The CU Boulder Entrepreneurship Center for Music (ECM)聽has a straightforward聽mission: To equip today鈥檚 music students with the skills and tools they need to create sustainable careers in the arts. In fall 2022, the ECM聽awarded $10,486 in artist assistance grants聽which helped support 14 students with projects, research, career building聽and professional development. We sat down with three of these聽students to ask how the grants affected them and their emerging careers in the arts.
The classical guitar album 
As part of his degree, DMA student Andrew Wilder (classical guitar performance) is recording and editing an album of Mozart and Haydn transcriptions for the classical guitar.聽The ECM grant helped Wilder purchase a new laptop to run the editing software and streamline the tech needed to complete the album.
鈥淚t helped a ton聽because my computer was 10 years old聽and issues were accumulating so I had to stop recording pretty often,鈥� Wilder explains. 鈥淚n editing, it's聽like painting or sculpting, in a way, and if there鈥檚 something that鈥檚 constantly causing slow-downs, it really inhibits聽creative possibilities. Not having to worry about crashes during all of that was聽a huge help.鈥�
This project has been a challenging, yet rewarding, experience, according to Wilder.聽鈥淚 think recording is one of the most educational things a musician can do,鈥� he says. 鈥淓specially in my case, doing all of the editing myself really forces me to become even more familiar with what I鈥檓 creating and shape that, instead of it being just a performance, and then it being gone."
Wilder will also be working on finalizing the transcriptions he created, with the goal of publishing.
The immersive choral experience
Jessie Flasschoen, also a doctoral student, had been wondering how she could reimagine the choral performance experience. 鈥淚鈥檇聽been really interested in taking choral music out of the stuffy concert hall experience, and wondering how to engage the community and the audience more deeply,鈥� she says. 鈥淚 wanted to create a choral experience that had active participation on the part of the audience.鈥�
Flasschoen started a choir called Renova in January 2022, comprising up to 25 CU Boulder affiliates dedicated to performing student compositions.聽In November 2022, Renova presented an centered around the concept of alchemy.聽
鈥淒epending on which version of alchemy you鈥檙e following, it has three processes. It鈥檚 a story of transformation,鈥� explains Flasschoen. 鈥淲hat鈥檚 interesting about the ancient study of alchemy is that it wasn鈥檛 just about the metal turning into gold, but also聽about some sort of spiritual transformation of the alchemist personally. So alchemy in its origin has always been about human transformation in addition to making gold out of other metals.鈥�
The audience was led through three rooms, each representing a different stage in the alchemical process. Room one covered blackening and death, room two featured opposites and purification聽and room three represented fire. The ECM grant helped to fund logistics such as the technical elements and decorations used in the rooms.
Flasschoen says the audience was enthusiastic and willing to participate, and that after the show was over, she received glowing feedback from community members, colleagues and choir members.聽
鈥淭he generosity of the grant聽made this crazy idea possible聽and it came together really really well in a way that people are talking about even months later,鈥� she says. 鈥淎nd because of this聽generosity, I聽want to take this idea further, so this is a launching point for more research.鈥�
The Wolf Opera
Artist Diploma student Chas Barnard and alumna Sabina聽Balsamo were artistically inspired by the proposition passed by the state legislature in 2020 to reintroduce gray wolves into Colorado.
鈥淲e just got to talking with our composer friend, Ben Morris about the proposition and then we thought, 'oh, this could be a great opera!'鈥� Barnard says.
The project that emerged, named , is a family-friendly chamber opera that also features shadow puppetry. The opera is written for three voices and a string quartet. The ECM grant helped with the cost of聽hiring聽baritone Andrew Garland, who also happens to be an assistant professor of voice at our College of Music.
鈥淭here were two parts to this project. There was a workshop in January where we recorded the whole work with Andy and then we鈥檒l also present live performances on June 3 and 4,鈥� Barnard says.
The team has also collaborated with Art Song Colorado, Boulder Opera, and the Broomfield Council on the Arts and Humanities.
Barnard says, 鈥淚t means a lot聽to have the support of the school. The grant gave our project momentum and the ability to hire someone like Andy who is an incredible artist, and who really gives our project a lot of credibility. I鈥檓 just grateful that we were able to move forward.鈥�
Find out more about the live concerts of Colorado Sky in and .