With power and water restored, debris cleared away, and campus repairs ongoing, the Hermitage welcomes limited artists back to campus and resumes fall programming with a full line-up of wide-ranging events and expanded collaborations featuring some of the world’s leading artists.
(October 20, 2022) — The Hermitage Artist Retreat (Sarasota County, Florida) announced today that it will resume fall programming throughout the Gulf Coast region on October 28, with a full line-up of outdoor and indoor events through the end of the year. Though the impacts of Hurricane Ian took a significant toll on the Gulf-to-Bay campus, the organization has been working quickly to restore the buildings and grounds and has just welcomed artists back to its Manasota Key campus for the first time since the storm.
Newly announced November and December programs include partnerships with CreArte Latino, UnidosNow, New College of Florida, and the Johann Fust Library Foundation in Boca Grande. Featured artists and performers sharing their work include celebrated concert pianist Conrad Tao, nontraditional opera and sound installation composer Yvette Janine Jackson, acclaimed multidisciplinary artist Raquel Acevedo Klein, award-winning playwright and screenwriter Guadalís Del Carmen, 2022 Hermitage Greenfield Prize Winner Angélica Negrón, Nigerian-born fiction author Chigozie Obioma, and New York Times heralded musician-composer Levy Lorenzo.
The aforementioned artists join previously announced October and November Hermitage programs. This week’s program with Pulitzer Prize and Tony Award-winning Hermitage Fellow Michael R. Jackson has been moved online. “As the Musical Turns: A Soap Inspiration” on Friday, October 21st at 6pm ET, will also now feature soap opera icon Colleen Zenk, known for her role as Barbara Ryan on CBS long-running series “As the World Turns.”
“Composition to Performance: Music Start to Finish” will mark the first live program at the Hermitage following the impact of the storm. Featuring composer Nkeiru Okoye and musician David ‘Doc’ Wallace, this event will be presented live on the Hermitage Beach on October 28th. On November 2nd, in a partnership with The Ringling Museum of Art, the Hermitage presents interdisciplinary artist and performer Richard Kennedy, followed on November 4th by the return of the popular “Hermitage @ Booker” series, resuming with “Reggie Harris and the Power of Music.” [Full program details below]. November also marks the Hermitage Artful Lobster, the organization’s annual fall fundraiser presented on the Hermitage grounds. This year’s event on Saturday, November 12th features performances by Harris and award-winning theater composer and lyricist Adam Gwon.
“We have been working around the clock to bring the Hermitage campus back to life and resume operations, and we’ve been truly overwhelmed by the generous support from our extraordinary artists, audiences, donors, partners, and neighbors,” said Hermitage Artistic Director and CEO Andy Sandberg. “We are incredibly proud of our mission and the work we are doing to serve artists and our community. After two decades in existence, thousands of Hermitage champions have made it known that we are not going to let this storm bring down the Hermitage’s spirit. It is moments like these when our community needs to come together most, and the arts are one of our most powerful tools for healing.”
The newly announced programs in the Hermitage’s 20th Anniversary Season pick up on Thursday, November 17th at 6pm with acclaimed pianist and Hermitage Fellow Conrad Tao. Tao, who Sarasota Orchestra audiences may remember from his acclaimed 2021-2022 Masterworks Series performance, offers insight into his latest work “Keyed In” and shares in-process excerpts of work. Seen on stage at some of the most prestigious concert halls around the world, Tao has been called a musician of “probing intellect and open-hearted vision” by The New York Times, who also cited him as “one of five classical music faces to watch” in the 2018-19 season; he is a recipient of the prestigious Avery Fisher Career Grant, and was named a Gilmore Young Artist — an honor awarded every two years highlighting the most promising American pianists of the new generation.
On Friday, November 18th at 2:30pm, New College of Florida hosts Hermitage Fellow and internationally produced composer Yvette Janine Jackson for a “Radio Opera Workshop” in which Jackson will share selections of what The Guardian calls “immersive, nonvisual films.” Inspired by historical events and cultural realities, Jackson’s work uses narrative created through sound to transport listeners to other worlds. This gifted composer shares insights about the nuances in the creation of sonic environments in addition to sharing work and discussing it with students and the public.
