WINNER
Charlie Edmonds | Pocket
Pocket is an online database for beginning band methods utilizing African American music. This online resource would be a library of short pieces and worksheets based on gospel, hip hop, R&B, and jazz genres that have been arranged for band students in their first two years of learning an instrument. This method “book” will address a longstanding shortage of African American music in the method books commonly used in beginning band instruction. In my six years of teaching band at a predominantly Black middle school, I frequently supplemented the method book with material from students’ surrounding culture. The worksheets and songs based on music of Black culture were used to teach skills such as rhythm, dynamics, articulation and tonguing, and my online database would be searchable by these skills/concepts, as well as by grade level and genre. This library of songs and exercises will be useful not only for directors who teach Black students, but also for those who simply want to find easily accessible ways to incorporate more diverse music into their curriculum at the beginning band level.
FINALISTS
Nick Adkins | ArtHub
ArtHub is a musical and artistic performance venue that aims to provide an enjoyable and artistically driven environment for the members of the Bloomington community, enabling a community-wide artistic network. ArtHub unites artists from different types of art from painting to sculpture to music in a social environment. While our regular customers come in for our bar and brewery, associate artists have the chance to perform and expose their art to them. ArtHub will work with local professionals, freelancers, college students, professors, bands and groups to provide nightly performances featuring many different types of musical genres, to help redefine how communities can interact with the artists that live within them. By combining genres, ArtHub hopes to blur the strict barrier that exists between them. We strive to be a welcoming and relaxed environment and gathering place of all cultures and backgrounds, where you can hear great music, drink good drinks, eat good food, help to give back to the community by allowing them to utilize our space, as well as take part in valuable educational programs, masterclasses and seminars that are open to everyone. ArtHub will create a virtual platform to enable a community-wide artistic network, that will help in the end to create a much needed shift in the general artistic culture in Bloomington. We will also facilitate this through providing rentals of our performance spaces, as well as practice rooms we will have installed. In summary, ArtHub wants to redefine how music and the arts are able to interact with the culture and community of Bloomington to bring new experiences and opportunities for all. By having the vision to provide exposure to art in a social pub Arthub aims to accomplish that. Bloomington is a city full of diverse and talented artists, and we desire to share their art to enhance the lives of Bloomington’s residents.
Diego Barbosa-Vasquez | El Imperio de la Luz: A Community Opera in One Act
Community Opera Scores is a sustainable solution for communities, cities, schools, colleges, and organizations to offer holistic artistic training and experiences. It offers accessible and viable artistic training for a large spectrum of America’s population (From Argentina to Canada). With a renting fee of 2000 USD to serve around 100 people, the Community Opera Score is a set of pedagogic, logistic, music, and artistic instructions that allow community members (kids, youths, and adults), music students (advance, mid, and beginners), and professionals to perform an opera altogether side-by-side. This Score, offers training in singing, acting, playing in an orchestra, and creating arts, compositions, and stories. This Score is anew sustainable and viable solution for multi-artistic and diversity training in English and Spanish that could benefit multiple communities. Furthermore, this enterprise will generate $87050 in expected profits during the next three years.
Ellé Crowhurst | Access Point
Summer institutes offer collegiate classical musicians a multitude of benefits. Beyond maintaining musical ‘fitness’ during the summer, they provide high-level training and pre-professional experiences. Working with esteemed instructors and collaborating with talented, passionate peers enriches a student’s personal development and expands her/his network of future colleagues, professors and employers. Yet the substantial financial and time investments these experiences require keep many students from being able to participate, especially those who lack the financial margin, time or flexibility in scheduling due to a summer job. Access Point addresses this disparity by reimagining the summer festival experience in format and content. Through a hybrid mode of in-person and virtual instruction personalized to each student, participants benefit from high-caliber education and performance opportunities within their geographic context. The program itself combines rigorous musical study with real-world career advice and experience, reflected in the six core components: Private Instruction, Masterclasses, Collaborative Projects, Career Development, Wellness and Community Engagement. At a time in which innovation in music performance is essential to any successful career, the holistic approach Access Point takes helps set the stage for a productive and sustainable career.
Sara Dailey | MUSE: A Visualized Chamber Opera
Our team, made up of composer Jamey J Guzman and librettist Caitlyn Klinepeter-Persing, with lead commissioning artist Sara Dailey, believes that we have landed on an innovative and experimental new format for enjoying contemporary opera, at a time when both opera houses are closed and economic disparity would keep many from them even without a global pandemic. We envision a non-staged approach, with audio recorded at distance and paired with a video-format libretto, complete with stage directions and augmented with concept art of scenes, characters, and moments throughout. In this way, an audience member anywhere in the world can read and listen to the video on their own time and in their own space, visualizing the story in their mind as it unfolds.
