The New Canon Project: When partnerships bring new works from new voices to developing string and vocal ensembles...
Clinic Synopsis:
The New Canon Project is a model for stepping out of silos and joining forces. Through a unique partnership, NCP champions emerging Black and Latinx composers, expanding ideas about who is qualified to create pedagogical works. Session participants will hear Cohort 1 string works and share their own experiences programming music by marginalized composers. Learn how collaboration between composers and mentors, disciplines and associations fosters community and amplifies new voices.
Allyssa Jones
- Biographical Information
Allyssa Jones' career spans 30 years in the classroom and on stage. An alum of Adelphi University and Northern Illinois University, she studied with baritone Robert Sims, soprano Jayne West, conductor Larry Newland and composer Judith Lang Zaimont. Her creative credits include five solo recordings as a singer-songwriter, over 35 theatrical productions as a composer, music director and sound designer, and commissioned works for professional artists and pedagogical projects.
Currently Assistant Director and Director of Vocal Ensembles at the University of South Florida School of Music, her service record includes the NAfME Council for Innovations, the Master Chorale of Tampa Bay Board of Trustees, the National Collegiate Choral Organization National Board, and the Institute for Composer Diversity. Her work as a conductor and choral clinician includes the Pinellas County Schools All-County Choral Festival,, Florida Vocal Association MPA (Districts 9 and 11), Massachusetts Music Educators Association Northeast District Honor Choir, the Boston Children’s Chorus, and numerous schools and community arts organizations in the Northeast and the Gulf Coast.
At the intersection of these experiences is Jones’ work with Rising Tide Music Press, a non-profit publishing company she founded to create pathways for emerging Black, Brown, Indigenous and Asian composers. A composer in her own right, collaborations include the film Knockaround Kids (film score) and Brother Nat (musical), as well as commissions for solo performers and youth ensembles.
Lynn Tuttle - Biographical Information
Lynn Tuttle serves as Executive Director and CEO of the American String Teachers Association, the nation’s service organization for string educators in school, studio, and higher education. Prior to coming to ASTA in June 2021, she served as Director of Public Policy, Research, and Professional Development for the National Association for Music Education and as Director of Arts Education for the Arizona Department of Education. She is a founding member of the State Education Agency Directors of Arts Education. She co-led the creation of the 2014 National Core Arts Standards and served as the guest-editor for the 2022 Arts Education Policy Review focused on COVID-19 and K-12 arts education. Ms. Tuttle holds a Bachelor of Music degree from the Peabody Conservatory of Music, Bachelor and Master of Arts degrees from the Johns Hopkins University, and an MBA from the W. P. Carey School of Business at Arizona State University. She serves on the board of the National Music Council and as an advisor to the Arts Education Partnership and National Dance Education Organization.
Robyn Hilger - Biographical Information
Robyn Hilger, a native Oklahoman and clarinetist, is the National Executive Director for the American Choral Directors Association (ACDA), the largest association for choral professionals in the world. Robyn’s education background started as the band and strings director at Belle Isle Middle School in Oklahoma City Public Schools. In 2007, she joined the Foundation for Oklahoma City Public Schools as the Chief Programs Officer, developing programming for Oklahoma’s largest urban school district. In 2014, after serving as a volunteer on the project development team, Robyn was named the Executive Director of El Sistema Oklahoma, a program focused on utilizing instrumental music education as a tool to facilitate the development of empowered youth. El Sistema Oklahoma is a non-auditioned program serving more than 200 students, grades 3-12, every day after-school for free. Robyn has also served as the Development Director at ReMerge, an organization focused on criminal justice reform for women facing felony offenses and as a Project Manager for the US Education Department’s G.E.A.R U.P. grant at the University of Oklahoma’s K20 Center. This project provided resources to support post-secondary education pathways for students in underserved communities. In 2006, Robyn was named the Oklahoma Teacher of the Year and served as Oklahoma’s Ambassador for Education for a year, giving more than 200 presentations across the state for educators and community members. Robyn is a renewed National Board Certified Teacher in Early Adolescence/Young Adult Music with specialization in Band.
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