Ei Team & Mentors
Sarah Zahorodni, Operations
With a passion for creative problem solving, making music accessible to audiences, and arts administration, violinist SARAH ZAHORODNI (she/her) puts her whole heart into every artistic endeavor she pursues. Her holistic approach to the arts, strong interest in collaboration, and love for chamber music, both as a violinist and violist, has presented opportunities to play in local communities as well as countries including Ukraine, Hong Kong, South Korea, and Italy.
Steph Davis, Strategic/Creative Partner
STEPH DAVIS is a marimbist, arranger, composer, educator, cultural activist, and researcher. Their work engages people, traditions, and technologies of the African diaspora as means for uncovering truthful historiographies, finding creative self-actualization, and reaching for collective liberation. Hailed as a "captivating" performer who brings "bright humanity and expressive depth" to contemporary music (Washington Post), Steph’s repertoire spans a wide variety of musical styles, including African American folk, Western classical, post-modern, and contemporary music, with a focus on composers of African descent.
Michi Wiancko, Artist-Mentor & Ei Staff
MICHI WIANCKO is a composer, violinist, educator, curator, and community organizer, whose creative work and collaborative endeavors prioritize artistry, community resilience, and liberatory change. She has been commissioned by Boston Chamber Music Society, the Met Museum, American Lyric Theater, SPCO, Aizuri Qt, to name a few. She gave her solo debuts with the NY & LA Philharmonics, released the complete solo works of Émile Sauret on Naxos, and her album Planetary Candidate was released to critical acclaim on New Amsterdam Records. Michi is the director of Antenna Cloud Farm.
PaviElle French, Artist-Mentor
PAVIELLE FRENCH is an Emmy Award winning, interdisciplinary artist, hailing from Rondo - a historically Black neighborhood in St. Paul, Minnesota. A Jerome Hill Artist Fellow (21-22) and a McKnight Artist Fellow (2020), she has performed at First Ave, Ordway Center, and The Kennedy Center, and her symphonies have been performed by SPCO, and by New World Symphony under the direction of conductor Edwin Outwater, and Artistic Director Michael Tilson Thomas. Growing up in a family steeped in music, she says that she wants to make music that honors and represents the Black Arts aesthetic.
Mazz Swift, Artist-Mentor
Violinist, vocalist, conductor, educator, and freestyle composition artist MAZZ SWIFT engages audiences worldwide with their signature weaving of improvisation and composition. Their works have been commissioned by the L.A. Philharmonic, the Kronos Quartet, and the Silkroad Ensemble. Mazz is a 2019 Jerome Hill Fellow and 2021 United States Artist Fellow, working on projects centered around protest songs, spirituals & the Ghanaian concept of ‘Sankofa’: looking back to learn how to move forward.
Xenia Rubinos, Artist-Mentor
Music maker XENIA RUBINOS uses her powerful voice to create beats and melodies from scratch. Xenia’s sound grows from a wide range of influences from Caribbean rhythms and beat music to minimalism and indie rock all delivered with a soulful punk aura. Audiences and critics alike have lauded her rafter-shaking live show, describing the songstress as “redefining exuberance”. She has toured Europe and the US nationally.
Gabriela Lena Frank, Virtual Artist-Mentor
On the Washington Post’s list of the 35 most significant women composers in history, Grammy-nominated composer and pianist GABRIELA LENA FRANK explores her multicultural heritage through her work. She won the 2022 Heinz Award, recognizing her for breaking gender, disability, and cultural barriers in the classical music industry, and for her work as an advocate for emerging composers. Gabriela is the subject of several scholarly books and PBS documentaries, a celebrated climate activism innovator, and in 2017 founded the award-winning Gabriela Lena Frank Creative Academy of Music.
Judd Greenstein, Guest Artist-Mentor
Composer JUDD GREENSTEIN is a passionate advocate for the independent new music community in the US and around the world. He is co-director of New Amsterdam Records and curates NY’s Ecstatic Music and festivals in Latvia, Zürich, and Bern. Projects include an opera about Robert Moses & Jane Jacobs, ballet score for Isabella Boylston & Gemma Bond, a flute concerto for Alex Sopp & The Knights, and a work for Awadagin Pratt, A Far Cry & Roomful of Teeth. Judd leads The Yehudim, an electro-acoustic ensemble that explores Biblical subjects through a contemporary lens.
2023 Artist-Fellows
Abby Swidler
“My name is Abby Swidler. I am from Missoula, Montana originally and I live in New York City now. I am a composer, an improviser, a performer, an educator. My main instrument is violin, but I also play viola, sing, play a bunch of different kinds of instruments, such as bass guitar. And I love collaborating more than anything.”