December programming kicks off on the Hermitage Beach with an exciting program highlighting the Hermitage’s commitment to interdisciplinary work spanning music, visual art, and theater. “Multihyphenate Multimedia: Music, Visual Art, and Theater” features two incredible Hermitage artists whose talents cannot be contained by a single medium, style, or language. Raquel Acevedo Klein was named by The Washington Post as one of “2022’s Classical Composers and Performers to Watch,” and she is also an immensely talented visual artist. Award-winning playwright and screenwriter Guadalís Del Carmen creates original work across stage, television, and film that never shies away from the multifold perspectives of contentious issues, giving her audiences “no easy answers and no one to hate” while leaving them “more than a little entertained and a whole lot wiser” (ChicagoOnStage). See and hear original works from this incredible duo and dive into the unique, intersectional voices driving their work on Friday, December 2nd at 5pm as the sun sets over the Hermitage Beach.
On December 9th, acclaimed Puerto Rican composer and 2022 Hermitage Greenfield Prize Winner Angélica Negrón presents a program showcasing the broad range of unconventional musical tools in her repertoire in addition to the conventional instruments found on orchestra stages around the world. Inspired by nature and the music all around her, Negrón’s wide-ranging performance and compositional practice includes plants and found objects, often layering in vocals and other electronics in playful and creative ways. Be among the first to hear a demonstration from this revolutionary artist and learn about her creative process in “Angélica Negrón: Playing a Plant,” on Friday, December 9th at 5pm on the Hermitage Great Lawn. This program is presented in partnership with CreArte Latino, ensembleNewSRQ, UnidosNow, and New Music New College. (Negrón’s Hermitage Greenfield Prize commission is expected to culminate in an outdoor orchestral string performance in the spring of 2024, which will be presented in partnership with ensembleNewSRQ.)
The last scheduled program of 2022 – “Notes: On Writing and Music” – will take place on Thursday, December 15th on the Hermitage’s Manasota Key beachfront, presented in partnership with the Johann Fust Library Foundation. Featuring two artists who both bring an international perspective, the program spans literature and music. Nigerian-born Chigozie Obioma, whose two novels The Fisherman and An Orchestra of Minorities were both shortlisted for the Booker Prize in Fiction, reads selections of his work and discusses his creative process. He is joined by Filipino-American musician, instrument designer, and returning Hermitage Fellow Levy Lorenzo, whose quirky and innovative work has been described as “a potent force on the side of exuberance, pleasure and awe of virtuosity” by The New York Times. Join these two incredible artists as the sun goes down on the Hermitage Beach, December 15th at 5pm.
(Full program details for all events are provided below below.)
On Saturday, November 12th, the Hermitage hosts the annual Artful Lobster: An Outdoor Celebration. Now in its 14th year, this signature event raises valuable funds for the Hermitage. In the aftermath of the storm, proceeds from the 2022 Artful Lobster will go toward campus repairs, in addition to providing support for the Hermitage’s internationally renowned artist residency initiative and free community programming. The Artful Lobster is the only Hermitage benefit to take place on the grounds of the historic Gulf front campus – outdoors from 11:30am to 2pm beneath a large tent – located at 6660 Manasota Key Road in Englewood. Michael’s On East offers a lobster feast, this year with performances from award-winning Hermitage Fellows Adam Gwon and Reggie Harris. Tickets for this fundraiser and sponsorship details can be found at HermitageArtistRetreat.org.
“As we work through the Hermitage’s ongoing recovery from the storm, we are more excited than ever for the dynamic range and scope of our fall program line-up, which speaks to the expansive diversity and creative talents of our brilliant Hermitage Fellows,” adds Andy Sandberg. “Each one of these hour-long events is going to be a completely different experience in a variety of beautiful settings, offering our community a rare glimpse into innovative works in process. We are grateful to our partners and collaborators throughout the region, who help us to expand the geographic reach and impact of our Hermitage programming. We look forward to introducing the work of these visionary artists to thousands of new and returning audience members in this 20th Anniversary Season for these truly one-of-a-kind events.”
Nearly all Hermitage programs are free and open to the public (with a $5/person registration fee), offering Gulf Coast audiences a chance to engage and interact with some of the world’s leading talent. Due to capacity limitations and social distancing, registration is required at HermitageArtistRetreat.org.
The Hermitage hosts artists on its Gulf Coast Manasota Key campus for multi-week residencies, where diverse artists from around the world and across multiple disciplines create and develop new works of theater, music, visual art, literature, and more. As part of their residencies, Hermitage Fellows participate in free community programs, offering audiences in the region a unique opportunity to engage with some of the world’s leading artists and to get an authentic “sneak peek” into extraordinary projects and artistic minds before their works go on to major galleries, concert halls, theaters, and museums around the world. These free and innovative programs include performances, lectures, readings, interactive experiences, open studios, school programs, teacher workshops, and more, serving thousands in our regional community each year.
See below for complete program details and artist bios.
