Co-founded by Gloria Yin, Rhianna Cockrell, and Cornell Assistant Professor Joe Lerangis, New Muses Project announces the launch of a brand-new educational, exploratory platform for the exploration of the works of diverse composers from across the centuries of classical music, www.newmusesproject.com. The interactive platform centers curiosity in its algorithm, allowing the user to explore new composers with a focus on intersectionality, and uplifting voices of all backgrounds. Based on a vast map of composers linked by an array of stylistic markers, the website offers curated performance and research suggestions based on the user’s interests. When the user inputs a composer, the website presents a different composer outside of the established canon to explore, using parameters such as style, genre, and era, rather than identity markers.
The project imagines a future where justice and curiosity lie at the heart of classical music scholarship, performance, and education, by researching, editing, performing, and generally making available the music of composers who have been systematically obscured from history books.
The launch of the website will be celebrated with a concert and the release of New Muses’ inaugural album, featuring rarely-heard works by Ulysses Kay, George Walker, Fanny Hensel, Anna Amalia von Prussia, Anna Maria von Raschenau, Luise Greger, Leslie Adams, and more. “New Muses in Concert” will take place on Sunday, August 28, 2022 at 3:00pm, at Merkin Hall in Kaufman Music Center in New York, NY. The concert will feature choral and chamber works by Ulysses Kay, George Walker, Germaine Tailleferre, Imogen Holst, and Adolphus Hailstork, all composers featured on the platform.
Performers include the New Muses Project Choir and Chamber Players conducted by Gabriel Crouch, and the concert will feature soprano Awet Andemicael, mezzo-soprano MaKayla McDonald, and baritone Will Doreza. For more information about New Muses Project, please visit www.newmusesproject.com, and follow New Muses Project on Facebook, Instagram (@newmusesproject), and LinkedIn.
