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21st Century Artist Interns: 2017-18

Sep 11, 2017 | Announcements, News, Students

Last spring, four SMTD undergraduates were selected as the most recent group of 21st Century Artist Interns thanks to a unique partnership program between SMTD and University Musical Society (UMS). The program places SMTD undergraduates in summer internships with organizations performing on the UMS schedule the following season.

Supported by U-M’s Third Century Initiative, the program takes full advantage of SMTD’s exceptional access to many of the world’s most celebrated professional touring artists in music, theatre, and dance thanks to the prestigious and creative programming of UMS. In addition to working for world-acclaimed performing arts organizations, each student receives a generous stipend of $4,000 to offset living costs.

The 21st Century Artist Internship program creates a new model for providing students with work experience in the performing arts. In addition to spending a minimum of five weeks at the headquarters of a host organization, where they handle a wide spectrum of administrative and artistic duties, the students also act as “campus ambassadors,” creating contextual and educational content to engage UMS audiences when the company or artist arrives in Ann Arbor to perform. The program strives to balance artistic learning with entrepreneurial and administrative learning.

The 2017-18 21st Century Artist Interns are:

Grace Bydalek, a senior in musical theatre, was an intern with Pomegranate Arts, an independent production company based in New York City, which represents cutting edge artists such as Bassam Youssef, an Egyptian comedian, writer, producer, physician, media critic, and television host. Youssef performs at the Michigan Theater on November 6, 2017.

Alice Schmitz, a junior in double bass performance and economics, was an intern with The Knights, a Brooklyn-based orchestra which teams up with Israeli mandolin virtuoso Avi Avital and Syrian clarinetist and composer Kinan Azmeh to perform at Rackham Auditorium on November 12, 2017.

Casey Voss, a senior in percussion performance, had an internship in NYC that was in partnership with Alex Ruthmann at New York University and Barbara Haws, the New York Philharmonic’s archivist. The internship combined Casey’s computer programming skills and arts background to design on online tool for an arts education production. The New York Philharmonic performs at Hill Auditorium November 17-19, 2017.

Johnny Mathews, a junior in dance, was an intern with New York City’s Urban Bush Women, who perform at the Power Center for the Arts on January 12, 2018.

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