Arts Citizenship

"Musicians are naturals for embodying citizenship, but sometimes, truthfully, we need to be reminded. After all, orchestra auditions and competitions transfix us while reviews send our spirits soaring or plummeting. Who has time to worry about citizenship when the industry is so jealous of every hour of our practice time and every ray of our bandwidth?

I also well remember how I kept my volunteer work in a men’s prison outside of Detroit hush hush as a student, concerned that I would not be deemed a “serious” musician. When I did tell colleagues about meeting with inmates to talk about my favorite composers, past and present, and their urgency to create music, instead of being ridiculed, I found kindred spirits who lustily cheered... What an amazing moment of realization that was! I newly learned that there is a hunger among musicians for relevance beyond the concert hall. Really, who better than artists to address that awful sort of benign neglect, that insidious censorship of voices, that happens in communities with limited access to creativity and self-expression?"  

— Gabriela Lena Frank

At the Academy, we believe the twenty-first century musician ideally values citizenship, creativity, and artistic excellence equally. Consequently, for our emerging artists, we offer numerous opportunities to develop their artistic talents not only for the professional arenas but also for the good of communities and causes not natively attended to by the music industry. In addition to our commitment to eco-citizenship and concert fundraisers for the Anderson Valley Fire Department and victims of fire disaster, the Academy offers programs in the following areas: