We were honored to find out recently that we were awarded a Project Support Grant from ARTSFAIRFAX, the county’s officially designated arts agency. The Faculty Chamber Ensemble Music Enrichment Project will send faculty chamber music groups into several local schools in Fairfax County to enrich the student experience through chamber music, interactive performance, and teaching.

“The educational and artistic goals of the project are to allow traditionally under-resourced students with an interest in music to have a more enriched experience through working directly with Academy faculty,” explained Academy Faculty Coordinator (and grant co-writer) Claire Allen. “Using chamber music as a vehicle to demonstrate the importance of working together for a goal and exposing them to a high level of playing and repertoire will encourage them to have a better appreciation of music and hopefully instill a lifelong desire to participate in their school music programs.”

“This project expands existing programs that fulfill multiple points from the Academy’s mission statement: creating impactful arts advocacy through community arts education engagement, creating community partnerships with schools, and building career paths for professional artists,” stated Academy Executive Director Libby Curtis. “In Mason Community Arts Academy’s ten year history, it has worked hard to create sustainable and enriching arts experiences that have developed deep ties to our surrounding community and schools.”

The project will culminate in a joint recital performance by the chamber groups, where students (and there parents) from the participating schools will be invited to attend the recital and a reception with the artists. The performance will also be free and open to the general public. More details to follow in the Spring!

The mission of ARTSFAIRFAX is to be “the voice of the arts, dedicated to fostering dynamic and diverse local arts, ensuring that arts thrive by providing vision, leadership, capacity building services, advocacy, funding, education, and information.”

The Academy would like to express our deep appreciation for the support received from ARTSFAIRFAX for this project.

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A generous community member from Chantilly, VA recently contacted the Academy about donating her acoustic upright piano to a good home. If anyone is interested in accepting this donation, please contact us asap.

The piano (pictured above) is a 50-year-old Baldwin acoustic upright. The piano itself would be free of charge (to a good home); however, the recipient is required to pay for the moving expense, which averages around $250-300 (when using a professional piano moving company) depending on the distance traveled, number of stairs involved, etc. Also, acoustic pianos usually require a tuning from a professional piano tuner after a move as well.

If you think you have a need (and a space) for this piano, it’s a great opportunity to look into. As per usual, we will handle this on a first-come, first-serve basis. Please email us at academy@gmu.edu  (no phone calls please).

A new video has just been published about the Narrative Machine project, which the Academy is participating in by way of contributing musical instruments (through our Instruments in the Attic program). An engineering professor and an art professor have embarked on an ambitious project to create an orchestra of robotic gadgets made of cast-off musical instruments that will autonomously perform an opera bearing a social message.

The project originated as a collaborative initiative between Mason Community Arts Academy, Mason’s School of Art, Mason’s School of Engineering and the Patriot Green Fund. From there, Mason professors Edgar Endress (Art) and Daniel Lofaro (Engineering) have spearheaded the progress of the project, building a growing “robotic orchestra” of instruments.

The Academy is very excited to see the Narrative Machine project continue to expand and evolve!

READ MORE ABOUT THE NARRATIVE MACHINE PROJECT