In the News

2025 ECM grants help students shine

Kathryn Grace Bistodeau — Fri, 23 May 2025 16:25:38 +0000

2025 ECM grants help students shine Kathryn Grace … Fri, 05/23/2025 - 10:25

Kathryn Bistodeau

Each spring, the Entrepreneurship Center for Music (ECM) awards project grants to support students in their professional and artistic endeavors. This year’s adjudicator panel—comprising Dairy Arts Center Executive Director Melissa Fathman, Colorado Symphony member Nick Davies and myself—considered 27 applicants and awarded 16 grants totaling just over $6,200. I sat down with a few of these students to learn about their projects and how the grants helped fuel their success:

Electronic oboe piece
When Grace Stringfellow discovered composer Gracie Fagan’s work, they knew they had to work together. Stringfellow, a DMA student in oboe performance and pedagogy, first discovered Fagan (MM ’25) through an Instagram post of a piece she wrote for Assistant Professor of Saxophone Nathan Mertens.

“It was a really good example of her compositional style. She's very into using electronics, live processing and other more modern sounds,” Stringfellow says. “She’s inspired by EDM and other dance musics.”

They then reached out to Fagan about writing a piece for oboe—something that would bring the repertoire into the present and showcase more extended techniques on the instrument. The ECM grant helped Stringfellow to compensate Fagan for the project.

“The main motivation was to create something that feels modern—that feels like something you would hear on the radio, something that's singable, maybe has a little bit of improvisation,” they say. “Throwing everything out of the window of what is expected.”

Stringfellow and Fagan worked together to come up with inspiration for the piece, creating a collaborative and integrative process that Stringfellow says is unique from their commission experiences in the past.

“This feels like almost, almost co-writing. Obviously, she's doing the body of the work, but it feels like co-writing and co-creating which is fantastic.”

The completed piece will be six or seven short movements, reflecting the shorter songs heard in pop music. Stringfellow plans to premiere the work at a recital in October, then hopes to perform at other local venues as well. They also plan to record the piece for public release.

“I really want to push the boundaries with this commission, so I'm really glad that we can do this,” Stringfellow says. “Gracie will be able to come back for the premiere, so I think I’m looking forward to that most of all and continuing to work with her!”

Carnegie performance
In June, Nelio Zamorano and his choir—Cantabile-Ensamble Coral—will take on Carnegie Hall. Zamorano, a DMA student in orchestral conducting, has been music director and conductor of the Bolivia-based choir for four years; every summer, he returns to his home country to visit and work with his fellow musicians.

“Last summer, we premiered a piece by an Argentinian composer—because of this, we've been invited to perform in Carnegie Hall,” he says. “This is a huge honor for us coming from Bolivia to have this kind of concert in probably the most prestigious concert hall in the world.”

The choir will perform Martín Palmeri’s “Misatango” as part of the Distinguished Concerts International New York (DCINY) concert series on June 8. The ECM grant will help Zamorano cover trip expenses.

“I'm looking forward to having a wonderful performance—something that can be the first of many performances as a group. Also to create something memorable for my ensemble, I just want to have the most fun and memorable trip,” Zamorano says.

Palmeri will be a composer-in-residence for the concert which will be conducted by Matthew Webb and feature choirs from around the world.

“No matter what I'm doing here—doing a program or conducting an orchestra or getting a job—I always think about the people in my country. And that's why this project makes me think that, hey, maybe I'm doing something right because now my people in my country are having these kinds of opportunities. In the future, I would like to see more of this.”

Recital commission
EJ Lee wanted her senior recital to be unique, memorable and special. Lee, an undergraduate studying euphonium performance and music education, pictured a recital presenting pieces that connect the audience with the beauty of music. She also wanted a way to honor her dad, who passed away during her freshman year.

“I thought it'd be really cool to have a piece written for me that also honored my dad,” Lee says. “So I commissioned a new euphonium solo piece from my dear friend, Alex LaMotte (BA ’25, journalism with minors in atmospheric sciences + music), who is an LGBTQ+ composer and string player.

“The project's goal was to bring more representation into the euphonium repertoire which has been historically written by composers from very similar backgrounds. I wanted to have this commission be a step forward, making brass music more inclusive and accessible both in who gets represented and who can perform the piece.

“Especially with newer works for euphoniums, they have been more and more difficult and not really accessible for most skill levels.”

Lee and LaMotte worked together for a few months, shaping the piece into something that felt like it achieved those goals. Lee says she learned a lot through the process, as she and LaMotte made all creative decisions with no existing recordings to reference.