For more information about the Hermitage and upcoming programs, or to support the Hermitage’s hurricane repair efforts, visit HermitagArtistRetreat.org.
FULL PROGRAM DETAILS
Previously announced program descriptions:
- Now on ZOOM “As the Musical Turns: A Soap Inspiration,” with Pulitzer Prize and Tony Award Winner Michael R. Jackson, plus Multiple Emmy Nominee Colleen Zenk, Friday, October 21st @ 6pm ET: For many, the trials and tribulations of characters on any number of contemporary soap operas have been constant companions for years; we laugh at their antics, cry at their heartbreaks, and scratch our heads at their improbable circumstances. In the hands of Pulitzer Prize and Tony Award Winner Michael R. Jackson there is more than a quickly accessible story in soap operas; there is cultural insight with a biting wit. Funny and irreverent but always quintessentially human, hear from Michael on how soap operas and other sources of inspiration have shaped his work in a candid conversation featuring soap opera legend Colleen Zenk (Barbara Ryan, “As The World Turns”) and moderated by Hermitage Artistic Director and CEO Andy Sandberg. This program is presented on Zoom. Registration is required at HermitageArtistRetreat.org ($5/person registration fee).
- “Composition to Performance: Music Start to Finish” with Hermitage Fellows Nkeiru Okoye and David “Doc” Wallace, Friday October 28th @ 5:30pm: Like many art forms, music begins in the imagination of one creator, is documented on paper, and later interpreted by a completely different individual. But perhaps more than any other artform, musical creation, notation, and performance is simultaneously codified and constantly evolving. Hear from two exceptional practitioners on the process from start to finish. Nkeiru Okoye’s work is performed around the world, welcoming and affirming traditional and new audiences alike; David “Doc” Wallace is the chair of Berklee College of Music’s String Department whose performance style has been described by The York Times as “Jimmy Page fronting Led Zeppelin.” This program is presented live, outdoors and socially distanced. Registration is required at HermitageArtistRetreat.org ($5/person registration fee). Hermitage Beach, 6660 Manasota Key Rd, Englewood, FL 34223
- “Richard Kennedy: Performance and Conversation” Wednesday, November 2 @ 6pm: Returning Hermitage Fellow Richard Kennedy is a genre-defying creator working across dance, opera, and visual art. Just as their career has spanned Broadway and gallery spaces, museums and clubs, New York and Berlin, their interdisciplinary work is “…at once light with a sensual joy and heavy with mournful emotion” (ARTnews). Their wide variety of skills challenges and invites an audience to reimagine more traditionally defined boundaries of art. In a program combining performance and conversation, Kennedy reveals selections of past and upcoming work while also providing contextual insight. Registration is required at HermitageArtistRetreat.org ($5/person registration fee). The Ringling Museum of Art, Historic Asolo Theater, 5401 Bay Shore Rd, Sarasota, FL 34243
- “Hermitage @ Booker: Reggie Harris and the Power of Music” Friday, November 4 @ 5:30 pm: Returning Hermitage Fellow Reggie Harris believes that music has the power to unite, the power to uplift, and the power to heal. An international leader in the folk and acoustic music scene for more than 40 years, Harris brings all his skill and charm to Booker High School and is inviting the community along for the joyful ride. Join this incredible musician and storyteller to rediscover the essential power of music to move us all. Presented outdoors and socially distanced in the Booker Highschool courtyard in partnership with Booker High School VPA. Registration is required at HermitageArtistRetreat.org ($5/person registration fee). Booker High School Courtyard, 3201 N Orange Ave, Sarasota, FL 34234
Newly announced program descriptions:
- “Keyed In: A Piano Performance and Conversation” featuring Hermitage Fellow Conrad Tao Thursday, November 17th @ 6pm: In this piano performance and discussion, Hermitage Fellow and consummate pianist Conrad Tao pushes the boundaries of how we hear the sound of classical music. In an exploration of the full range of sound the piano is capable of, including its nuanced harmonics and resonances between notes, Conrad is working to make the piano sing beyond the keys; drawing attention to the inherent sound of the piano beyond how we ordinarily perceive it. Don’t miss this award-winning musician transforming the artform in front of our eyes and ears. Registration is required at HermitageArtistRetreat.org ($5/person registration fee). Additional details to be Announced.