Duncan Holzhall | Apollo’s Ward
Apollo’s Ward is an independent think tank/watchdog organization dedicated to advocacy and policy recommendation for issues specific to young artists in the classical music industry. After conducting a variety of design thinking workshops with young artists of varied backgrounds, six general cognate areas of issues within the classical music industry emerged, each with its own unique set of challenges and solutions. Apollo’s Ward will aim to investigate and prototype solutions for these issues before creating tangible practice and policy proposals to present to companies and communities alike. The organization will also provide artists with resources ranging from career development to mental health support to music-oriented activism in the interest of empowering young artists to make change in their communities.
Marc Levesque | Quilt for Musicians
Quilt for Musicians combines comprehensive marketing training entirely free with extremely affordable website building and hosting. Quilt for Musicians will enable music teachers to promote and present themselves online as a music educator and increase the number of students they can reach and attract for their private studios. I am qualified to lead this project as I have had considerable success with marketing music lessons, currently work for a marketing agency, and have previously designed websites for music teachers. By offering free training and incredibly affordable hosting while still being able to make a profit, Quilt for Musicians is well positioned to grow quickly, profitably, and help countless music teachers to build thriving music studios.
Brian McDonie | Opus One, LLC
Opus One, LLC is a veteran-owned, innovative startup that specializes in writing original music for live performance at weddings, chamber music concerts, and special events. In addition to writing new music, we also connect our clients with talented musicians to perform their customized compositions at their event. Our clients own the rights to their new music to cherish as a one-of-kind keepsake. Opus One addresses the need for new personalized chamber music that is engaging for both audiences and performers. Our goal is to use music to help people make life events extraordinary. Since launching in late fall of 2020, we have designed and published a website, developed our brand, registered as a business, hired our first employee, and have started advertising through Google PPC advertising and wedding coordinators. Winning this competition would allow us to repay our initial investors, continue our marketing plan, and either attend a live wedding trade show or invest in professional SEO design coaching.
Munire Mierxiati | ViolinGym
ViolinGym is a technology start-up focusing on revolutionising the online music education industry. This business proposal starts by outlining the background of ViolinGym and the context it was created in, including its founder’s vision of creating a multi-dimensional co-practicing tool that helps musicians who are in need of practice companions to find suitable, qualified practice coaches at an affordable price. The main components of ViolinGym’s product offerings are online digital media content creation and 1v1 co-practicing sessions. The proposal will then go deep into the reasons of existence of the “co-practice” model and the critical success factors influencing the consumer segment and this specific market space as a whole. The project action plan and budget outlook provides a framework for ViolimGym’s growth path with a NASDAQ listing as its ultimate goal. Currently with almost no presence of a meaningful music education brand on the public market, it is reasonable and exciting for ViolinGym to pioneer as a leading tech start up. The proposal ends in providing some benchmarks and key milestones which can be used to evaluate its quantitative and qualitative success.
Jenna Montes | Panther Brass
Panther Brass is a university student-led program completely based on volunteer involvement. This program aims to give Black and Latinx brass-players from local high schools opportunities in higher education in the form of mentorship, friendship networking, and donation-based financial support. Our high school Cubs will participate in the program free of charge and will be guided by students from Indiana University in topics such as brass performance, music education, how to apply and audition for college, and more. The pack of Cubs and Panthers will also participate in monthly free social events to strengthen relationships and build a sense of community amongst the students and their mentors. Our goals lie in social justice, accessible opportunities, a safe space, and musical excellence.
Jude Richardson | Visible
The aim of Visible is to build the altruistic communities of the future—ones where financial circumstance fails to constrain ability and determination; where individuals offer small parts of their time to build the dreams of those around them. Visible accomplishes this with a token—a contract between the aspirant in need of support and the developer providing information, digital engagement, or patronage. Such tokens would be backed by a portfolio of rewards, opportunities, and resources. The digital tokens will be made available through the Visible website. Users would support in-website projects to earn tokens. Such tokens could be used to promote new requests, access involvement rewards and opportunities, or to highlight the people and organizations most meaningful to them.
Naseer Sleets | PAIRAPHRASE
PAIRAPHRASE is a technology app that combines music with pictures. The app is intended for anyone who wants to add an extra layer of meaning to their visual material. Music is often coined as a “universal language.” It has the power to unite all people regardless of age, gender, sexual orientation, socioeconomic status, etc., PAIRAPHRASE is intended to elevate the experience of social media consumption and viewing pictures. Additionally, the app creates a sense of community. Users are able to interact with content creators and as well as a variety of music.