PAOLA PRESTINI, COMPOSER, PRODUCER, EDUCATOR
EDUCATION
The Juilliard School Master of Music (2000)
The Juilliard School Bachelor of Music Composition (1998)
The Peabody Conservatory (1993-1995)
La Schola Cantorum (Summer Study, Paris 1999)
Course for Young Composers (Scotland 1996)
Interlochen Arts Academy (High School 1991-1993)
COMPOSITION STUDIES
Samuel Adler Juilliard Master of Music (1998-2000)
ASCAP Film Scoring Sessions (2000)
Claude Bonet & Philp Lasser La Schola Cantorum (1999)
Robert Beaser Juilliard Bachelor of Music (1995-1998)
Sir Peter Maxwell Davies Course for Young Composers (1996)
AWARDS/GRANTS
New York State Council on the Arts, Individual Artist Grant (2006, 2009)
First prize in the Marimba/Cello Duo category Classical Marimba League Composition
Competition (2009)
Lower Manhattan Cultural Council Grant Award (2009)
American Music Center CAP Grant (2004, 2007, 2008, 2010)
The Mary Flagler Cary Charitable Trust for New Music Grant (2008)
Trust for Mutual Understanding Grant (2008)
Lower Manhattan Cultural Council Grant/Swing Space Award (2006)
Monumental Brass Quintet Women’s Commissioning Award (2003)
ASCAP Morton Gould Young Composer Award (2002)
Whitaker Reading Sessions, American Composers Orchestra (2000)
Paul and Daisy Soros Fellowship for New Americans (1999-2001)
COMMISSIONS/PRODUCTIONS a selection *indicates self-produced
LABYRINTH installation concerto featuring Maya Beiser at the Krannert Center (2013)
OCEANIC VERSES at Zankel Hall and Bard College, Carnegie Hall Commission. New York City Opera VOX, the Kennedy Center, River to River and the Barbican with BBC orchestra (2012-13)
AGING MAGICIAN at the Kitchen, text by Jonathan Safran Foer, featuring Rinde Eckert and Gabriel Kahane. Director & scenic artist Julian Crouch, ETHEL and the Brooklyn Youth Chorus (2013)
*21C LIEDERABEND VisionIntoArt at Galapagos Art Space and the Kitchen (co-producer with Beth Morrison Projects, Opera on Tap, 2009, 2011)
DE DEO new opera with Donna Di Novelli, Word First program New York City Opera VOX, NY (2011)
HOUSE OF SOLITUDE installation concerto featuring Cornelius Dufallo at UCSF Strings in the 21st Century, River to River festival, SUNY Fredonia, and Harare festival in Zimbabwe (2011-12)
SPELL for the Chicago Symphony Music Now, commissioned by WNYC (2011)
LISTEN, QUIET at the opening of the Willson Theater, commissioned by the Juilliard School (2010)
WAKE UP at Issue Project Room featuring Gabriel Kahane, commissioned by MATA (2010)
LITTLE STARS at Weill Hall, commissioned by Concert Artist Guild/Sarah Wolfson (2009)
VIOLENS at PS 122, commissioned by Concert Artist Guild/Cary Trust’s Contemporary Music Project Commission (2008)
SOUNDS at the Whitney Live, EtnaFest, Italy, commissioned by WNYC (2007-2009)
SOUNDS at the Laguna Beach Music Festival Performance, featuring The Claremont Trio (2010)
AMANECER Tucson Symphony Commission, Tucson, Arizona (2009)
AS SLEEP BEFELL at The French Embassy, Washington, D.C. Contemporary Music Forum/Aleph Ensemble (2008)
*FERUS FESTIVAL at Galapagos Art Space. Curator of a monthly series of interdisciplinary work for 5 months. VisionIntoArt Presents (2010)
*SUNY DAY OF PERCUSSION VisionIntoArt Presents (2009)
*SOUNDS at Franklin & Marhsall College, VisionIntoArt Presents (2009)
*VIOLENS at the Coil Festival, Performance Space 122 VisionIntoArt Presents (2008)
*TRAVELING SONGS at Joe’s Pub, NY, NY, & JugoKoncert BEMUS, Belgrade, Serbia VisionIntoArt Presents (2007)
*TRAVELING SONGS, SOUNDS and BODY MAPS at Whitney Live. VisionIntoArt month long Residency (2007)
*SOUNDS at Etnafest, Catania, Italy VisionIntoArt Presents (2007)
*SOUNDS at Teatro Manzoni, Milano, Italy VisionIntoArt Presents (2006)
*A TOUGH LINE at BAM Cafe, Whitney at Altria Resonant Spaces Festival, & Thru the Walls at the Cutting Room, NY VisionIntoArt Presents (2006)
ARMENIA performed by the Kronos Quartet, Awakening Concert commission (2006)
*DEMOCRAZY LECTURES Keynote performance, Council on Foundations, the Thomas S. Kenan Institute, VisionIntoArt Presents (2002-2003)
SOLITUDE for the American Composers Orchestra for the Immigrant Voices Series (2001)
PUBLICATIONS
Map to Collaboration, Arcana III, Musicians on Music. Hips Road, edited by John Zorn (2008)
Bootstraps: online guides to musicianship, New York State Alliance on the Arts (2007-2008)
To be on not to be a 501c(3), New Music Box (2006)
DISCOGRAPHY
Body Maps, Tzadik Records (2008)
Without Kronos Quartet film score, On The Fly Films (2009)
Sounds, VisionIntoArt release (2009)
Traveling Songs, VisionIntoArt release (2009)
Sympathique, Viola Solo Melia Watras, Flor de Son label (2006)
Executive Experience:
Through VisionIntoArt, Prestini has:
• Presided over a prestigious board including some of the luminaries in the financial and foundation worlds such as Melville Straus, (President of Straus Asset Management), Diane Volk, Warren Ilchman, (Director of the Soros foundation), and more. (2003-present)
• Handled an annual budget of over $80,000 in education, and $50,000-75,000 in the performance and recording programs. (2003-present)
Accounting:
• Issued 1099s to all artists/employees, as required yearly for VisionIntoArt
• 990 and 990EZ for VisionIntoArt since 2003
Administrative:
• Managed a fifteen person team that spans the following areas: 1 administrator, a seven-member new music group, 1 poet, 1 visual artist/choreographer (revolving position), 1 filmmaker (revolving position), 2 composers in residence, and a technical team including: 1 lighting designer, 1 projection designer + assistant, and 1 sound designer.
