An ECM project grant + an alumni collaboration
Each spring, our Entrepreneurship Center for Music (ECM) awardsproject grants designed to support College of Music students in their professional development, entrepreneurial endeavors or creative works.
In 2024, Er-Hsuan Li (DMA ‘24) received such a grant in support of the world premiere of a piano concerto composed by John Clay Allen (DMA ’19) who’s also a College of Music lecturer in music technology + composition. Li, now assistant teaching professor at Montana State University, performed the concerto with a string orchestra at the Dairy Arts Center, and the ECM grant helped pay the musicians and rent the venue.
This March, “The Stone Harp” album was featuring both Allen’s piano concerto with Li as soloist, as well as Allen’s concerto for oboe and string orchestra featuring Ingrid Anderson (BM ’08) as soloist. The recording is a collaboration between Allen and the Boulder Symphony under the direction of conductor Devin Patrick Hughes.