Hymns of Hope and Healing

I composed the “Mental Health Suite” to reflect different diagnoses of acquired mental illnesses. The movements reflect the chronological symptoms of the various mental disorders. “The Persistent Past” represents the inevitable depression. “The Fearful Future” represents the frenetic energy of anxiety.

I am ecstatic to share my composition, which honors various symptoms of acquired mental illness. I spent my early adulthood struggling, but I have found light, and I hope that others struggling will find their light.

Ms. Gallagher composed “Dancing Into the Light” for her mother, who was a cancer survivor. The composer shares her inspiration, “I was accompanying classes for the Carolina Ballet’s summer school program. The young students were so full of life and energy, hopes and dreams; their beautiful movements inspired me to think of healing and recovery as a ‘dance of hope.’ My mother also was a dance accompanist and it seemed especially fitting to honor her in this way.”

At the time in which I wrote this piece, I was reflecting upon the difficult but necessary life choice I had made to from the city of Miami, Florida, to a small town in Upstate New York to serve as a music professor at a university there. In the years since, I have grown to better understand what it means to be a part of a community, to face loss and hardship together, having also learned how important it is for us as individuals to be active in creating the kind of life we wish to live. In some ways, this piece has come to represent the sometimes-lonely path that exists between many worlds, hence the title “A Heretic’s Prayer.” Though we may not all live the same life, I believe that we all have to walk a path that sometimes challenges others’ perceptions of who we are, in addition to challenging our own sense of identity. May this piece help us reflect and feel both the tension and stillness that such moments of reflection can provide, and inspire us to do all things with courage, which I see as not the absence of fear, but when the presence of fear is outweighed by the presence of faith. Faith in ourselves, in our communities, and in a better future we can help create.

…there is yet beauty is meant to serve as a reminder of what we must hold onto in times that may challenge us to the core of our being. This piece had been living in my head for more than a year before putting it to paper. It was in the summer of 2023, when I first had the pleasure of working with Next Festival of Emerging Artists’ director, Peter Askim, that I realized the importance of staying grounded in hope through my artistic practice. Tuesday of our week-long residency for the American Composers Orchestra EarShot readings, I distinctly recall leaving the rehearsal space and walking outside to be greeted by a hazy orange sky, the result of Canadian wildfires from which smoke had traveled hundreds of miles south. It was deeply troubling. I had to fight against my body, my knees weak from what I saw as the harbinger of the climate crisis in an unignorable reality. However, it was in that same moment that I realized where I felt safest was with the musicians and collaborators next to me. The following days were filled with a range of emotions, but ultimately, I felt grateful for the opportunity to still make art with people who care. The light ascending motif of the beginning section is meant to evoke the feeling of moving into the sky, like when a bird (or a human in an airplane) arrives at the place where the clouds become “firmament.” Perhaps it is the calm above the storm(s) below on earth. Then, the mood becomes slightly melancholy as we recognize the ephemeral nature of such beautiful moments. The main theme of the piece is meant to evoke both nostalgia and hope of beauty and love. The solos in viola and cello are reflections on the fragile nature of our well-being as individuals and as a society when faced with the seemingly-integral presence of wars, disasters, corruption, and other things. But it is when we hold onto what things bring us peace, what makes our hearts warm, even if we may not be experiencing them in that moment, that we hopefully gather the strength to move forward, together. For there is yet beauty to behold, community to create, and love to give to our shared place called Earth, as well as to each other. I will always be overwhelmed with gratitude for Peter, the Next Festival of Emerging Artists musicians, and for the American Composers Orchestra (thank you Melissa, Loki, Curtis, and Jordan!) due to their support of the humble musical offering that is this piece. It is only thanks to them that I could communicate this in spirit of finding joy even in what may seem to be a dark time.

Active as a composer, conductor and collaborative connector, Dr. Peter Askim is the Artistic Director of The Next Festival of Emerging Artists and the conductor of the Raleigh Civic Symphony and Chamber Orchestra, as well as Director of Orchestral Activities at North Carolina State University. He was previously Music Director and Composer-in-Residence of the Idyllwild Arts Academy Orchestra. He has also been a member of the Honolulu Symphony Orchestra and served on the faculty of the University of Hawaii-Manoa, where he directed the Contemporary Music Ensemble and taught theory and composition.

