Jury Members

Ashleigh Gordon

Co-founder, Artistic Director and Violist | Castle of our Skins

Described as a “charismatic and captivating performer,” Ashleigh Gordon has recorded with Switzerland's Ensemble Proton and Germany's Ensemble Modern; performed with Grammy-award winning BMOP and Grammy-nominated A Far Cry string ensemble; appeared at the prestigious BBC Proms Festival with the Chineke! Orchestra and at Carnegie Hall with the Gateways Music Festival among numerous ensembles. Comfortable on an international stage, she has performed in such venues as the Royal Albert and Royal Festival Halls (London), Konzerthaus Berlin and Oper Frankfurt (Germany), Gare du Nord and Dampfzentrale Bern (Switzerland), Centre Pompidou (Paris), and the Lee Hysan Concert Hall (Hong Kong)

Ashleigh is co-founder, Artistic Director and violist of Castle of our Skins, a Boston-based concert and educational series devoted to celebrating Black Artistry through music. In recognition of her work, she has been featured in the Boston Globe and NYTimes, and awarded the 2016 Charles Walton Diversity Advocate Award from the American Federation of Musicians. She is a 2019 Brother Thomas Fellow, a nominee for the 2020 "Americans for the Arts Johnson Fellowship for Artists Transforming Communities,” and named one of WBUR’s “ARTery 25”, twenty-five millennials of color impacting Boston’s arts and culture scene.

Peter Murphy

Stefan Engelhorn Curatorial Fellow | Busch-Reisinger Museum at the Harvard Art Museums

Peter Murphy is the Stefan Engelhorn Curatorial Fellow in the Busch-Reisinger Museum at the Harvard Art Museums. He is co-curator with Lynette Roth of Made in Germany? Art and Identity in a Global Nation (Fall 2024) and curator of Katharina Sieverding: Transformer (Fall 2024). With Lynette Roth and Elizabeth Rudy, he is co-curator of Edvard Munch: Technically Speaking (Spring 2024). His current curatorial research examines the relationship between housing crises and disability in modern and contemporary art.
 

Lauren O’Neal

Interdisciplinary artist, Curator, and Educator

Lauren O’Neal is an interdisciplinary artist, curator, and educator who has exhibited and performed at Portland Museum of Art, Purdue University, the Theater Academy of Finland, and Harvard University. O’Neal has been a recipient of residencies and grants from the Vermont Studio Center, the Somerville Arts Council, the New England Foundation for the Arts, and the LEF Foundation. O’Neal current teaches at Boston University, was a visiting fellow at the Harvard Graduate School of Arts and Sciences, and served as the director and curator of the Lamont Gallery at Phillips Exeter Academy. O’Neal received an MFA from Maine College of Art and Design. O’Neal’s doctorate from the University of the Arts Helsinki explores the intersection of choreographic thinking and curatorial practice.

Yvette Janine Jackson

Assistant Professor | Harvard University, Department of Music

Photo: © Catherine Koch
Yvette Janine Jackson is a composer and installation artist who brings attention to historical events and social issues through her radio operas and narrative soundscape compositions. Her album Freedom, produced by the Fridman Gallery, debuted as Contemporary Album of the Month in The Guardian where John Lewis wrote, "Any smart Hollywood producer would immediately snap up Jackson to provide film soundtracks, but her work requires no visual explanation." She is currently scoring Barclay DeVeau's The Cassandra Project film trilogy, and upcoming and recent projects include T-Minus for the International Contemporary Ensemble; Extant, an interactive composition for bass clarinet, cello, and game engine at ZKM Center for Art and Media which was developed at SWR Experimentalstudio; Hello, Tomorrow! for orchestra and electronics co-commissioned by American Composers Orchestra and Carnegie Hall; sound and light composition, RETURN, for the James Turrell, "Twilight Epiphany" Skyspace at Rice University; and her Radio Opera Workshop intermedia ensemble. Yvette's permanent installations Underground (Codes) and Destination Freedom can be experienced at Wave Farm in Acra, New York, and the International African American Museum in Charleston, respectively. She has presented on soundscape and memory at the Goethe-Institut Boston. Yvette is an assistant professor in Creative Practice and Critical Inquiry in the Department of Music and teaches for the Theater, Dance & Media program at Harvard University.

Carlos Vargas

Instructor of Music | Boston Conservatory at Berklee
 

Photo: © Carlos Vargas
Carlos Manuel Vargas's performances have received accolades from both audiences and critics in the United States, South America and Europe.

Recent reviews have praised Mr Vargas for his “highly emotional and thoughtful” playing and his “striking energy and uncompromising honesty”. Highlights of the upcoming 2023 season include a series of recitals in New England and California featuring music of what is to be his debut album titled “Souvenirs” as well as his debut with the National Symphony of Ecuador performing Rachmaninoff’s Piano Concerto No. 2 in honor of the composer’s 150th birth anniversary.

Besides his concertizing, Mr. Vargas is involved in several exciting projects that demonstrate the wide spectrum of his musical interests: The Roxbury Piano Program, Festival Esmeraldas and Roxbury Concert Series.
 
Find out more:
www.carlosmanuelvargas.com