As part of our Next Movement Series, The Presser Foundation is hosting a conversation focused on Centering Youth Voice into Music Educating Organizations.* The event will take place on Tuesday, April 25th from 12-1pm ET on Zoom. The Foundation is eager to welcome leaders at four music educating organizations to share information about their youth-focused work. Speakers will include:…
Photo Credit: Torello Productions By Baker Purdon “Every child is an artist; the problem is staying an artist when you grow up.” When famous painter Pablo Picasso said this, he critiqued the progressive stripping of creativity and freedom from a person’s life as they grow up. In an effort to solve this problem, a multi-year…
By Baker Purdon It feels appropriate to disclose my bias and profound love for Margaret Bonds’ Credo early in this review. It has become one of my most loved pieces of music from the 20th Century, partly because of its powerful sentiment and the sheer beauty and partly because of my personal connections to it.…
Rose Haselhorst received the 2021-22 Undergraduate Scholar Award from Northwestern University. This letter was written by her to the Foundation. To The Presser Foundation: I am honored to be recognized as a recipient of the Presser Undergraduate Scholar Award for the Bienen School of Music at Northwestern University, and I am truly grateful for your…
Fellow Baker Purdon. Photo by Jacob Smith Photography, Courtesy of Temple University Last year, The Presser Foundation launched a graduate music student fellowship. The Fellow attends and writes about grantee performances/programs for the Foundation’s communication platforms. This work increases the Foundation’s transparency, amplifies grantee partners, and gives the Fellow the opportunity to learn about music…
The supporting organizations that The Presser Foundation supports. From top left clockwise: Penn Live Arts, Temple Music Prep, Chester Children’s Chorus, Zoellner Arts Center, Rowan Community Music School, WRTI By Abby Rolland The Presser Foundation seeks to serve a number of different types of music organizations creating, performing, presenting, and educating. To do so means…
By Baker Purdon The Chamber Orchestra of Philadelphia recently presented Vivaldi’s The Four Seasons paired with Max Richter’s revisionist imagining of the same work, The Four Seasons, Recomposed. I’d like to tell you a little bit about each work, the performance, and share my thoughts about how recomposing, as Richter has done with this piece,…
By Samantha Williams 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…
This is one in a series of blog posts featuring each one of The Presser Foundation’s Board and Committee members. These individuals come from a variety of backgrounds and experiences but have one trait in common – they love music. Keep an eye out on the series to learn more about each member, their background,…
By Baker Purdon, Music Fellow History Since the inception of the United States, the American orchestra has been predominantly local in scope. Before the Civil War, most American orchestras operated within the boundaries of a single city and its immediate vicinity. They were generally either standing orchestras in local theaters, ad hoc orchestras for special…