Bio & History

SHORT BIO:

Founded in 2017 by internationally acclaimed composer and pianist Gabriela Lena Frank, GLFCAM helps composers of any aesthetic and demographic, and from emerging through mid-career levels, to develop self-determined 21st century lives. GLFCAM’s mission centers on the creative habit, community, and eco-citizenship, forming years-long relationships with composers. As a result, composers are provided a rich array of opportunities such as collaborating on new works with renowned performer-mentors; taking online classes and practicums; composing large scale symphonies under fair commission rates with readings of the work-in-progress; teaching in youth music programs in underserved rural areas; participating in a multi-year peer-supported study group on climate intelligence and the arts; and becoming skilled communicators – cultural witnesses – in both spoken and written word. GLFCAM alumni are leading composers in the international music fields as well as teachers and professors, non-profit administrators, therapists, hospice workers, and civic volunteers.

HISTORY:

The Gabriela Lena Frank Creative Academy came together on a cross-country trip during the summer of 2016 as a dishearteningly divisive presidential campaign played across the US. With fishing equipment and their two dogs loaded up in the car, Gabriela and her husband Jeremy drove from California to a gig in New Mexico, passing through economically-depressed towns with little access to the arts and little diversity among its citizens. Against the uneasy backdrop of an increasingly bitter election, Gabriela and Jeremy decided to embark on a grand experiment – To open their new home in the tiny rural town of Boonville, CA to a talented and diverse crew of emerging music-makers, creating an experience that would give them a strong professional/artistic boost; and to encourage composers to think of the arts as indispensible to communities beyond the concert hall.  As a small, personal, and potent academy, more nimble than large conservatories and presenting societies, Gabriela and Jeremy wondered if they could highlight the power of creativity and arts citizenship at a time when it seemed the country was going off the rails, driven by fear and resentment. 

Gabriela got on the phone and began cold-calling rising composers and established performer colleagues that she knew from her own rich life as a composer and pianist, nearly thirty years long. With personal funds from a symphony commission or two, and support from friends and family, the first year of GLFCAM blossomed under the talents of nineteen composers and twelve faculty performers over six residencies in the Californian cities of Boonville and Sacramento, as well as Portland, OR. Despite initially going in with a fair amount of trepidation in the formation of the Bahlest Eebles Readings program, Gabriela was instantly hooked — The simple combination of a creative laboratory open to a diverse range of artists where failure is encouraged in the pursuit of artistic excellence proved irresistible.

Upon closing its third season, GLFCAM has hosted nearly seventy emerging composers of all ages from aesthetics ranging from classical to hip hop to punk to jazz to those from non-western cultures. In addition to receiving readings, master classes, and mentorship, Composer Fellows participate in the locally beloved Boonville Music Series, which presents multi-aesthetic low-cost concerts to the surrounding rural community of the Anderson Valley. Composer Fellows also participate in GLFCAM’s arts citizenship program at Anderson Valley High School, a low-income public school predominantly attended by the sons and daughters of local Latino farm/vineyard workers. Composer Fellows stay in gorgeous lodgings constructed on principles of permaculture, prep eco-conscious meals under the tutelage of a Michelin-starred chef/forager, and form lifelong friendships between people of a breathtaking range of demographic backgrounds.

In 2018, to continue supporting its composers, GLFCAM launched its Alumni Support Initiative that includes funding/brokering professional commissions for its alumni. In its short history, the ASI is now up to nearly fifty paying commissions with esteemed artists and organizations, most recently with the Orchestra of St. Luke’s in New York City and the storied Philadelphia Orchestra. In 2019, the CREA (Composers for Racial Equality in the Arts) Fellowship was launched, connecting alumni of color to renowned and established composers of color for mentorship. Also in 2019, a partnership began with the 45th Parallel Chamber Orchestra (Portland, OR) whereby two alumni each year would receive a commission of $10,000 for a chamber orchestra piece complete with a reading session of the work in progress; and a teaching fellowship for a talented alum was established with the brand new Chamber Music Accord Festival in Hartford, CT. In the spring of 2000, a new partnership with the National Orchestral Institute and the American Composers Orchestra was announced; and the annual G. Schirmer Prize for an exceptional Fellow was inaugurated. In the fall of 2020, a second chamber orchestra partnership will be announced that invites yet two more alumni each year to create new works of art complete with mentorship and readings of their works in progress before their premieres for a commission fee of $10,000.

In early 2020, a meaningful commitment to climate action was added to GLFCAM’s mission statement, which will result in a new format for the Bahlest Eeble Readings program, the addition of a “scientist-in-residence” who shall serve as a mentor to Fellows, and a new blog on musicianship and climate action co-hosted by Chamber Music Magazine. Additionally, in response to the current COVID-19 crisis, GLFCAM builds on its arts citizenship initiative by launching #GLFCAMGigThruCOVID, a $35,000 campaign to aid performers in financial straits from sudden loss of work, with the donated participation of nearly all GLFCAM alums.

In the fall of 2020, in response to a devastating fire season on the west coast, GLFCAM renews its relationship to the Anderson Valley Adult School to teach an online music appreciation course with visiting performer guests from mount the country. All of the proceeds benefit the life-saving Anderson Valley Fire Department. Also in the fall of 2020, GLFCAM will announce its new distance learning program for emerging composers, Tidirks Distance Learning, a response both to the need to teach in ever more green ways and the sheltered-in reality of COVID-19.

Bios of GLFCAM faculty mentors who advise GLFCAM Fellows will reveal them to be among the most active and impactful in the industry. For those who are parents, GLFCAM supports their work through subsidizing child care during their work at GLFCAM onsite residencies. During the 2018-2019 season, GLFCAM also began hosting guest mentor musicologists and conductors who believe in cultivating the talents of a diverse pool of artists. Yet, most important is the model of 21st century musicianship that GLFCAM mentors pose — Artistic excellence coupled with a humanitarian view on proactively working with and playing for people from all demographic backgrounds while minding eco-ethics. In its short history, multiple press articles from around the country, including a major feature in Chamber Music America and the San Francisco Classical Voice, testify to GLFCAM’s work; and in 2019, Musical America recognized Gabriela as one of its “Top 30 Professionals of the Year” for the founding of GLFCAM.