The ECM grant helped Lee compensate LaMotte—although he was willing to offer a favor to a friend. “I could not do that as a fellow musician,” Lee says. She premiered the piece, with LaMotte in attendance, at her senior recital on April 12.

“I explained how I decided to play this piece and then about my dad. Alex talked a little bit about the piece as well. Then I played the piece and apparently I made everyone cry,” Lee recounts. “So I think I hit the goal of successfully reaching the audience through my music.”

Icelandic festival
For John-Austin King, a doctoral student in piano performance, the chance to go back to Iceland was one he couldn’t pass up. His project proposal—Fostering Musical Excellence in the Westfjords of Iceland—detailed his experience at the Við Djúpið festival in Ísafjörður last summer and the extraordinary opportunity to return this year. Along with trio members Amelia Korbitz (violin) and Liam Battle (cello), King serves as a guest artist and instructor at the festival.

His trio members heard of the opportunity through a faculty member at the University of Cincinnati College-Conservatory of Music where they were students.

“She said, ‘We want an American piano trio at the festival this summer. Would you guys be interested?’” King explains. “Of course, I was all over that. Amelia and Liam are some of my favorite people to play with. We're friends and we have a lot of fun.”

The experience was formative for the young musicians. This year, King looks forward to again working with students, immersing himself in local culture and of course, performing.

“I loved performing, that was a highlight. Being there and looking out in the audience, not knowing anyone, but getting to talk to them about music and seeing how people appreciated that and what that meant to them—I thought that was really neat. I'm over the moon about doing this again,” he says.

Alongside musical experiences, the trio also befriended the rest of the festival faculty and staff, making lifelong memories.

“The cool thing is, we're there for the summer solstice,” King adds. “So last year, we all took a bus to the top of this insane mountain looking out over the Atlantic toward the North Pole—we watched the sun touch the water and then come back up.”

King will be back at the festival in June, thanks to an ECM grant supporting travel expenses. “I'm obviously so grateful for this help. Since I've been here, there are so many opportunities for funding, for performances, for festivals, for interpersonal growth at the College of Music—it's awesome.”

Congratulations to all our 2025 ECM grant recipients, also including:
Elise Cole
Devin Cowan
Joel Ferst
Heewon Lee
Wesley Leffingwell
Paige Michaud
Leah Pernick
Christine Teng
Natalie Trejo
Madison Triplett
Kisa Uradomo
Kevin Yetter

Each spring, our Entrepreneurship Center for Music awards project grants to support students in their professional and artistic endeavors. This year’s adjudicator panel awarded 16 grants—meet some of the amazing student recipients and learn about their projects!

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Entrepreneurship Center for Music announces leadership transition

Kathryn Grace Bistodeau — Tue, 13 May 2025 20:35:57 +0000

Entrepreneurship Center for Music announces leadership transition Kathryn Grace … Tue, 05/13/2025 - 14:35

Sabine Kortals Stein

On June 30, 2025, Professor of Composition Jeffrey Nytch—who’s directed the College of Music’s Entrepreneurship Center for Music (ECM) for the past 16 years—will step down from that role. Marilyn Brock—currently ECM lecturer—will assume the roles of assistant teaching professor and interim ECM director; and Nytch—as professor of composition + entrepreneurship—will continue to teach The Entrepreneurial Artist, the Certificate in Music Entrepreneurship capstone and the college’s new Graduate Career Seminar, as well as help develop new opportunities for the composition department with the ɫ��ֱ�� ATLAS Institute and Leeds School of Business.

“I’m proud of what Jeff Nytch has built,” says College of Music Dean John Davis. “The college’s Entrepreneurship Center for Music is broadly recognized, domestically and abroad, as one of the top programs of its kind.

“The center is a keystone of our college's universal musician approach to developing multiskilled, multifaceted musicians prepared for flexible career options.”

At the time of its founding by former Dean Daniel Sher in 1999, the ECM was the first program of its kind. Nytch’s subsequent appointment to lead the center was the first known tenure-track position in arts entrepreneurship.

As an early leader in developing entrepreneurship programming on our campus, Nytch helped establish the university’s New Venture Challenge and other cross-campus programs. He later developed the first arts-focused track in a collegiate entrepreneurship competition and—most recently—his work in these areas was recognized with the Frank Moyes Award, the university’s top award for entrepreneurship.

“Back when the New Venture Challenge had an Arts & Creative Industries track, teams from the College of Music made the championship round every year,” recalls Nytch, who also received the 2020 Sharon T. Alpi Award for Innovative Pedagogy, the highest award given by the Society of Arts Entrepreneurship Education. “Five times we placed in the top three—and one year we won the $100,000 championship!

