BKCM 2024-25 Jazz Fellows Keyanna “Key” Hutchinson (left) and Goussy Célestin (proper).
Photograph: Jaznina Santiago
Two Brooklyn-born musicians, Goussy Célestin and Keyanna “Key” Hutchinson, are the 2024-25 Jazz Leaders Fellows for the Brooklyn Conservatory of Music (BKCM). They may obtain a $12,500 unrestricted award for his or her musical endeavors, along with free rehearsal house, efficiency and curatorial alternatives.
Now in its fourth yr, Brooklyn Conservatory of Music’s Jazz Leaders Fellowship supplies sources to Black ladies and Black non-binary musicians to additional develop their craft and pursue initiatives that advance their careers.
Fay Victor, Chair of the Jazz Leaders Fellowship Committee, has been concerned with this system since its inception in 2020.
“I used to be requested by the BKCM to place collectively an advisory Board for what has develop into the Jazz Leaders Fellowship. As soon as I put the Board collectively we got down to outline, alongside the conservatory, what had been the targets of the Fellowship, how ought to candidates enroll and what had been the standards that made sense and a lot extra,” she stated.
Victor added that her “determination to develop into a musician and let the music truly information my course of as an artist has facilitated me with connecting to many kinds of communities.”
Célestin is a Haitian-American pianist, composer, vocalist, dancer, author, and arranger. Hutchinson is a guitarist, composer, and producer from Brooklyn whose multivalent influences could be traced to her Caribbean lineage, her love for standard music, her conservatory coaching, and a outstanding musical profession supporting performers within the fields of Pop, R&B, jazz, and different experimental genres.
As a neighborhood resident and native, Hutchinson stated it’s an honor to obtain this award as a result of she has “a chance to assist create a constructive affect on the subsequent generations of musicians and artists in a neighborhood that nurtured my ardour for the humanities.”
Goussy shared the identical sentiment, saying, “I’m excited concerning the collaborations that may come to fruition by this fellowship reverberating by the neighborhood of scholars, fellow educators, colleagues and performers by this tenure. I’m additionally thrilled that the award will assist to fund my present recording venture in progress.”
Hutchinson stated, “My most memorable expertise so far needs to be receiving the Jazz Fellows Management award. As an applicant and semi finalist only a yr in the past, profitable this time round has reaffirmed a capability to persevere which has been empowering for my targets and in the end my self willpower.
Hutchinson needs this system to affect the neighborhood, highlighting the significance of the method of creation. “Creativity permits us to share the depth and essence of who we’re — it’s my hope to encourage and unravel the telling of future tales,” she acknowledged.
Hutchinson needs to have a legacy in life targeted on the worth of the spirit of authenticity. To her, it’s important to “worth what it requires to guard and domesticate that as a result of I consider we’re all uniquely gifted and we should reject the beliefs that create blockages to be able to totally bask within the pleasure that being ourselves brings us, particularly within the pursuit of the humanities.”
To remain up to date on the work of BKCM, these can comply with the Conservatory on its social media platforms, which could be discovered on their web site: https://bkcm.org/. They’ll additionally discover all of the methods to assist BKCM right here: https://bkcm.org/givemusic/.