- “Radio Opera Workshop” featuring Hermitage Fellow Yvette Janine Jackson Friday, November 18th @ 2:30pm at New College of Florida: Hermitage Fellow and acclaimed composer Yvette Janine Jackson creates narrative and entire worlds out of sound. Whether radio opera or sound installation, her work has been described as “immersive, nonvisual films” by The Guardian. Hear selections of work inspired by cultural and historical events from this innovative creator and dive into the imaginative process of creating a world purely out of sound. Presented in Partnership with New College of Florida. Registration is required at HermitageArtistRetreat.org ($5/person registration fee). 5800 Bay Shore Rd, Sarasota, FL 34243
- “Multihyphenate Multimedia: Music, Visual Art, and Theater” featuring Hermitage Fellows Raquel Acevedo Klein and Guadalís Del Carmen Friday, December 2nd @ 5pm on the Hermitage Beach: Join us for a sunset beach program featuring two Hermitage Fellows whose talents cannot be contained in a single medium, style, or language. Raquel Acevedo Klein was named by The Washington Post as one of “2022’s Classical Composers and Performers to Watch,” and she is also an immensely talented visual artist. Award-winning playwright and screenwriter Guadalís Del Carmen creates original work across stage, screen, and film that doesn’t shy away from the multifold perspectives of contentious issues, giving her audiences “no easy answers and no one to hate” while leaving them “more than a little entertained and a whole lot wiser,” (ChicagoOnStage). See and hear works from this incredible duo and dive into the unique, intersectional voices driving their work. Registration is required at HermitageArtistRetreat.org ($5/person registration fee). Hermitage Beach, 6660 Manasota Key Rd, Englewood, FL 34223
- “Angélica Negrón: Playing a Plant” featuring Hermitage Greenfield Prize Winner Angélica Negrón Friday, December 9th @ 5pm on the Hermitage Great Lawn: 2022 Hermitage Greenfield Prize Winner Angélica Negrón is inspired by nature and the music all around her. Her wide-ranging performance and compositional practice extends beyond the traditional repertoire to include unconventional instruments such as plants and found objects, often layering in vocals and other electronics. Be among the first to hear a demonstration from this revolutionary artist and learn about her creative process before the outdoor orchestral string presentation of her Hermitage Greenfield Prize commission in Sarasota in 2024. Presented in partnership with CreArte Latino, ensembleNewSRQ, UnidosNow, and New Music New College. Registration is required at HermitageArtistRetreat.org ($5/person registration fee). Hermitage Beach, 6660 Manasota Key Rd, Englewood, FL 34223
- “Notes: On Writing and Music” featuring Hermitage Fellows Chigozie Obioma and Levy Lorenzo Thursday, December 15th @ 5pm on the Hermitage Beach: Featuring two artists who both bring an international perspective, the program spans literature and music. Nigerian-born Chigozie Obioma, whose two novels The Fisherman and An Orchestra of Minorities were both shortlisted for the Booker Prize in Fiction, reads selections of his work and discusses his creative process. He is joined by Filipino-American musician, instrument designer, and returning Hermitage Fellow Levy Lorenzo, whose quirky and innovative work has been described as “a potent force on the side of exuberance, pleasure and awe of virtuosity” by The New York Times. Join these two incredible artists as the sun goes down on the Hermitage Beach. Presented in partnership with The Johann Fust Library Foundation. Registration is required at HermitageArtistRetreat.org ($5/person registration fee). Hermitage Beach, 6660 Manasota Key Rd, Englewood, FL 34223
About the Hermitage Artist Retreat:
The Hermitage is a non-profit artist retreat located in Manasota Key, Florida, inviting accomplished artists across multiple disciplines for residencies on its beachfront campus, which is on the National Register of Historic Places. Hermitage artists are invited to interact with the local community, reaching thousands of Gulf Coast residents and visitors each year with unique and inspiring programs. Hermitage Fellows have included 15 Pulitzer Prize winners, Poets Laureate, MacArthur ‘Genius’ Fellows, and multiple Tony, Emmy, Grammy, Oscar winners and nominees. Works created at this beachside retreat by a diverse group of Hermitage alumni have gone on to renowned theaters, concert halls, and galleries throughout the world. Each year, the Hermitage awards the $30,000 Hermitage Greenfield Prize for a new work of art, the newly announced $35,000 Hermitage Major Theater Award for an original theater commission, and the Aspen Music Festival’s Hermitage Prize in Composition.
For more information, visit HermitageArtistRetreat.org.
The Hermitage is supported by:
Hermitage programs are supported, in part, by an award from the National Endowment for the Arts; by Sarasota County Tourist Development Tax Revenues; and by The State of Florida, Department of State, Division of Arts and Culture and the Florida Council on Arts and Culture (Section 286.25 Florida Statutes), as well as the Gulf Coast Community Foundation, Charles & Margery Barancik Foundation, and the Community Foundation of Sarasota County.