“We’ve placed scores of internships and jobs in the arts sector, supported numerous student startups, and awarded nearly $30,000 in funding for student ventures and professional development. Most importantly, we’ve worked with hundreds of students—from first-year undergraduates to doctoral students—to help prepare them for careers that are financially sustainable and artistically fulfilling.”

Specifically, Nytch overhauled the College of Music’s entrepreneurship curriculum creating new courses, updating others and launching the first-ever Certificate in Music Entrepreneurship that combines coursework in music with a minor from the Leeds School of Business. He also augmented ECM offerings with workshops, an online resource center and coordination of internships; and he launched Entrepreneurial Project Grants that support student projects in entrepreneurship and professional development through cash awards of up to $1,000. In recognition thereof, the ECM was the first arts-based entrepreneurship program to be recognized for “Excellence in Specialty Programming” by the Global Consortium of Entrepreneurship Centers.

Concludes Nytch, “I look forward to continuing to be engaged with our College of Music community—teaching entrepreneurship classes and lessons in the composition department, working on commissions and other creative and research projects, and brainstorming interdisciplinary curriculum development with other units on campus.”

Related:
Nytch’s book—“The Entrepreneurial Muse: Inspiring Your Career in Classical Music”—is a seminal work in the field, adapting entrepreneurial theory and practices from the business school to a conservatory setting.

This summer, Professor of Composition Jeffrey Nytch—who’s directed the College of Music’s Entrepreneurship Center for Music (ECM) for the past 16 years—will step down from that role. We reflect on his impact and influence on the center—and what’s next for him and the ECM.

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Closing the circle: What we can learn from arts entrepreneurship

Kathryn Grace Bistodeau — Tue, 15 Apr 2025 18:03:44 +0000

Closing the circle: What we can learn from arts entrepreneurship Kathryn Grace … Tue, 04/15/2025 - 12:03

Kathryn Bistodeau

ECM Director Jeff Nytch, Sharon Alpi and Jim Hart.

Earlier this spring, our Entrepreneurship Center for Music (ECM) Director Jeff Nytch and Lecturer Marilyn Brock participated in the annual Society for Arts Entrepreneurship Education (SAEE) Conference in Kansas City. Both Nytch and Brock presented at the conference and networked with collegiate arts entrepreneurs and teachers from across the country.

Nytch has been attending the conference since its inception in 2014.

“The conference was formed because there was a small group of us educators who felt we needed to collaborate, share best practices and learn from each other, and advance the cause of research and pedagogy,” he says. “I was part of that initial founding group and it's one of those conferences where you return home with stuff all the time.”

Nytch’s talk—”An entrepreneurial approach to corporate/community partnerships”—was co-presented with his husband, Jeffrey Kash.

“It was a case study on a different way for corporations to support the arts in their community. The example that we used was at Premier Members Credit Union, which supports a classic film series that’s at the Dairy Arts Center and curated by my husband,” Nytch says.

“Rather than just giving a check to the organization, which is the typical way companies support community groups, Jeffrey partnered with the Dairy to underwrite the cost of a new series. Then all of the ticket sales and all of the concessions went directly to the Dairy Arts Center. It's a win-win, really, because it not only leverages the gift for greater impact for the arts organization, but it's also an event that is exclusively sponsored by Premier members, so their brand is front and center and very visible. It is a great way to build your brand in the community.”

Brock presenting.

A unique perspective that stood out to Nytch during this year’s conference was shared by the outgoing SAEE president, Jim Hart.

“He had a great line in his opening remarks—he said, where we used to ask, how can we take the business school principles of entrepreneurship and apply them to the arts? Now I feel like the next stage in our development is for us to take what we've learned about our own practice and share that with the business schools … it's time to close the circle.”

This year was Brock’s first time at the SAEE conference. Her talk—”Arts entrepreneurs' responses to employee experiences of intimate partner abuse”—was rooted in the research she did for her dissertation.

“My talk looked at what influences decisions around supporting employees who've experienced intimate partner abuse and trauma in general. Then more specifically, how do we, as educators, help our students who may be going through something—and also help them as future entrepreneurs understand how they can best respond to difficult situations that their employees are experiencing.”

Brock said her first time at the conference was wonderful and she enjoyed meeting other arts entrepreneurs.

Nytch with Jose Leonard Leon.

“Here at ɫ��ֱ��, Jeff and I are the main people who are focusing specifically on arts entrepreneurship within the college,” she says. “So to get to talk to other educators who are teaching the same things we are and to get insights from all of them was really great—making those connections was really nice.”

