Daniel Pesca will co-lead a multi-institutional effort to bring music departments and piano studios from five institutions around the country together to research, perform, record, and teach the piano music of Black American composers. The program includes a range of online activities, including lectures by eminent scholars of the repertoire, a series of masterclass exchanges between institutions, and a final recording project. The lectures address many aspects of music-making, from considerations of social context to pedagogy, from historical inquiry to the creation of brand new work. Students will be empowered to grow as musicians as they enjoy the benefits of working with professionals from across the country, learning the process of making a high-level recording, and discovering unfamiliar repertoire. The fruits of this year-long effort will be shared via an online database. After the pilot year, the team intends to expand their reach by encouraging other institutions to join the initiative as a small but vital part of a larger conversation in classical music institutions of all sorts about inequities in representation.
Congrats to Daniel Pesca!