As a conductor, he has led the American Composers Orchestra, Knoxville Symphony and Vermont Symphony, among others, and is known for innovative programming, championing the work of living composers and his advocacy of underrepresented voices in the concert hall. He has conducted premieres by composers such as Brett Dean, Aaron Jay Kernis, Allison Loggins-Hull, Jessica Meyer, Nico Muhly, Rufus Reid, Christopher Theofanidis, Jeff Scott and Aleksandra Vrebalov, and led the American premiere of Florence Price’s Ethiopia’s Shadow in America. His work was featured on HBO and National Public Radio conducting folk-rock legend Richard Thompson’s soundtrack for The Cold Blue. He has collaborated with such artists as Miranda Cuckson, Matt Haimovitz, Vijay Iyer, Jennifer Koh, Nadia Sirota, Sō Percussion and Jeffrey Zeigler, and the bluegrass band Balsam Range. As a composer, he has been called a “Modern Master” by The Strad and has had commissions and performances from such groups as the Tokyo Symphony Orchestra, the Honolulu Symphony, the Stavanger Symphony Orchestra, Cantus Ansambl Zagreb and the American Viola Society.

With the creation of The Next Festival of Emerging Artists, Askim founded a festival dedicated to the next generation of performers, composers and choreographers. Founded in 2013, the Festival encourages young artists, ages 20-30, to focus on artistic development, entrepreneurial career strategies and the music of living composers. The Next Festival Composer and Composer/Choreographer workshops connect early-career performers, composers and choreographers in innovative and highly collaborative laboratory for the creation of new works. The Festival has been awarded grants by the Amphion, ASCAP and BMI foundations, and the Copland Fund for Music. Immediately recognizing the devastation of the COVID pandemic on young artists, he began providing free workshops, masterclasses and resources to support young artists through challenging times beginning in March of 2020. Through the Festival, he has presented over 50 Guest Artists, including Pulitzer, Grammy, and MacArthur award winners.

With the Raleigh Civic Orchestras, Askim has pioneered collaborative, multimedia concert events focused on social and environmental justice and has programmed a newly commissioned world premiere on each concert for the last seven seasons. Themes have included Martin Luther King, Jr.’s North Carolina “I Have A Dream” speech and a work for Virtual Reality and orchestra highlighting the Women’s Suffrage Movement and the Voting Rights Act. During the pandemic, Askim premiered nine new works by composers harnessing latency and technology in innovative approaches to distance collaboration. Under his direction, the orchestras have received multiple grants recognizing diversity in programming, including from New Music USA and the Women’s Philharmonic Association.

Michael R. Dudley Jr. is a trumpet player, composer, producer, educator, and photographer based in the historic neighborhood of Bedford Stuyvesant in Brooklyn, New York.

With more than a decade of professional experience as a musician, Michael has played at venues around the world in addition to iconic New York City locations such as Carnegie Hall, Birdland Jazz Club, and Dizzy’s Club. They have made recent musical appearances with the Maria Schneider Orchestra, Christian McBride Big Band, Derrick Hodge’s Color of Noize Orchestra, Ryan Truesdell’s Gil Evans Project, and Darcy James Argue’s Secret Society. Michael’s performances as a fellow with the Henry Mancini Institute Orchestra allowed them to share the stage with John Williams and Quincy Jones, among other amazing artists. More recent performances have included the 2024 Big Ears and North Sea Jazz Festivals with Secret Society, Maria Schneider Orchestra’s 30th Anniversary Tour, the 2023 Breaking Barriers Festival @ Ravinia, and the 2022 Newport Jazz Festival with the Maria Schneider Orchestra as well as with their own group (featuring Eliza Salem and Robert Papacica).

Michael can be heard as a lead trumpet player on multiple GRAMMY®-winning recordings by the John Daversa Big Band and Brian Lynch Big Band in addition to their self-produced single (“Another Star”) featuring vocalist Makayla Forgione and saxophonist Melvin Butler, having recorded with numerous groups while completing their graduate studies at the University of Miami’s Frost School of Music.

