By Jonathan Morales

October 24, 2024

Sacramento State’s Festival of New American Music (FeNAM) has spent nearly five decades bringing top musicians and composers to Sacramento for public concerts and educational programming for University students.

Now, thanks to funding from Sac State’s Anchor Grants program, the festival is expanding its community partnerships to bring the event’s benefits directly to local high school and community college students.

During the Oct. 27-Nov. 1 festival, participating artists will visit Natomas Charter School, McClatchy High School and Cosumnes River College (CRC) for master classes and workshops to “inspire the next generation of musicians,” said Shuying Li, an assistant professor of Music and FeNAM co-director.

The participating institutions are among those that historically sent a significant number of their graduates to Sac State, Li said.

“We have this history of having exchange activities and collaborations with those feeder programs because they are, in a way, supporting our music program to thrive,” she said. “I think also, by seeing those artists coming to them, they get to know that there’s a vibrant (music) scene happening at Sac State.”

FeNAM is the longest-running festival featuring contemporary music composed by American-born artists or artists living in the United States. As part of its commitment to making music accessible to all, the event features multiple performances that are free and open to the public. It also aims to dispel the idea of contemporary classic music as avant-garde, strange or otherwise inaccessible to the average listener.

“It’s not so-called ‘contemporary music,’ ” said Li. “It’s just music. And then our bonus is we have the real musicians and composers, living people, here, so you can interact directly. You can talk to them right after their piece is performed.”

Li began co-directing the festival in 2023, and, looking for ways to restart community outreach following the pandemic, applied for and received a $2,000 Anchor Grant to partner with CRC. That brought the college’s music faculty to campus to interact with Sac State students, but she wanted to bring the festival directly to local students.

This year, they applied for and received a $5,000 Anchor Grant, allowing them to expand to the two additional schools and provide on-site visits from the participating artists.

Metaphor Percussion, a duet of Sac State percussion faculty including FeNAM co-director Jordan Shippy, will visit Natomas Charter School for a workshop and performance. Composer Nina C. Young, the festival’s keynote speaker, will travel to McClatchy High School to talk with students about her music. And at CRC, the wind-and-string quartet Hub New Music will conduct a “lecture recital” with community college students, working with them through one of Young’s pieces and answering questions.

On the Sac State campus, the University’s music students will have the opportunity to attend workshops, lectures and master classes to hear directly from participating artists and, in some cases, have their own work critiqued.

“We invite all of them to do artists’ forums and lectures, where they will talk about their trajectory, starting from being music students,” Li said. “I think our students will really benefit from seeing themselves in (the artists’) journeys.”

The week will also include seven free, public concerts featuring visiting musicians and composers and Sacramento State’s music ensembles. The opening concert, Oct. 27, will include Hub New Music, Metaphor Percussion and Sac State’s Jazz Faculty Nonet. The Oct. 30 performance will highlight student composers and local artists. The closing concert on Nov. 1 will include compositions from Nina C. Young, as well as the Sacramento State Symphony Orchestra and University Chorale debuting the winning submissions to the annual “Call for Scores” competition.

“We’re trying to present this really nice kaleidoscope of what’s happening in America,” Li said, “the very frontline of new American music.”

For more information about FeNAM, including a full schedule of events, visit the festival web page.