Happy February! I am so grateful for you to be here with me, at the 20th episode of the show. It’s hard to imagine that we’ve been here together for almost 5 months, and I hope you are still loving this show as much as I do.

Today’s topic is something that I personally really look forward to, 𝖈𝖔𝖒𝖒𝖎𝖘𝖘𝖎𝖔𝖓𝖎𝖓𝖌. In the musical world, commission means that you pay someone to write a piece of music for you.

One way of supporting living composers is to perform their works in concert halls, and another is to commission new works. And why is this important? Because it gives us a chance to help shape the future of repertoire literature. 

My guests today are Ashley Killam and Dr. Carrie Blosser, co-founders of 𝗗𝗶𝘃𝗲𝗿𝘀𝗶𝗳𝘆 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗦𝘁𝗮𝗻𝗱. It is an organization dedicated to working with diverse musical voices to create accessible educational music. 

They are committed to expanding repertoire and providing accessible educational works by composers of color, gender-marginalized composers, and LGBTQ+ composers. 

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