At the conference, the ECM team ran into an ECM alum, Jose Leonard Leon (DMA ’18, trombone), who is now an assistant professor at Florida Atlantic University where he runs the trombone studio and is building an arts entrepreneurship program.

“[Jose] shared how he really took a lot of what he learned here from the ECM and used it in his own teaching career and in the program he's built at Florida Atlantic. Seeing all these connections that have happened and seeing how this is a space that's growing is really impactful!” Brock says.

This spring, the Entrepreneurship Center for Music was represented by Director Jeff Nytch and Lecturer Marilyn Brock at the annual Society for Arts Entrepreneurship Education Conference in Kansas City. They share their presentation topics and what they’re taking away from the conference this year!

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Meet the 2024 ECM artist assistance grants recipients

Kathryn Grace Bistodeau — Mon, 17 Jun 2024 17:59:38 +0000

Meet the 2024 ECM artist assistance grants recipients Kathryn Grace … Mon, 06/17/2024 - 11:59

Kathryn Bistodeau

At the ɫ��ֱ�� Entrepreneurship Center for Music (ECM), students can find the skills and tools they need for their music careers. Most recently, the ECM awarded $5,820 in artist assistance grants to support eight student-led professional development and community engagement projects including:

Josie Arnett
“I’m really picky about which pieces I release on streaming platforms because I’m 20 and need to be able to write really bad music … and then release the things that I really love,” says Josie Arnett, an undergraduate composition student.

“Last fall, I got the opportunity to write a saxophone quartet piece for a group that travels all over the United States. I was really happy with the piece and really proud of it, so I reached out to a faculty member who set me up with the ɫ��ֱ�� graduate saxophone quartet.”

Working with the Sanitas Saxophone Quartet, College of Music Recording Engineer Kevin Harbison and a mixing artist, Arnett recorded the piece for projected release on streaming platforms this summer. The ECM grant helped pay the artists and distribution fee.

Arnett says she learned a lot about how to interact in a professional recording setting and enjoyed collaborating within the College of Music. “It’s been fun to work with people that have a lot of energy, positive attitudes and are just really excited about what they do,” she shares.

Read about the rest of the grant recipients here!

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Spring 2023 Newsletter

Anonymous — Tue, 09 May 2023 06:00:00 +0000

Spring 2023 Newsletter Anonymous (not verified) Tue, 05/09/2023 - 00:00

A new CU Gigs coordinator, a music student in the NVC, and more here!

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ECM artist assistance grants help fund student projects

Anonymous — Tue, 25 Apr 2023 21:47:52 +0000

ECM artist assistance grants help fund student projects Anonymous (not verified) Tue, 04/25/2023 - 15:47

Kathryn Bistodeau

The ɫ��ֱ�� Entrepreneurship Center for Music (ECM) has a straightforward mission: To equip today’s music students with the skills and tools they need to create sustainable careers in the arts. In fall 2022, the ECM awarded $10,486 in artist assistance grants which helped support 14 students with projects, research, career building and professional development. We sat down with three of these students to ask how the grants affected them and their emerging careers in the arts.

The classical guitar album

As part of his degree, DMA student Andrew Wilder (classical guitar performance) is recording and editing an album of Mozart and Haydn transcriptions for the classical guitar. The ECM grant helped Wilder purchase a new laptop to run the editing software and streamline the tech needed to complete the album.

“It helped a ton because my computer was 10 years old and issues were accumulating so I had to stop recording pretty often,” Wilder explains. “In editing, it's like painting or sculpting, in a way, and if there’s something that’s constantly causing slow-downs, it really inhibits creative possibilities. Not having to worry about crashes during all of that was a huge help.”

This project has been a challenging, yet rewarding, experience, according to Wilder. “I think recording is one of the most educational things a musician can do,” he says. “Especially in my case, doing all of the editing myself really forces me to become even more familiar with what I’m creating and shape that, instead of it being just a performance, and then it being gone."

Wilder will also be working on finalizing the transcriptions he created, with the goal of publishing.

The immersive choral experience

Jessie Flasschoen, also a doctoral student, had been wondering how she could reimagine the choral performance experience. “I’d been really interested in taking choral music out of the stuffy concert hall experience, and wondering how to engage the community and the audience more deeply,” she says. “I wanted to create a choral experience that had active participation on the part of the audience.”

Flasschoen started a choir called Renova in January 2022, comprising up to 25 ɫ��ֱ�� affiliates dedicated to performing student compositions. In November 2022, Renova presented an immersive choral experience centered around the concept of alchemy.

