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Each season, Civic Fellows receive funding from the Negaunee Music Institute to carry out a project of their own design that creates engaging musical experiences and serves communities across Chicago. Read below about the innovative projects of the 2025/26 Season cohort.
Hamed Barbarji & Cameron Marquez: Break It Down!
Break It Down! is a welcoming social event that dismantles the barriers of classical music concert settings that inhibit authentic human interaction.
In collaboration with Music Inc., a Chicago-based organization that “empowers communities through music with restorative, cost-free programs that support families and students,” the event creates an accessible platform for discovery and further appreciation for classical music performance and the arts, builds a strong relationship between audience and performer, and sparks creative autonomy and connection through artistic engagement.
J Holzen: Transcendent Souls IV
Transcendent Souls is a concert series that celebrates the contributions of trans artists, illuminates the shared values central to trans and Christian religious communities, and deepens allyship and connection within the Chicago queer community.
As the fourth installment of a series that has now engaged more than 240 audience members, Transcendent Souls IV was a concert of solo and ensemble cello works that highlighted local trans artistry in an affirming, supportive and sensory-friendly space, and explored the question: Is the cello a trans instrument?
Kari Novilla: Chamber of Change
Chamber of Change brought together formerly incarcerated participants, a chamber ensemble and a Grammy-nominated DJ for an original concert fusing classical chamber music with hip-hop and spoken word.
Over multiple workshops and mentorship sessions, three participants transformed personal stories into original lyrical compositions built on classical frameworks. The project culminated in a sold-out, standing-room-only performance at Collaboraction Theatre, drawing more than 100 attendees alongside community partners from the Innocence Network, Mud Theatre Project and other social justice organizations — demonstrating the power of music as a tool for healing, reintegration and community connection.
Matthew Nowlan: In Our Hands
In Our Hands harnesses music education to build climate literacy and empower young musicians to become catalysts for social advocacy.
The project rethinks how youth engage with classical music by integrating contemporary issues and interdisciplinary learning into the artistic process. This approach is reflected by incorporating climate learning into structured mentorship, guided research and student-led artistic programming that explores agency through musical expression. The project culminated in a concert in Grainger Ballroom at Symphony Center, performed by students of Midwest Fine Arts Society, featuring student-curated chamber performances of works that spoke to climate issues and a commissioned work by Sam Sharp.
Orlando Salazar: Expanding the Stage: A Path Toward the Future of Classical Music
Expanding the Stage is a community-based educational concert project designed to address the lack of racial and cultural representation in classical music. The project partnered with Senn High School in Chicago’s Edgewater neighborhood.
Wind band students participated in a series of classroom visits, followed by a chamber music concert and career-focused presentation. The project combined mentorship, live performance, and resource-sharing to help students from underrepresented backgrounds envision themselves within the classical music field. By centering representation on stage and offering concrete tools for career access, the project aims to foster belonging, confidence and informed decision-making among participating students.
Eden Stargardt: Voices Beyond the Wall — Music of Divided Germany
By looking at works composed between 1949 and 1989, Eden Stargardt’s project highlights compositions from divided Germany by recording underperformed works. This project exposes listeners to new compositions and creates a digital archive for works that do not have existing recordings.
By working with a local audio engineering student, Stargardt both learned about the recording process and helped a student learn about recording works for horn and piano. By having students engage with program notes on the website, this project encourages listeners to think critically about larger patterns of artistic erasure during this time and why these works are not easily accessible. www.voicesbeyondthewall.com
Mason Spencer: Empowered Creatives at UCAN Chicago
Empowered Creatives partnered with UCAN Chicago for a second year to offer Graphic Score workshops to youth and staff participants. These workshops allowed participants to compose their own music using graphic compositional techniques, and the works were then performed by EC musicians.
Spencer’s project combines the approachability of graphic scores with the therapeutic benefits of artistic expression to encourage participants to explore their innate creativity.
Justine Teo: From Singapore, to the World
This project culminated in an evening of Singaporean music and food in Symphony Center’s Grainger Ballroom with music by five Singaporean composers, performed by musicians from Singapore, and food from Kapitan and Lapis312.
Since there not many opportunities specific to the Singaporean community in Chicago, the project’s goal was to create a space for Singaporean culture to be shared and celebrated and inspire a continued sense of connection and community.
Sava Velkoff: Artists Intersection — Music x Ceramics
Artists Intersection is a project that transcends boundaries between artists of seemingly distant mediums. It creates community among these artists, bringing them together to explore the ways in which their art forms can interact, influence and inspire one another in the creative process.
Music x Ceramics connects Lillstreet Art Center artists in residence and Ikaros Ensemble. The final concert/showcase/discussion highlights the historical intersection of these two artforms and their future: how music can influence ceramics, and how ceramics can influence music. This project produced two new ceramic works inspired by music and a new string quartet inspired by ceramics.