As a composer and arranger, Michael has studied with Maria Schneider, Miho Hazama, Gary Lindsay, Noam Wiesenberg, and Stephen Guerra, having recently earned ISJAC and ASCAP Foundation awards for their piece “Overture to The Before And After Times.” In 2024 Michael participated in the Orchestra of St. Luke’s DeGaetano Composition Institute, being mentored by acclaimed composer Augusta Read Thomas with a culminating premiere by the GRAMMY®-winning chamber orchestra at New York’s own DiMenna Center for Classical Music. They also have collaborated with artists such as Donny McCaslin, and Michael’s compositions and orchestrations have been performed by the Sphinx Virtuosi, Chicago Sinfonietta, Charlotte Symphony, Henry Mancini Institute Orchestra, Next Festival of Emerging Artists, New Canon Chamber Collective, and Cincinnati Contemporary Jazz Orchestra, with more premieres scheduled soon.

Michael also values work as an educator, having served as the Assistant Professor of Jazz Studies at SUNY Potsdam’s Crane School of Music from 2021-2024, in addition to giving masterclasses across the country. Michael was also recently brought on staff as an instructor and recording engineer at the JAS Academy in Aspen, Colorado alongside Christian McBride, Etienne Charles, Shelly Berg, Brian Lynch, and Chuck Bergeron after first participating as a student in 2019.

Autumn Maria Reed is a Wisconsin-based composer/orchestrator/sound designer and Berklee alumna. Autumn has composed library and theatrical music for companies in Madison and Milwaukee. Her music is available to stream under the name “AMReed8.”

For theater, she composed and orchestrated for “BEYOND THE INGÉNUE: TRAILBLAZERS (2020)” and “AN AMERICAN MYTHOLOGY (2021)” with Music Theatre of Madison. She designed sound and composed additional music for “GHOSTS (2023)” by Are We Delicious? and the choreopoem “DA CLASSROOM AIN’T ENOUGH (2024)” by Charles Edward Payne. Currently, she is co-orchestrating “LIFE ON THE SPECTRUM (2023/2024)” by Lonnie McGuire. She also acted in Encore Studio for the Performing Arts’ “ROAD TRIP (2024)” by Kelsy Anne Schoenhaar.

As part of the 2023 MUSE Mentorship program, she was paired with Tony- and Grammy-nominated composer/orchestrator/music director Zane Mark (“BRING IN ‘DA NOISE, BRING IN ‘DA FUNK” and “BOOP! THE MUSICAL”).

Autumn’s orchestral works include “YANKADI (2022)” for string quartet at LunART Festival and “RESILIENCE (2023)” for string orchestra, performed by Brazil’s Orquestra Sinfônica Teatro Nacional Claudio Santoro (OSTNCS) with Maestro Cláudio Cohen. This composition won the calls for scores with the Women’s Orchestra of Arizona with Livia Gho and performed at Carthage College with Dr. Edward Kawakami.

Her “MENTAL HEALTH SUITE (2024)” was performed by River Oaks Chamber Orchestra (ROCO) with Maestra Mei-Ann Chen. Autumn was a composer awardee for Ravinia’s 2024 Breaking Barriers Festival, led by Maestra Marin Alsop and Augusta Read Thomas where Autumn’s composition, “ROBIN’S EYE VIEW (2024)” was conducted by Maestra Nefeli Chadouli with the Chicago Philharmonic.

She plays string bass and cello with Dayvin Hallmon’s The Black String Triage Ensemble and Black Diaspora Symphony Orchestra, where she composed “EXODUS FROM EXTINCTION (2022)” and “CRIES FROM OUR SOIL (2024)” with poet Brit Nicole, soprano Michaela Usher, and choral director Lee Stovall for the symphony orchestra. This group performs string music for trauma and violence victims. A documentary short titled “BLACK STRINGS (2023),” produced by filmmakers Marquise Mays and RJ Smith, features the ensemble. PBS distributes the film on its platform as “What Does It Look Like to Bring a Violin to a Gμnfight?” and YouTube channel, “When Musicians Become First Responders.”

She advocates ending the stigma of mental illness and values spending time with her family.