ALL ANNOUNCED HERMITAGE PROGRAMS:
Friday, October 21 @ 6pm ET, “As the Musical Turns: A Soap Inspiration,” with Returning Hermitage Fellow Michael R. Jackson (ZOOM)
Presented in partnership with Westcoast Black Theatre Troupe
Friday, October 28 @ 5:30pm, “From Composition to Performance: Music from start to Finish,” with Hermitage Fellows Nkeiru Okoye and David “Doc” Wallace” (Live and outdoors on the Hermitage Beach)
Wednesday, November 2 @ 6pm, “Richard Kennedy: Performance and Conversation” withHermitage Fellow Richard Kennedy in the Historic Asolo Theater at The Ringling Museum (Live and indoors)
Presented in partnership with The John and Mable Ringling Museum of Art
Friday, November 4 @ 5:30pm, Hermitage @ Booker Series – “Reggie Harris and the Power of Music,” with Returning Hermitage Fellow Reggie Harris (Live and outdoors at Booker High School)
Presented in partnership with Booker High School VPA
HERMITAGE FALL BENEFIT: “The 2022 Artful Lobster: An Outdoor Celebration”
Saturday, November 12 @ 11:30am; Sponsorships and tables now available; support will help with the Hermitage’s hurricane repair efforts.
Thursday, November 17th @ 6pm, “Keyed-In: A Piano Performance and Conversation,” with Hermitage Fellow Conrad Tao (Live in Sarasota, Location to be Announced)
Friday, November 18 @ 2:30pm, “Radio Opera Workshop,” with Hermitage Fellow Yvette Janine Jackson (Live at New College of Florida)
Presented in partnership with New College of Florida
Friday, December 2nd @ 5pm, “Multihyphenate Multimedia: Music, Visual Art, and Theatre” with Hermitage Fellows Raquel Acevedo Klein and Guadalís Del Carmen (Live and outdoors on the Hermitage Beach)
Friday, December 9th @ 5pm, “Angélica Negrón: Playing a Plant,” with Hermitage Grenfield Prize Winner Angélica Negrón(Live and outdoors on the Hermitage Great Lawn)
Presented in partnership with CreArte Latino, ensembleNewSRQ, UnidosNow, and New Music New College
Thursday, December 15th @ 5pm, “Notes: On Writing and Music,” with Hermitage Fellows Chigozie Obioma and Levy Lorenzo (Live and outdoors on the Hermitage Beach)
Presented in partnership with the Johann Fust Library Foundation
COMPLETE ARTIST BIOS
(in chronological order of upcoming programs)
Michael R. Jackson
Michael R. Jackson is a returning Hermitage Fellow and the recipient of the 2020 Pulitzer Prize in Drama. Jackson’s Pulitzer Prize, Tony Award, and New York Drama Critics Circle winning musical A Strange Loop (which had its world premiere at Playwrights Horizons in association with Page 73 Productions) was called “a full-on laparoscopy of the heart, soul, and loins” and a “gutsy, jubilantly anguished musical with infectious melodies” by Ben Brantley for The New York Times. In addition to A Strange Loop, Jackson also wrote book, music, and lyrics for White Girl in Danger. Awards and associations include the New Professional Theatre Festival Award, a Jonathan Larson Grant, a Lincoln Center Emerging Artist Award, an ASCAP Foundation Harold Adamson Award, a Whiting Award, the Helen Merrill Award for Playwriting, an Outer Critics Circle Award, a Drama Desk Award, an Obie Award, an Antonyo Award, a Fred Ebb Award, and a Dramatist Guild Fellowship. Jackson is an alum of Page 73’s Interstate 73 Writers Group.
Colleen Zenk
Colleen Zenk is best known for her Emmy-nominated portrayal of Barbara Ryan in “As The World Turns”for over thirty years, earning Emmy nominations in the lead actress category in 2001, 2002, and 2011. Other notable credits include the 1980 Broadway sequel to Bye, Bye Birdie, titled Bring Back Birdie alongside Chita Rivera and Donald O’Connor, and the 1982 musical movie Annie directed by John Huston. Zenk also played a leading role in the 1991 NBC movie Women on the Ledge and appeared on the hit-television show Blue Bloods as Joan in 2014. Other theatrical credits include Dolly Levi in Hello, Dolly! (Bucks County Playhouse and others), Phyllis Stone in Stephen Sondheim’s Follies in her home state of Illinois, and Polly Wyeth in the Pulitzer Prize nominated play Other Desert Cities by Jon Robin Baitz (Hudson Stage Company).