Production:
• Over 50 productions in all types of venues, nationally and internationally. Commissioned over twenty composers, (such as composers Nico Muhly, Anna Clyne, Du Yun, Kamala Sankaram), fifteen poets and writers (such as spoken word champion Roger Bonair-Agard), five filmmakers (such as Sundance Festival winning Chase Palmer, video artist Carmen Kordas, and S. Katy Tucker), five visual artists (such as The Whitney Museum Biennale’s Martha Colburn and Erika Harrsch), one historian (James Allen Smith), three theater directors (such as avant-garde director Ian Belton and opera director Kevin Newbury), and five choreographers, (such as MEI-BE WHATever Dance).
• Directed the following programs: Performance, Recording, Education.
• Created education residencies at institutions such as Hofstra University, Franklin and Marshall College, Dickinson College, Presbyterian University, the Whitney Museum, and Etna College in Italy.
• Funded and organized two professional studio recordings of VisionIntoArt’s multimedia works “Sounds” and “Traveling Songs”. Recently recorded in Los Angeles by Kronos Quartet engineer Scott Fraser, featuring the music of Paola Prestini, Milica Paranosic and Pablo Rieppi.
Fundraising:
• Received major awards and grants through development work from the New York State Council on the Arts in: Music, Operating Support, Theater, Poetry, and Individual Artist fields; grants from the Trust for Mutual Understanding, Concert Artist Guild, BMI fund, the Cary Trust for New Music, the Nathan Cummings Foundation, UBS, the Lower Manhattan Cultural Council, several different family funds and foundations, and more.
Marketing:
• Designed an extensive web education project for the general public that can be found on the Carnegie website, and lead a four person team including web specialists and videographers, based on “The Late Piano Sonatas Professional Training Workshops”.
• Partnered with Carnegie Hall, BAM, Opera on Tap, Chocolate Factory, Paul and Daisy Soros Fellowship
• Created online marketing strategies which includes an interactive monthly multimedia e-newsletter featuring video and sound.
Education:
Through VisionIntoArt: Young Visionaries, Prestini has:
• Managed a fourteen member teaching troupe for the Young Visionaries program at Brandeis High School with over 250 visits/ semester, reaching over 1000 students yearly.
• Handled an $80,000 yearly budget which includes fundraising.
• Received awards such as the Blackboard Award in technology, and VH1 Save the Music grants.
• Established partnerships with Young Audiences NY, and the American Composers Orchestra.
• Established funding partnerships with the Anrol Family Foundation, the Edward and Carol Goldberg Family Foundation, the Hartford Foundation, among others.
• Directed the following initiatives: Band and Orchestra, Composition/Technology, and Film Scoring.
Additionally, Prestini has held the following positions:
• Panelist: the Paul and Daisy Soros Fellowship, Lower Manhattan Cultural Council Swing Space, Association of Performing Arts Presenters YPCA Fellowship (2007-current)
• Instructor, New York State Alliance on the Arts Bootstrap series – building a non profit and marketing workshops (2007-2008)
• Associate Director and Instructor, Making Score, New York Youth Symphony (2008-2010)
• Directed a 3 person team to create an online interactive program. Content Designer, Team Leader, Professional Training Workshops Leon Fleisher Schubert Project, Carnegie Hall (2007)
• Taught composition masterclasses at UCLA, Dickinson College, Hofstra University, Presbyterian University. (current)
• Instructor, Very Young Composer Program, The New York Philharmonic, (2003-present)
• Workshop Leader, the Association of Presenting Arts Presenters (2009) Presentation on collaboration at national conference in New York City.
• Instructor, New York State Alliance on the Arts Bootstrap series (2007-2008)
Created Summer Professional Training workshops for artists statewide that illuminate some of the steps to success in the arts (non profit building, collaborative relationships, grantwriting, self management etc). Funded by Rockefeller Foundation.
• Workshop Director, the Whitney Museum Youth Insights Program (2007)
Directed a three month project with visual artists to create audio guides for the museum’s permanent collection. The audio guides took a multimedia turn with the inclusion of members of VisionIntoArt, who helped mentor the students in adding layers of poetry and sound.
• Workshop Leader, American Symphony Orchestra League and Meet the Composer
Created education activities for orchestra administrators at the ASOL conference for Joan Tower’s ‘Made in America’ program. (2005-2006)
• Director of Education, American Composers Orchestra (2004-2007)
Managed a revolving team of composers commissioned by the ACO in education residencies city-wide.
• New York City Opera, Text Setting Course (2003-2005)
• Head of Teaching Fellows, Instructor, Assistant to the Theory Department, The Juilliard School (1999-2001) Taught theory including 16th century counterpoint, 18th century counterpoint, and 20th Century Opera, to undergraduate college level students.