Barbara Gallagher’s compositions and arrangements are widely performed by orchestras such as Florence (SC) Symphony, Wilmington Symphony, and Tallis Chamber Orchestra. Her spiritual/new age piano recordings are broadcast on Pandora and New Age Piano iOS app and educational piano pieces are published by Hal Leonard. Gallagher’s composition teachers at UNC School of the Arts were Robert Ward and Sherwood Shaffer, followed by studies with Vincent Persichetti at The Juilliard School.

When her work, “Dancing into the Light” was composed in honor of her mother for the “Symphony of Hope” American Cancer Society fundraiser in Winterville, NC, she was working as Accompanist Coordinator for the Carolina Ballet’s summer residency at UNCW, and the expressive movements of the dancers inspired her to think of healing and recovery as a “dance of hope”.

North Carolinian, pianist Olga Kleiankina enjoys a rich musical life of a performer, pedagogue and researcher. Dr. Kleiankina is currently the Teaching Professor and Director of the Piano Program at North Carolina State University in Raleigh, NC, USA. Dr. Kleiankina is a member of the Outstanding Teachers Academy and recipient of the 2016 Outstanding Teacher Award and the 2021 Alumni Distinguished Undergraduate Professor Award at NC State. Kleiankina is the author and a visionary of the Piano+ App, an online resource for beginning piano learners. As a researcher, she is interested in cross-discipline collaborations with colleagues in the field of engineering, computer science, health and educational psychology. Kleiankina has presented in regional and national conferences sponsored by the Music Teachers National Association, the College Music Society and the American Technology in Music Association.

Being a passionate musician and an eclectic performer, Kleiankina’s interests range from historic keyboard practice to new music. Her international career evolved with solo and visual recitals, chamber music collaborations and concertos with orchestras in Russia, Moldova, Romania, Hungary, Greece, France, Chile and across the United States. She has performed under the baguette of conductors Emil Simon, Robert Houlihan, Zsolt Janko, Randolph Foy, Peter Askim and Jeffrey Meyer. 

In her performance project “…Our Passage to the Stars…”, she collaborated with Emil Polyak, professor of graphic design at Drexel University, who created an Artificial Intelligence software that translated live sound from a piano into an independent real-time behavior of a 3D visual structure. This project was received with great enthusiasm at the Smithsonian Museum in D.C., the North Carolina Museum of Art and the 2019 CMS conference. The CD album with the same title “…Our Passage to the Stars…” was released by Blue Griffin/Albany in July 2019.

Additionally, Kleiankina is an enthusiastic performer of new music promoting the works of living composers. Her new CD, Abstractum, created in collaboration with flutist Kelariz Keshavarz features works for flute and piano by Alireza Mashayekhi, a prominent Iranian composer. Kleiankina has appeared in new music festivals such as the 2002 Sigismund Toduta Festival in Romania, 2010 Sound Ways Festival in St. Petersburg, Russia, 2012 New Music Festival in Moldova, 2014 Modern Music Festival in Santiago, Chile, 2021 World Flutes Festival XIII Edition in Argentina, 2021 Simpósio Internacional de Música Nova 2021 in Brazil and 2023 Chamber Music Festival in Barrannquilla, Colombia.

Kleiankina completed her early musical training in St. Neaga College of Music in Moldova, and the Academy of Music Gh. Dima in Cluj-Napoca, Romania, followed by a Master’s degree from Bowling Green State University and a Doctorate of Musical Arts from the University of Michigan. Her teachers have included Ninuca Pop and Ferdinand Weiss in Romania; and Maxim Mogilevsky, John Ellis, Penelope Crawford and Arthur Greene in the United States.

Tara Z. Mullins is a Teaching Professor in the department, where she directs the State Dance Company, teaches courses, facilitates the Master Class Series, and creates interdisciplinary projects. She also founded the Lunchbox Series, a virtual lunchtime conversation that uses dance and the arts as a springboard to delve into pertinent topics such as Arts and Public Health, Affirmative Action and the Arts, the Critical Response Process, and the intersection of STEM with dance.

