In this episode of The Conductor’s Podcast, my guest is Gabriel Lena Frank. As she continues to be a remarkable composer, she’s fulfilling her passion of wanting to live by 100 years and seeing that music becomes more accessible to individuals who really want and need it.
Tune in this episode and be inspired on how creativity impacts society and how you can navigate the world of music despite being bombarded with biases and different gender or race-related conundrums.
Currently serving as Composer-in-Residence with the Philadelphia Orchestra and included in the Washington Post’ s list of the 35 most significant women composers in history, identity has always been at the center of composer/pianist Gabriela Lena Frank's music. Born in 1972 to a mother of Peruvian/Chinese ancestry and a father of Lithuanian/Jewish descent, Gabriela explores her multicultural American heritage through her compositions.
In 2017, Gabriela founded the award-winning Gabriela Lena Frank Creative Academy of Music, a non-profit training institution held on her two rural properties in Boonville, CA for emerging composers from a broad array of demographics and aesthetics. Civic outreach is an essential part of Gabriela’s work. She has volunteered extensively in hospitals and prisons, with her current focus on developing the music school program at Anderson Valley High School, a rural public school of modest means with a large Latino population in Boonville, CA.
In the 2022-23 season, she will see the premiere of her first opera, El último sueño de Frida y Diego with Pulitzer playwright Nilo Cruz, co-commissioned by San Diego Opera and San Francisco Opera.