Grammy-Winning NYU Student On Uplifting Black Female Composers
Noelia Carrasco, a talented cellist who studies cello performance at NYU, speaks on the process of recording an album at the height of the pandemic and the importance of representation in music.
(Courtesy of Noelia Carrasco; photo by Angela Weiss via Washington Square News)
New York City, NY — by Sydni Johnson
This story was originally published on New York University’s Washington Square News.
To NYU student Noelia Carrasco, winning awards is nothing new, but being part of the first youth orchestra to win a Grammy Award for Best Orchestral Performance felt different.
Carrasco was a member of the New York Youth Symphony when they recorded their award-winning album that featured works by Florence Price, Jessie Montgomery and Valerie Coleman. Carrasco recalled the thick tension that loomed over the watch party, and the excitement that followed the announcement of the group’s victory.
“At first it was complete shock, because how could that be possible?” Carrasco said. “But then, it was an enormous sense of pride that overcame me, like that really warm pit in your stomach when something amazing happens.” …
Aside from winning a Grammy, Carrasco emphasized that one of the most rewarding aspects of her musical work was being able to spotlight Black female composers.
The New York Youth Symphony played pieces that were originally composed by Black women such as Valerie Coleman, flutist, composer and Performance Today’s 2020 Classical Woman of the Year; and Jessie Montgomery, the composer and violinist whom the BBC dubbed one of the “most distinctive and communicative voices” in the United States.
The orchestra also paid homage to Florence Price, a composer from Little Rock, Arizona. During her lifetime, she became the first Black female composer to have their symphonic work performed by a major national orchestra.
Read the rest of the story at Washington Square News.