(from left to right: Daniel Pesca, Janice Jackson, Jarl Hulbert, and Alethia Starke)
The Department of Music announces the receipt of a Charlesmead award (in the amount of $33,725) to fund a new, multi-year collaboration with two community partners in Baltimore City: The Carter School of Music at New Shiloh Baptist Church and the William Knabe Piano Institute. Spearheaded by faculty members Janice Jackson and Daniel Pesca and department chair Linda Dusman, in collaboration with Mrs. Alethia B. Starke, Executive Director of The Carter School, and Dr. Jarl Hulbert, President of the William Knabe Piano Institute, this partnership will fully fund the musical education of ten students, ages 8–14, from the Sandtown-Winchester neighborhood of Baltimore. Classes will take place at The Carter School, which the Charlesmead jurors characterized as a “a key community and spiritual hub.” Exchange between the campuses will run both ways: students in the Music Department at UMBC will have the opportunity to observe teaching, and Carter students will regularly attend concerts and receptions at UMBC. In the summers, Carter students will participate in a Summer Enrichment Academy (SEA) on campus, which will run concurrently with the Knabe Piano Institute and Piano Competition. “The summer activities of the Knabe Institute attract pianists from around the globe,” says Dr. Pesca, “so we are conceiving this week of activities in the summer as a big celebration that brings together Carter students, UMBC students and faculty, and international pianists in our beautiful facilities on campus.”
