COMPOSER SABRINA PENA YOUNG | MUSIC TECHNOLOGY | FILM | CLASSICAL | OPERA

Healing America Begins with You: Bridging Cultural Gaps - Composer Sabrina Pena Young A way we can help  heal  our society:  Sculpture by  Marie  Uchytilova Take the time to make at least three meaningful relationships with individuals of other cultures. The type of relationship where you go to each other's houses for meals, call when you have a rough day, have playdates and go camping together.  When your idea of a cultural group is based on a relationship and not movies, TV, the  # news , or  Twitter , you will avoid falling into the trap of lumping individuals together into  stereotypes . You will  be able to recognize the nuances and individualism that makes each person unique and responsible for themselves, not an entire people group.  BREAKING CULTURAL STEREOTYPES I have had my own cultural stereotypes broken by moving around the country, being involved in communities that I would have never been a part of. I ...

"The great bifurcation in music is between pop and classical," says composer John Adams. He discusses the challenge of creating classical music in a nation dominated by pop culture and "lingering anti-intellectualism." ----- One of America's most performed and admired composers, John Adams (Nixon in China, Doctor Atomic) helped shape the landscape of contemporary classical music. His new memoir reveals the inner workings of his creative process and illuminates the recent history of music-making. - Los Angeles Public Library John Adams is a Pulitzer Prize-winning American composer with strong roots in minimalism. His best-known works include Harmonielehre (1985), On the Transmigration of Souls (2002), a choral piece commemorating the victims of the September 11, 2001 attacks (for which he won the Pulitzer Prize for Music in 2003), and Shaker Loops, a minimalist four-movement work for strings. His well-known operas include Nixon in China (1987), whi...

Changing the Culture: The Death of Classical Music Elitism? I am a member of the International Alliance for Women in Music , a music advocacy group open to all individuals that promotes contemporary music and scholarly research. We often have heartfelt discussions regarding gender, age, race/culture, and more in classical music, from celebrating when young students win a composition competition to frustrations with systems set in place that perpetuate elitism that plagues and sometimes kills classical music organizations today, as is evidenced by the high number of large classical music organizations folding.  We recently chatted about the high cost of arts competitions, the reasoning behind high entry fees, the validity of some festivals, the criminality of others, and how this affects gender, age, and the realities of women in music. I won't go into the details of the conversation, though if any of you are interested in these topics (male or female), I encourage you to joi...