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will celebrate women composers including those from historically marginalized groups. Undergraduate and graduate students have the opportunity to choose compositions from the�� housed in our very own��American Music Research Center, or contribute their own discoveries: This year, seven acts from across the College of Music will present pieces from Jessie Montgomery to Dolores White and more.

Holly McMahon

Senior composition student��Holly McMahon describes the event as “music you’ve probably never heard before and a lot of students excited to share pieces that are uniquely interesting to them.”

McMahon is part of an ensemble performing excerpts from a ballet she wrote—“The Snow Queen”—, a rendition of a story by Hans Christian Anderson. McMahon will play piano alongside Katherine Fornshell (cello), Caden Craig (clarinet) and Elijah Pouliot (violin).

McMahon has performed in previous Persevering Legacy events and has been attending them since her first year at 91��ý. “It was a really nice concert for me to go to when I was a freshman,” she says. “I didn’t know that much about female composers and it’s inspiring to see yourself in composers on a program. This year, I wanted to give back and add to the concert.”

She was commissioned by a local dance studio to compose “The Snow Queen” which was performed in full, with dancers, in December. McMahon herself danced seven years before beginning her undergraduate degree. “There’s so much joy that can come from writing music meant for movement,” she says. “It feels very��me to have written this ballet.��

“I really love the music that I wrote and the group that I’m playing with.”��

Lucy O’Byrne��

This is also the first year that the 91��ý Thompson Jazz Studies Program will be represented in the event with a sextet performing Esperanza Spalding’s “Mela.”��Lucy O’Byrne, a sophomore in jazz saxophone performance, says that only makes sense: “Jazz is a very male dominated music and I’m not saying that classical music isn’t,” she says. “Just historically, women have not been safe or welcomed to perform in a lot of the spaces where jazz is welcome.”

O’Byrne jumped at the chance to perform a more difficult piece, diving in and working hard to prepare. “The music we’re playing is really challenging. We’re having a total of five or six rehearsals,” she says. “We really want to put time and effort into making it sound super good.”��

The ensemble will also feature sophomores Bella Lanier (voice), Avi Bergman (trumpet), Gabe Hazleton (piano) and Gavin Hulse (drums), and freshman Mateo Perez (bass). While the ensemble wasn’t assigned by the department, the students have played together before.

“A really awesome thing about the jazz department—which I’m glad that we’re able to feature on this concert—is that all of us have a lot of experience playing with each other. The department’s small and we’re all friends who play together often,” adds O’Byrne.��

Shai Wexler

Shai Wexler—a first-year master’s student in violin performance—will perform a piece for solo violin, “T’filah” (“Prayer”) by Lera Auerbach.

“It’s very meaningful to me because it’s a piece by a female Jewish composer on Jewish themes and that I feel very connected to because I’m Jewish,” she says.

For Wexler, there are parts of the piece that portray anxiety and unease about the world, and the ability to use music and prayer to express that. “This piece uses a lot of musical language from Jewish prayers and the violin really mimics the human voice,” she explains. “It sounds a lot like a cantor singing in synagogue which I think is really special.”

Wexler is also looking forward to the freedom the piece offers—it’s an unmetered work, meaning the performing musician can choose the rhythm and pacing. “That’s a really exciting opportunity for me because I haven’t played a lot of works like that,” she says.��

“In classical music a lot of the time, we’re trained to play what’s on the page exactly as the composer intended. It’s been really meaningful to have this opportunity to break out of that a little bit and present my own unique interpretation of this piece.”

The participating students’ excitement and anticipation is palpable. They’re eager to work with the other students on the program and experience something new: “I’m really looking forward to being educated on artists and composers from other genres that are also underrepresented in this music,” O’Byrne says. “I’m looking forward to learning and hearing what other people have to say.”

Complementing the�� on March 26, 7:30 p.m., Chamber Hall (S102), Imig Music Building,��alumnus Gregory Walker (DMA ’92, composition)—son of the late Helen Walker-Hill and Pulitzer Prize-winning composer George Walker—will lead a master class for students on March 24, 11 a.m.-12:30 p.m. (N180D).

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