GLFCAM establishes Inclusive Music Initiative in partnership with the University of the Pacific (Stockton, CA)
The Gabriela Lena Frank Creative Academy of Music and Pacific are partnering to establish the Inclusive Music Initiative, a partnership conceived by Pacific’s Conservatory of Music and composer Gabriela Lena Frank. As part of the initiative, Frank will serve as University Artist in Residence at Pacific for 2025-2026.
By elevating musical traditions and cultures that have been historically underrepresented in American concert and school music programs, the Inclusive Music Initiative models a wholistic approach to music, collaboration and community engagement.
A statement from GLFCAM’s director and founder: “Many of you know that over the past near-decade, I’ve been at the helm of a small but hopefully potent non-profit supporting emerging, early-career, and now not so early-career composers among our illustrious alums.
“I had never planned on starting GLFCAM, focused as I was on my freelance career and trying to be the best storyteller I could be. Then, the election happened in 2016, and I felt I wasn’t doing enough to stem this tide of division and awfulness. I realized that simply telling my own stories wasn’t enough, even if I was reaching the upper echelons of my field (which I never expected), and that I had to open doors for my artistic siblings as well.
“I conducted a retrospective of my life and my training — both in school and “on the job” — and I wondered if I could create a space in my home for upcoming talents. And over the nine years, it’s been a privilege to develop and shape programs to give composers a strong boost, to encourage them to step deeply into their roles as cultural witnesses, and to claim their seat as an ancestor creating stories for descendants…
“… all the while, I continued to imagine what a 21st century music school might look like. A school with resources, a campus, a library, facilities, and credit-endowing curricula. What, I wonder, could such a school do to prepare musicians to go beyond meeting the industry where it stands, and instead, to evolve it?
“I’m excited to announce a new relationship between the Gabriela Lena Frank Creative Academy of Music and the University of Pacific, a Hispanic-serving institution, which houses the oldest music conservatory in California. I’ve been impressed by some of the very smart faculty hires in recent years by an astute dean who are in the process of developing curricula whose values naturally resonate with GLFCAM’s values.
“I’m especially excited that through this relationship — the Inclusive Music Initiative — I’ll be able to invite alums from GLFCAM’s incredible roster to work directly with Pacific students. These alums — who are my peers now — embody values and aesthetics in ways that I never could, rooted deeply within their culturally rich and diverse life stories. As a university student, I would have loved to have been exposed to working artists who thought it their duty to question the status quo and to show up as their full and authentic selves.”