Alumna Kirsten Volness Awarded MacColl Johnson Fellowship

Kirsten Volness (BA, 02, music theory/composition, student of Judith Lang Zaimont and Paul Shaw) has been awarded a $25,000 MacColl Johnson Fellowship from the Rhode Island Foundation, considered to be among the largest no-strings-attached awards available to early- or mid-career composers in the United States. Volness teaches music composition at the University of Rhode Island. She says her musical style integrates complex contrapuntal textures, drones, resonance, and organic development of ideas with strong influences from indie rock, electronic music, and jazz idioms. She co-directs Verdant Vibes, a new music ensemble and concert series and Tenderloin Opera Company, a homeless advocacy group. The Providence, R.I., resident plans to use her fellowship to produce and promote an album of original electro-acoustic music for strings and piano and to develop an original, multimedia opera.