Three of the Foundation’s grantee partners received Special Project grants to support fellowship/residency programs – music performer The Crossing (single year grant), music presenter The Mann Center for the Performing Arts (The Mann Center) (single year grant), and music educator Wilmington Children’s Chorus (multi-year grant).
While unique in their own ways, each of the residencies demonstrates how music organizations seek to support rising composers/artists/educators while also centering diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) in the work that they do. Read more about each one below.
The Crossing
The Crossing hosted Ayanna Woods as its first Resident Composer. She collaborated with The Crossing’s conductor, singers, and other composers and hosted workshops with young girl singers at Commonwealth Youthchoirs. She also wrote her own piece “Infinite Body,” which premiered in September 2023 and “explores how capitalism asks us to relate to our bodies, observing and unsettling the notion of our separateness.” The Crossing toured it with music of Wang Lu and Tana León to Yale and Harvard.
Through the Residency, The Crossing has reinforced its commitment to diversifying the choral and new music worlds, as well as strengthening their partnership with Commonwealth Youthchoirs and its other community-based efforts. They have continued the Residency program with composer Nina Shekhar.
The Mann Center for the Performing Arts
The Mann Center’s first ever Community Artist-in-Residence program launched in Fall 2022, with West Philadelphia rapper and hip-hop artist Chill Moody (Chill) selected as the first Resident. During the yearlong period, Chill curated guest artists for springtime concerts for local students; played a key role in planning and hosting the Mann’s first-ever HBCU Festival and its annual Voices of Hope Concert on Juneteenth; and helped students write, record, and produce their own album as part of his work with the Mann’s education programs. He also curated and performed in the Mann’s 2023 Downstage series (celebrating the 50th anniversary of hip-hop) and partnered with composer and conductor Darin Atwater to create a new book and score for a commissioned work entitled “Black Metropolis.”
The Community Artist-in-Residence program has helped bridge the Mann’s education programs and its artistic season, impacted the Mann’s community engagement programs, and helped the Mann form new relationships with its partners.
Wilmington Children’s Chorus
The Wilmington Children’s Chorus (WCC), a tuition-free children’s chorus serving over 600 children ages six weeks to eighteen years old, launched its Ridout Teaching Fellowship in the summer of 2023. This initiative provides music educators and choral conductors of color with full-time employment, an opportunity to hone their skills, and a wide range of musical and classroom experiences. After a nationwide search and multiple rounds of interviews (including an opportunity for choristers to ask questions of the candidates and then provide feedback), WCC selected Ariel Alvarado.
Since then, Alvarado moved to Wilmington and has begun assisting with additions for WCC’s Performing Choirs. She will serve as conductor for WCC’s Performing ensembles, assist in various classrooms, engage in professional development opportunities with arts leaders across the region, and hone their skills as an educator.