“Depending on which version of alchemy you’re following, it has three processes. It’s a story of transformation,” explains Flasschoen. “What’s interesting about the ancient study of alchemy is that it wasn’t just about the metal turning into gold, but also about some sort of spiritual transformation of the alchemist personally. So alchemy in its origin has always been about human transformation in addition to making gold out of other metals.”

The audience was led through three rooms, each representing a different stage in the alchemical process. Room one covered blackening and death, room two featured opposites and purification and room three represented fire. The ECM grant helped to fund logistics such as the technical elements and decorations used in the rooms.

Flasschoen says the audience was enthusiastic and willing to participate, and that after the show was over, she received glowing feedback from community members, colleagues and choir members.

“The generosity of the grant made this crazy idea possible and it came together really really well in a way that people are talking about even months later,” she says. “And because of this generosity, I want to take this idea further, so this is a launching point for more research.”

The Wolf Opera

Artist Diploma student Chas Barnard and alumna Sabina Balsamo were artistically inspired by the proposition passed by the state legislature in 2020 to reintroduce gray wolves into Colorado.

“We just got to talking with our composer friend, Ben Morris about the proposition and then we thought, 'oh, this could be a great opera!'” Barnard says.

The project that emerged, named Colorado Sky, is a family-friendly chamber opera that also features shadow puppetry. The opera is written for three voices and a string quartet. The ECM grant helped with the cost of hiring baritone Andrew Garland, who also happens to be an assistant professor of voice at our College of Music.

“There were two parts to this project. There was a workshop in January where we recorded the whole work with Andy and then we’ll also present live performances on June 3 and 4,” Barnard says.

The team has also collaborated with Art Song Colorado, ɫ��ֱ�� Opera, and the Broomfield Council on the Arts and Humanities.

Barnard says, “It means a lot to have the support of the school. The grant gave our project momentum and the ability to hire someone like Andy who is an incredible artist, and who really gives our project a lot of credibility. I’m just grateful that we were able to move forward.”

Find out more about the live concerts of Colorado Sky in Broomfield and ɫ��ֱ��.

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Student spotlight: Erika Gossett

Anonymous — Mon, 10 Apr 2023 06:00:00 +0000

Student spotlight: Erika Gossett Anonymous (not verified) Mon, 04/10/2023 - 00:00

When Erika Gossett enrolled at ɫ��ֱ��, she never imagined she’d win funding for a business pitch.

“I thought I was going to come in, get a music degree and leave,” says the senior who—four years later—will graduate next month with a BM in flute performance, as well as a BA in media studies, a minor in business and a Music Entrepreneurship Certificate, exemplifying the College of Music’s universal musician vision.

“ɫ��ֱ�� has given me a lot of different opportunities and a lot of space to grow as a musician, and as a student and a professional,” she adds.

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Daily Camera: Music YouTuber discusses career in ɫ��ֱ�� talk

Anonymous — Wed, 01 Mar 2023 20:56:55 +0000

Daily Camera: Music YouTuber discusses career in ɫ��ֱ�� talk Anonymous (not verified) Wed, 03/01/2023 - 13:56

A Daily Camera reporter attended our February 28 Career Launchpad event with Youtuber "Sideways," read about the event below!

https://www.dailycamera.com/2023/02/28/music-youtuber-discusses-career-in-cu-boulder-talk/

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Fall 2022 Newsletter

Anonymous — Mon, 12 Dec 2022 19:56:36 +0000

Fall 2022 Newsletter Anonymous (not verified) Mon, 12/12/2022 - 12:56

Check out what Fall 2022 held for the ECM by reading our newsletter here!

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Spring 2022 Newsletter

Anonymous — Wed, 11 May 2022 06:00:00 +0000

Spring 2022 Newsletter Anonymous (not verified) Wed, 05/11/2022 - 00:00

Check out what the ECM got up to in Spring 2022 by reading our newsletter here!

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In the News

2025 ECM grants help students shine

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Entrepreneurship Center for Music announces leadership transition

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Closing the circle: What we can learn from arts entrepreneurship

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Meet the 2024 ECM artist assistance grants recipients

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Spring 2023 Newsletter

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ECM artist assistance grants help fund student projects

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Student spotlight: Erika Gossett

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Daily Camera: Music YouTuber discusses career in ɫ�����ֱ�� talk

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Fall 2022 Newsletter

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Spring 2022 Newsletter

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Daily Camera: Music YouTuber discusses career in ɫ��ֱ�� talk