Nkeiru Okoye
Hermitage Fellow Nkeiru Okoye is an American-born composer of African American and Nigerian ancestry. She was born in New York, NY and raised on Long Island. After studying composition, music theory, piano, conducting, and Africana Studies at Oberlin Conservatory, she pursued graduate studies at Rutgers University and became one of the leading African American women composers. An activist through the arts, Okoye creates a body of work that welcomes and affirms both traditional and new audiences. Her works have been commissioned, performed and presented by Detroit Symphony, Philadelphia Orchestra, Opera North UK, Mt. Holyoke College, Juilliard School, Houston Grand Opera, the American Opera Project, Boston Landmarks Orchestra, Boston Modern Orchestra Project, Charlotte Symphony Orchestra, Moscow Symphony, Tanglewood Music Festival, Virginia Symphony, Tulsa Opera, Royal Opera House, Da Capo Chamber Players, Cellist Matt Haimovitz, Pianist Lara Downes, Soprano Louise Toppin and many others. Her works include Briar Patch, Inside is What Remains, Black Bottom, We’ve Got Our Eye on You, Voices Shouting Out, Harriet Tubman: When I Crossed that Line to Freedom, Charlotte Mecklenburg, Songs of Harriet Tubman, Phillis Wheatley, African Sketches, and The Creation. Among her honors are a Hermitage Fellowship, a Guggenheim Fellowship, the inaugural International Florence Price Society award for composition, a Beneva Foundation award, composer grants from the Virginia B. Toulmin Foundation, many awards from ASCAP, the Yvar Mishakoff Trust for New Music, and the National Endowment of the Arts. An educator, Dr. Okoye has taught Master Classes and Composition Classes in colleges and Universities throughout the US including University of Michigan, Oberlin Conservatory, University of Denver, Old Dominion University, Baldwin Wallace Conservatory of Music, The New School, Spelman College. Dr. Okoye’s music has been recorded on Albany Records, MSR Classics, Le Chateau Earl Records, and Rising Sun Music. Her works are published by Theodore Presser Music and Carl Fischer Music. They are available throughout the world. For a full bio, visit: NkeiruOkoye.com
David “Doc” Wallace
Hermitage Fellow David “Doc” Wallace improvises like “Jimmy Page fronting Led Zeppelin” (New York Times). Whether playing classical viola for the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center, Texas fiddle with The Doc Wallace Trio, klezmer fusion with Yale Strom’s Broken Consort, new compositions with Hat Trick (his flute-viola-harp trio), or six-string electric viola at heavy metal shows, Wallace is at home in front of an audience. Around the globe, musicians have widely adopted the ground-breaking approaches of his book Engaging the Concert Audience: a Musician’s Guide to Interactive Performance (Berklee Press). Wallace’s broadcast credits include NPR, PBS, KTV (Korea), Tokyo MX, WQXR, CBS, and ABC. He has recorded for Bridge Records, BIS, Innova, Tzadik, Resonance Records, and Mulatta Records. An award-winning composer, Wallace’s commissions for original compositions and arrangements include the New York Philharmonic, Carnegie Hall, Suntory Hall, the Marian Anderson String Quartet, and violinist Rachel Barton Pine. Currently Chair of Berklee College of Music’s String Department, David previously enjoyed a fourteen-year tenure as a Juilliard professor and seventeen years as a New York Philharmonic Teaching Artist. Learn and hear more at DocWallaceMusic.com
Richard Kennedy
Hermitage Fellow Richard Kennedy (b. 1985, Long Beach, CA) is an artist living and working in Brooklyn, New York. He has choreographed for SSION & Chino Amobi as well as collaborated on projects with NOWNESS, Nicopanda, and Hercules & Love Affair. Richard wrote You Can Shine (MR. INTL) and For Some Reason (Crew Love) before releasing his debut EP Open Wound in a Pool of Sharks (Sweat Equity, 2016). He presented two operas, Black Rage and Comeuppance at Signal in 2016. In 2017, he presented the ballet Both at Artists Space, From.Under.Above at MoMA PS1, and Everything is gonna be Ok at Danspace. In 2019 he received his M.F.A. from the Milton Avery Graduate School of the Arts at Bard College in Music & Sound.