While at NC State, Tara produced Operation Breadbasket, a mixed-media modern dance honoring the civil rights movement, which was featured on WUNC’s The State of Things.
She also created Against the Railing, a digital platform and mixed media dance piece that tells the immigration stories of the NC State community. Her screendance Gull, in collaboration with renowned filmmaker Doug Kass, was screened at 16 international film festivals.

Before working at NC State, Tara developed the education and service-based Z Mullins Dance Company. The company founded and facilitated such events as the Virginia Dance Symposium, which brought together high school dancers and professors from dance programs, and the Summer Dance Intensive, a ten-day program for high school and college dancers. She also planned and directed many community projects, such as Fitness, Food and FUN, a nutrition and fitness program for fifth-grade girls, and the Big Gig, a free youth arts festival in Miami.

Tara has a B.A. in dance from James Madison University and an M.F.A. in dance from Arizona State University, where she received the Faculty Women’s Association Distinguished Master Degree Candidate Award for her work developing arts programs for homeless youth, as well as the inaugural Herberger College of Fine Arts Fellowship.

Entrepreneur. Brand Strategist. Professor/Instructor. Calligrapher/Artist/Designer.

For most of her professional career, Carol owned and managed NIXdesign, an award-winning interactive media and brand/marketing firm established in 1992 in a loft studio in downtown Raleigh, NC. Carol’s firm provided brand identity, web/interactive media solutions and communications strategies for a number of clients in a wide range of industries, including: Quintiles, The Body Shop, Burt’s Bees, IBM,Ganymede/NetIQ, Pfizer and Astroturf.

™ Carol’s work has been published in PRINT magazine’s Digital Design edition, AIGA annuals, The American Center for Design [ACD] annual and Communication Arts magazine. She has received many design awards including the American Center for Design’s 100 Show, AIGA national awards, and national awards from the American Advertising Federation [ADDY].

NIXdesign has been consistently ranked as one of the Triangle Business Journal’s Top 25 Design Firms and Top 25 Multimedia Firms. After downsizing the firm during the economic recession in 2008, Carol became the Vice President of Marketing Services at French West Vaughan, one of the Southeast’s largest public relations firms, where she developed their interactive media division. She subsequently taught digital media courses as a full-time professor at Elon University before joining NC State University’s College of Design as an Associate Professor of the Practice and the Director of Marketing, Communications and Public Relations.

Ever the entrepreneur, Carol founded FountainArts® in 2015 – a retail company targeted for the wine/gourmet market and featuring her signature line of designed products ranging from serving ware to leather goods, linens, and notably, her Fusion™ wine racks, which have sold in high-end retail markets all over the world, including Wine Enthusiast, Target, Sur la Table, Solutions, Home and Garden, and Total Wine. Carol holds several trademarks and patents on many of her designs and continues to design new product lines.

Carol is a certified instructor for Type Camp, an international typography organization that hosts typography and lettering sessions all over the world. As a practicing calligrapher, Carol has conducted workshops in Toronto, North Carolina, New York, Arkansas, California and Vancouver as well as being a featured speaker and instructor at the International Adobe Max 2014 conference in Los Angeles and at Facebook headquarters in Menlo Park, California.

Carol was selected as a Count Me In™ Micro to Millions award winner in 2010, sponsored by American Express OPEN.™ She recently won a national Graphis® GOLD award for her design work for French Paper Company, Arjowiggins.

Today, Carol is the Director of the NC State Crafts Center, where she applies her knowledge of business, management and digital technology to traditional media and making. Her goal is to expand and transition the Crafts Center into a 21st century art and innovation center.

Education Master of Product/Graphic Design: NC State University College of Design B.A.in English Journalism with minors in Art and Corporate Communications: Elon University

Kara Pawlowski (2025 Creative Artist Award winner) is a senior working towards a bachelors of science in biochemistry. She has been dancing since the age of 12 and joined the State Dance Company her freshman year of college. She is grateful for all she has learned through the company and is excited for the semesters to come.

Kloe Tucker (2025 Performing Artist Award winner) is a senior at NC State with a major in Fashion Textile Management and a concentration in Fashion Development. She has been dancing since she was 3 and is a third-year member of the State Dance Company. She also holds the title of Co-Editor in Chief on PLATFORM magazine.