Student CoLab: Forward Music Project
6pm doors • 6:30pm show
About
Student CoLab is National Sawdust’s flagship education program for middle school composers and artists.
This performance is the culmination of a three-month program in music composition, film, and projection design, for young people at El Puente Beacon Leadership Program in Williamsburg. The program features National Sawdust Artist-in-Residence cellist Amanda Gookin (Forward Music Project, PUBLIQuartet). This multimedia concert features new music for cello, voice, and electronics, as well as video projection and film, all written, designed, and performed by students at MS50.
This year, Student CoLab took Amanda Gookin and S Katy Tucker’s Forward Music Project as the inspiration for the program. Forward Music Project is a multimedia project driven by social justice and empowerment for women and girls. Using the same format and principles of collaboration, and drawing upon similar themes of justice, gender, and empowerment, young people have created all of the new music, film, and visuals which you will experience at this performance.
This journey of artistic discovery and self expression empowers young people to have a voice on issues that affect them, while also enabling them to explore and fulfill their potential as a creative beings.
Teaching artists and collaborators:
Angelica Negron — lead teaching artist (music)
Kyla Smith — assistant teaching artist (music)
Stephanie Garcia — assistant teaching artist (music)
Rachel Gawell — cellist
Gil Feliciano — lead teaching artist (filmmaking)
Megan Gomez — assistant teaching artist
S Katy Tucker — projection artist
With thanks to Stephanie Jackson at El Puente for her partnership in this program.
The methodology for the composition element of the course is inspired by the New York Philharmonic Orchestra’s Very Young Composers program and our valuable partnership from 2015–18.
This program is supported, in part, by public funds from the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs in partnership with the City Council.
Tickets
The Artists
Praised for her “delicate and fierce musical approach” (San Francisco Classical Voice) and “expert technical work” (The Strad), cellist Amanda Gookin champions the future of music through the creation and bold performance of new works, as well as through a dedication to education, culture, and community engagement. She is the co-founder of the innovative string quarte, PUBLIQuartet, which specializes in the performance of new music and improvisation. She serves on faculty at the Mannes School of Music and SUNY Purchase, leading courses on career development and a seminar on the history of women in music. She has been sought after as a guest speaker on activism in music by TEDx MidAtlantic, Houston Public Media Classical Classroom, and James Madison University. Her Forward Music Project initiative commissions today’s most forward-thinking composers to write new works for solo cello that explore the female experience and encourage social change for women and girls.