Reggie Harris
Hermitage Fellow Reggie Harris has been a vital part of international folk and acoustic music circles for over 40 years. He is a songwriter, a storyteller, songleader, educator and a Kennedy Center teaching artist who travels the world presenting over 300 performances a year spreading hope and light through song to audiences of all ages. As Co-President and Music Education Director for the Living Legacy Project, he leads pilgrimages to sites of the Modern Civil Rights movement in the southern US. Reggie’s solo CD Ready To Go was the #5 CD on the Folk DJ charts for 2018 and his collaboration Deeper Than the Skin with fellow artist Greg Greenway has led to a growing movement of “courageous conversations on race and history across the nation. He is an artist who entertains, educates and builds community throughout the world. For a full bio, visit: ReggieHarrisMusic.com
Conrad Tao
Hermitage Fellow Conrad Tao has appeared worldwide as a pianist and composer and has been dubbed “the kind of musician who is shaping the future of classical music” by New York Magazine, and an artist of “probing intellect and open-hearted vision” by The New York Times. He is the recipient of the prestigious Avery Fisher Career Grant and was named a Gilmore Young Artist — an honor awarded every two years highlighting the most promising American pianists of the new generation. As a composer, he was also the recipient of a 2019 New York Dance and Performance “Bessie” Award, for Outstanding Sound Design / Music Composition, for his work on More Forever, his collaboration with dancer and choreographer Caleb Teicher. Conrad Tao has recently appeared as soloist with the Los Angeles Philharmonic, Cleveland Orchestra, New York Philharmonic, and Boston Symphony. As a composer, his work has been performed by orchestras throughout the US; his first large scale orchestral work, Everything Must Go, was premiered by the New York Philharmonic in 18-19, and by the Antwerp Symphony in 21-22. In the same season, his violin concerto, written for Stefan Jackiw, premiered at the Atlanta Symphony under Robert Spano, and the Baltimore Symphony under Kirill Karabits.
Yvette Janine Jackson
Hermitage Fellow Yvette Janine Jackson is a composer and installation artist who brings attention to historical events and social issues through her radio operas. She developed her tactile approach to composition as a student at the Columbia-Princeton Electronic Music Center during its transition into the Computer Music Center. In 2020, she established the Radio Opera Workshop, a scalable intermedia ensemble, to experiment with sound and narrative performance. Yvette’s work has been presented at Audiorama, Fylkingen, Museumsquartier Tonspur Passage, Borealis Festival, Banff Centre for Arts and Creativity, and in residence at Stockholm EMS. She has presented on soundscape and memory at the Goethe-Institut Boston. Her album Freedom, produced by the Fridman Gallery, debuted as Contemporary Album of the Month in the January 2021 issue of The Guardian, and “Destination Freedom” won the Giga-Hertz Production Award 2021. Yvette is an assistant professor in Creative Practice and Critical Inquiry in the Department of Music and teaches for the Theater, Dance & Media program at Harvard University. YvetteJackson.com
Raquel Acevedo Klein
Named by The Washington Post as one of “2022’s classical composers and performers to watch” and a “force to be reckoned with,” Hermitage Fellow Raquel Acevedo Klein finds her greatest joy creating with other like-minded artists. Acevedo Klein has premiered works and operas by Philip Glass, Caroline Shaw, John Adams, Nico Muhly, Paola Prestini, Bryce Dessner, and George Lewis, to name only a few. She has recorded and performed with dozens of artists, including Anthony Roth Costanzo, Glen Hansard, Arcade Fire, Bon Iver, The National, Grizzly Bear, Sufjan Stevens, and the New York Philharmonic. In 2021, as part of the NY PopsUp initiative, Acevedo Klein curated a four-week festival entitled NYC FREE, celebrating the opening of the Pier 55 public park, Little Island. As part of that festival, she premiered her original, audience-interactive vocal symphony “Polyphonic Interlace,” made from 40 recorded layers of her voice that audiences could accompany using their phones. Some of the other highlights of Acevedo Klein’s live music history include vocal and instrumental performances at Carnegie Hall, Lincoln Center, Radio City Music Hall, The Town Hall, BAM, St. Ann’s Warehouse, the Celebrate Brooklyn! Festival, the NYC Guggenheim, Rockefeller Center, The Tonight Show with Jimmy Fallon, WNYC, National Sawdust, and Bard Fisher Center. She counts the Grammy Award-winning Brooklyn Youth Chorus, Beth Morrison Projects, and the New Jersey Symphony Orchestra among the many groups and orchestras that she conducts for. Over the course of her young career, Acevedo Klein’s performances and curations have already caught the attention of The New York Times, The New Yorker, The Los Angeles Times, The Washington Post, Time Out New York, The Wire, and Hyperallergic. RaquelAcevedoKlein.com
Guadalís Del Carmen
Hermitage Fellow Guadalís Del Carmen (she/her/ella) is a Black Dominican playwright and screenwriter from Chicago, based in NYC. She is an Ars Nova Resident Artist, and a 2020 Steinberg Playwriting Award recipient. She’s the Founder and Co-Artistic Director of the Latinx Playwrights Circle. Her plays include Not For Sale (UrbanTheater Company, Joseph Jefferson Award New Play Nominee 2019), My Father’s Keeper (part of Steppenwolf Theatre’s The Mix, The Kilroys Honorable Mention 2019), Bees and Honey (MCC Theatre/SOL Project 2023), Daughters of the Rebellion (Montclair State University 2019, The Kilroys Honorable Mention 2017, 50Playwrights Project Best Unproduced Latinx Plays 2017), A Shero’s Journey or What Anacaona and Yemayá Taught Me (Yale Magazine 2019, The Parsnip Ship Podcast Season 4), Blowout (Aguijón Theater 2013). She was a Co-Producer of Atlantic Theater Company’s African Caribbean MixFest 2021. She’s worked for HBO, FX, and Amazon Studios. Guadalís has performed as an actor in Chicago, NYC, and St. Louis.
