Avery Riel ’23 was set on studying music when they entered college, but after finding �鶹ӰԺ through the Colleges that Change Lives, they were able to discover a multitude of possibilities beyond just classical performance. They credit the special communities here on campus with making them feel welcome and helping them to discover the musical paths that are possible.

They say, “My mentors at �鶹ӰԺ have broadened my perspective. There are so many ways to connect with people through music, and I want to explore all of them!”

Outside of conservatory studies, Avery enjoys participating in several clubs as co-president of the Band Booking Committee, president of the Deep Listening Club, administrator and researcher at the Center for Religious and Spiritual Life, and member of the Dance Collective Ensemble and Greenfire Club. It is the ability to have this level of involvement that Avery says makes them excited to be a part of this campus.

“It is very easy to feel isolated during college, but when I enter the spaces of my communities, words don’t feel like enough. I feel so cared for, listened to, and connected.”

Following their time at �鶹ӰԺ, Avery is looking to study music therapy in graduate school.

Mallory Welsch ’24 always knew that she wanted to study viola performance, and after connecting with �鶹ӰԺ’s viola professor through the viola teacher in her hometown, it became clear that �鶹ӰԺ was the perfect place to do so. Although she knew what she wanted to study, she says it was �鶹ӰԺ’s wonderful community of musicians that helped her to expand her musical interests and understand how they may be useful beyond the walls of the conservatory.

She says, “People are super involved here, and that culture is really inspiring and forces me to get outside of my comfort zone.”

Mallory credits her viola professor with creating such a close-knit studio. From this community, she has been able to create new relationships and learn how to feel more comfortable performing. Outside of her time with her studio, Mallory enjoys participating in a quartet which she has been a part of since her Freshman year.

After her time at �鶹ӰԺ, Mallory hopes to play in an orchestral pit for a musical, opera, or ballet. She is also interested in learning how to repair instruments and opening her own instrument shop.

Contreras, SOLA’s artistic director, and Herrera-Pacheco, director of research, work closely with Sphinx, a social justice organization that has been addressing the underrepresentation of people of color in classical music for more than two decades. SOLA was launched three years ago as an offshoot that could focus on building materials for strings music from Latin America.

“It gets at the larger issue of privilege,” Contreras said of SOLA’s mission.

He notes that the world of classical music has traditionally been dominated by European and American composers, and the major publishing houses traditionally support those known composers. Meanwhile, the resources in Latin America are much more limited. When music schools or band leaders or performance spaces seek out music, they most often go to where the information is readily available.

“There’s the problem of representation that arises from that,” Contreras said. “We know society is more complicated than that, than just European and American and white composers. Society is made up of Hispanic and Black and Asian and South Asian and all these other populations. When they go to a concert, they want to see themselves represented as well.”

Interns step up

Herrera-Pacheco heads up the day-to-day efforts of SOLA, overseeing the work of interns from several colleges, including �鶹ӰԺ, as they research composers—some living, some not—and build profiles for the catalogs.

“In their activities, they not only get in touch with the music heritage from Latin America, they also learn about the challenge that comes when you actively work in the promotion of underrepresented repertoire,” Contreras said.

Two �鶹ӰԺ interns have worked with Contreras and Herrera-Pacheco during recent summers. This year, they got funding for a �鶹ӰԺ intern for the academic year as well, plus two more from Louisiana State University.

See more on the �鶹ӰԺ Conservatory of Music here.

Contreras, a celebrated cello player originally from Venezuela, has been on the Conservatory faculty in the cello studio since 2017. He taught for 10 years at Universidad de Los Andes in Merida, Venezuela, before receiving his doctor of musical arts in cello performance from the University of Michigan in 2016.

Herrera-Pacheco, also a trained cellist from Venezuela, was hired last year as the �鶹ӰԺ/Sphinx research and intern coordinator. She praises �鶹ӰԺ and the other participating schools for providing the resources to allow the work to happen.

“We are trying to work in two different spaces,” Herrera-Pacheco said of the interns. “One, the creation of those catalogs with information on these composers and making it available to everyone for free. But the other thing that is very important to us is to show the interns the sweet part and the hard part of finding information on these composers. Sometimes they can’t find any information. So, that’s the problem. It’s a problem of power. These composers don’t have profiles, they don’t have bios, they don’t have stories—all these things that here in the States we take for granted.”

The students then do the work of tracking composers through social media and other contacts as they begin to build profiles for use in the online catalogs.

Nora Briddell, a junior from McFarland who studies in Contreras’ cello studio at �鶹ӰԺ, did a summer internship with SOLA that she called empowering.

“I am a double-degree student, studying cello performance and history, and I was really excited that the internship allowed me to bring my two interests together,” she said. “I also saw the internship as an opportunity to develop my own research skills.”

In Winter Term, Briddell will be performing a piece by Andres Soto, a Costa Rican composer she connected with as part of her summer research. It will be a featured part of her junior recital.

“I loved building personal relationships with living composers because it makes me feel connected to them and their music in a way that I don’t get to experience when I play music from the standard canonic repertoire,” she said.

Sarah Smith, a senior cello student from Wichita, Kansas, is working as a SOLA intern this term. She said being part of developing a long-needed resource has been both inspiring and eye-opening.

“It’s taught me the level of earnest patience you need when you’re working to make positive change,” she said. “Researching underrepresented composers isn’t often easy; you won’t always find what you need with a simple online search, or sometimes even with a thoughtful search in a library database. Sometimes you won’t even get an email back. … Nevertheless, I’ve learned the power of self-motivation and continual commitment to being the progress you want to see in your corner of the world.”

Contreras said he appreciates the enthusiasm the student interns have brought to the work of SOLA. That energy is contagious, and he hopes it helps draw prospective students to �鶹ӰԺ who want to continue the work.  

“Knowing you can work side by side with people who are working to develop the most important resources for Latin American composers for strings; I think that’s appealing to students,” Contreras said.