviewee sign off on the final song, and prioritizing hiring composers from each identity to set the songs from that experience.
As our society becomes increasingly diverse and as audiences demand more accountability, I believe that the process is equally important to the product when it comes to the representation of marginalized communities.
The Product
I interviewed 35 Americans, 16 of which were turned into songs. Once I’d finished conducting the interviews, I transcribed each interview and selected segments of text to use as possible song lyrics. Then I commissioned a composer from each background to write six songs for the show with the texts from that perspective. Danielle Jagelski composed the Native American set, Regina Baiocchi composed the African-American set, and Brandon Scott Rumsey composed the white Working-Class set. I worked with the composers to ensure that the essence of each interview was maintained and that the “colloquialisms” of speech were maintained in the musical setting of the text.
Additionally, I commissioned the composer Gala Flagello to write two different settings of the New Colossus by Emma Lazarus, the poem inscribed on the Statue of Liberty, that opened and closed the performance. The opening setting takes the New Colossus text interwoven with quotes on different perspectives on immigrants and immigration.
The second setting, closing the performance, uses the original words of the poem to create a reflective tone, which encouraged continued discussion and engagement post recital. The recital was performed live in Stamps Auditorium at the University of Michigan on April 11, 2022, to an enthusiastic audience of over 50 people. I held a talkback at the end of the performance where the audience was deeply engaged and curious about the process of creating this work.
The Future of American Patriots
American Patriots is preparing to tour in both a recital and chamber opera format. The recital is a 60-minute abridged version for piano and voice which is semi-staged and will tour at schools, conferences, and community centers across the country in 2023. This version uses a seminar recital format that allows for an opportunity for audiences to learn about the Intentional Storytelling methodology used in American Patriots, learn about the collaborators, and engage with the intersection of the themes of the production in their community. The 90-minute Chamber Opera version for three singers and a chamber orchestra is fully staged and will premiere in the Fall of 2023 and be available to national performing arts centers to tour in 2024. Both versions present an impactful and minimalist production that uses visual projections unique to each performance made by local videographers to show the lived realities of these groups on a national and local level.
In an attempt to make classical music more relevant and accessible to a more diverse audience base, I am also working on releasing a visual album version of American Patriots that will be freely accessible online. I professionally recorded all 19 songs in the University of Michigan Duderstadt Center Audio Recording Studio in June. At the end of the production’s tour run I will release the visual album.
To learn more about American Patriots and find the performance nearest you visit samantharosewilliams.com/americanpatriots.
Impact of the Award
The Presser Grant Award has had such a colossal impact on my artistic career as well as on my community at the University of Michigan. As an art activist, I had lofty ideals about responsible storytelling and marginalized representation that sound great in theory but require funding and patience to materialize. My dream of new music, written by teams that represent the identities in conversation with each other and collaborating with marginalized communities, and allowing them to present themselves in ways that feel authentic to them was critical to the mission of this project but would not have been realized without the support of the Presser Foundation Graduate Music Award. I now have a framework for intentional storytelling that I can implement to create art about numerous social and political issues that need a nuanced approach. I graduated from the University of Michigan with a professional tour lined up and more confidence in my art entrepreneurial abilities than I could have ever imagined. Since graduating I’ve been admitted into the Beth Morrison Projects Producer Academy to continue to develop my work and joined the amazing development team at Opera Philadelphia. I feel prepared and empowered to take the arts world by storm.
Samantha Rose Williams is an arts activist committed to sharing marginalized experiences with diverse audiences and creating space for critical discussion about art, culture, and social change. She balances an exciting professional career in performance and arts leadership and has a deep love for opera, musical theater, directing, marketing, development, and producing. She is the Manager of Institutional Giving at Opera Philadelphia.
After earning her B.A. at Stanford University, Samantha went on to receive her Master’s in Music and Specialist’s in Music at the University of Michigan in Voice Performance. As a crossover artist, Samantha has starred in numerous musicals and operas; her favorite credits include Mrs. Lovett in Sweeney Todd, Eliza Doolittle in My Fair Lady, and Madame Haltière in Cendrillon. A Mezzo-Soprano with “jaw-dropping vocal power” (Stanford Arts Review) and a robust theater background that compels her to embody every role fully, Samantha is a young artist to watch.
