The Houston Symphony is excited to announce the newly selected recipients of our Community-Embedded Fellowship!
The Community-Embedded Fellowship, a collaboration with Rice University’s Shepherd School of Music and the University of Houston’s Moores School of Music, is an apprenticeship program that provides graduate music students with the opportunity to develop community engagement skills. The fellowship is specifically geared towards students who are black, indigenous, or people of color (BIPOC). Community engagement training is necessary to create well-rounded, service-minded musicians, but it is not widely provided in many music programs.
To support the community engagement instruction of our educational partners, the Houston Symphony created this industry-leading fellowship so that more musicians will go out into the orchestra world with an increased skill, experience, and passion for engaging diverse audiences. Under the guidance of the Houston Symphony Community-Embedded Musicians (CEMs) and other Symphony staff, these annually chosen fellows will have the unique opportunity to learn how to share their love of music with children and other populations from Houston’s underserved communities.
Christian Harvey, Shepherd School-Houston Symphony Brown Foundation Community-Embedded Fellow
Christian Harvey, double bass, is currently a first-year graduate student pursuing a Master of Arts degree in Music Performance. Christian’s music journey began at Martha Ellen Stilwell School of the Arts (GA), where he performed at many notable venues, including Carnegie Hall. Christian previously earned his Bachelor’s in Music Performance from Columbus State University in Columbus, GA. Through this fellowship, he is excited to interact with members of the Houston community and hopes to inspire kids to pursue music.
Virginia A. Clark serves as Houston Symphony Musician Sponsor to the Brown Foundation Community-Embedded Fellow
Donald Rabin, Moores School of Music-Houston Symphony Community-Embedded Fellow
Donald Rabin, flute, is currently a second year Doctor of Musical Arts candidate in Music Performance and is pursuing a Master of Arts degree in Arts Leadership. An avid educator and leader, Donald teaches flute at Porter High School and serves as the 2022–23 Cynthia Woods Mitchell Interdisciplinary Fellow. Through this fellowship, Donald is excited to learn more about the Houston community, interact with non-musicians to understand their perspectives, develop tools to engage a wider audience, and challenge the current philosophy on how the arts are being taught in society today.
Learn more about the Houston Symphony’s Community-Embedded Musicians initiative here.