Angélica Negrón
Puerto Rican-born composer and multi-instrumentalist Angélica Negrón is the winner of the 2022 Hermitage Greenfield Prize. She writes music for accordions, robotic instruments, toys, and electronics as well as for chamber ensembles, orchestras, choir, and film. Her music has been described as “wistfully idiosyncratic and contemplative” (WQXR/Q2), while The New York Times noted her “capacity to surprise.” Negrón has been commissioned by the Bang on a Can All-Stars, Kronos Quartet, loadbang, Prototype Festival, Brooklyn Youth Chorus, Sō Percussion, the Dallas Symphony Orchestra, National Symphony Orchestra, Opera Philadelphia, and the New York Botanical Garden, among others. Negrón received an early education in piano and violin at the Conservatory of Music of Puerto Rico where she later studied composition under the guidance of composer Alfonso Fuentes. She holds a master’s degree in music composition from New York University where she studied with Pedro da Silva and pursued doctoral studies at The Graduate Center (CUNY), where she studied composition with Tania León. Also active as an educator, Negrón is currently a teaching artist for New York Philharmonic’s Very Young Composers program. She has collaborated with artists like Sō Percussion, Lido Pimienta, Mathew Placek, Sasha Velour, Cecilia Aldarondo, Mariela Pabón, Adrienne Westwood, Tiffany Mills and has written music for films, theater and modern dance. She was recently an Artist-in-Residence at WNYC’s The Greene Space working on El Living Room, a 4-part offbeat variety show and playful multimedia exploration of sound and story, of personal history and belonging. Recent and upcoming premieres include works for the Seattle Symphony, LA Philharmonic, Louisville Orchestra and NY Philharmonic Project 19 initiative and multiple performances at Big Ears Festival 2022. | AngelicaNegron.com
Chigozie Obioma
Hermitage Fellow Chigozie Obioma was born in Akure, Nigeria. His two novels, The Fishermen (2015) and An Orchestra of Minorities (2019), were shortlisted for The Booker Prize, making him one of only two novelists to be shortlisted for multiple works. They have won awards including the inaugural FT/Oppenheimer Award for Fiction, the NAACP Image Award and the LA Times Book Prize, and been nominated for many others. His books have been translated into more than 29 languages. The Fishermen was adapted into an award-winning stage play by Gbolahan Obisesan that played in the UK and South Africa between 2018-2019. He was named one of Foreign Policy’s “100 Leading Global Thinkers of 2015.” His works have been published in The Guardian, VQR, Paris Review, New York Times, and elsewhere. He is the James E. Ryan Associate Professor of Creative Writing at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln and divides his time between the US and Nigeria. ChigozieObioma.com
Levy Lorenzo
Born in Bucharest, Filipino-American Levy Marcel Ingles Lorenzo, Jr. works at the intersection of music, art, and technology. On an international scale, his body of work spans custom electronics design, sound engineering, instrument building, installation art, free improvisation, and classical percussion. With a primary focus on inventing new instruments, he prototypes, composes, and performs new electronic music. Lorenzo’s work has been featured at MoMA PS1, MIT Media Lab, STEIM, pitchfork.com, BBC, Burning Man, and The New York Times which named him an “electronics wizard.” A core member of the acclaimed International Contemporary Ensemble, he fulfills multiple roles as sound designer, electronics performer, and percussionist. Other performance engagements include Claire Chase’s Density 2036 project, and the Peter Evans Ensemble. Dr. Lorenzo holds a position as Assistant Professor of Creative Technologies at The New School, College of Performing Arts. LevyLorenzo.com