Violinist, multi-instrumentalist, composer Abby Swidler spins sound into immersive dreamscapes that invite listeners to explore and reflect upon the natural world. Abby’s music thoughtfully weaves together organic and electronic textures to create otherworldly sonic landscapes. Abby is a passionate collaborator across a multitude of artistic disciplines and musical contexts.
Since 2017, Abby has been connecting with the natural world and exploring environmental themes in their music. Their piece Botanical Portraits (2019) is a series of miniatures for string quartet focused on plant life. Horizon & Retrospect (2020) examines snapshots of evolving landscapes in Portland, ME.
Current composition projects include: Arbor (2023), a piece for baroque violin and electronics, which explores the theme of deforestation in the United States, and the dualities of past & present, grief & hope, and nature & technology; film score for Holding Back the Tide, a Hybrid experimental documentary about oysters in NYC; and the score for “The Mysteries of Life: A Queer Nature Walk,” a queer ecology theatrical dance performance that uses true stories of animals’ mating rituals and social behaviors to show queerness & transness in nature. Abby hopes to inspire listeners to feel affirmed in their own unique identities, and to encourage care for one another and the planet.
Abby’s work is featured across a variety of collaborations, including ruby, a dream-pop duo with songwriter kim mayo that Bandcamp Daily described as “a striking, evocative work full of hushed beauty.” Abby also creates music for Tsubaki, a collaboration with Courtney Swain & Kyle Harris, which released the short film Ripe featuring the group’s layered and haunting compositions. She has also composed film scores for “Butte Bangs” and “I Await the Devil’s Coming,” directed by Jeff Verlanic. As a composer, Abby has written works for Palaver Strings, BBC Shortcuts, Dance Visions INC, O Miami Poetry Festival, and the Peabody Essex Museum.
As a violinist, violist, and vocalist, Abby is a versatile and expressive performer who is equally at home across a wide breadth of genres. They have performed and recorded with artists including Angel Olsen, Kishi Bashi, L’Rain, Lady Lamb, Carla Kihlstedt, Shattered Glass, Mirah, Darlene Love, Jherek Bischoff, Ava Luna, Tredici Bacci, Bent Knee, The California Guitar Trio, Palaver Strings, The Phoenix Orchestra, and The Jessica Pavone String Ensemble.
Abby has performed on The Tonight Show, at SXSW, Winter JazzFest, Panama Jazz Festival, Redbull Music Festival, National Sawdust, Carnegie Hall, and Lincoln Center. They are featured on over 40 studio albums.
Abby is a current participant in JACK Studio and NewAm Composers Lab, and has been an artist in residence at the Banff Center for the Arts, the Turkey Land Cove Foundation for the Arts, and The Panama Jazz Festival. They received a B.M. in Violin Performance from Eastman School of Music and an M.M. in Contemporary Improvisation from The New England Conservatory. Originally from Missoula, MT, they currently live in Brooklyn, NY.
“I enjoy eating ice cream any time of day and any time of year, I love hiking in the mountains, making fancy salads, caring for my 50+ house-plants, and I have officiated 8 weddings.”
Anju Madhok
“My name is Anju, I am a songwriter. I'm from Minneapolis and I live in Boston and I work with young people and I make music and I perform and I'm building a sustainable, joyful and community oriented life.”
Anju is a singer, songwriter, producer, and performer shaped by the people and places in Minnesota and Massachusetts. Their music conjures imaginary lovers, scents of citrus, and visions of hairy brown skin under the sun.
Anju’s work has been highlighted by NPR’s All Songs Considered, Rolling Stone India, and Minnesota Public Radio’s The Current. They were commissioned by South Asian American Digital Archive to create original work for a sound tour of Philadelphia.
Anju recently completed their Zest Fest East Coast Tour this past February, a summoning spell for all things warm, bright, and juicy to help us stay the course of Winter, performing at venues including The Burren in Boston, Rockwood Music Hall in NYC, and 12 Gates Arts in Philadelphia. Anju is currently teaching piano, violin, and guitar to young musicians and working on their debut full-length album. You can connect and follow their journey @anjutunes on social media and www.anjutunes.com
“I love biking, vision boarding, and brewing chai for loved ones.”
Caden Burston
“My name's Caden Burston. I'm a violinist, researcher and performer and I'm from Columbus, Ohio and I'm currently in my third year at Boston Conservatory, pursuing a degree in violin performance and African studies. I really love new music, improv and researching African traditions and classical music.”
From Columbus, Ohio, Caden Burston is a violinist, researcher, and advocate. Caden has participated in several projects centering voices of color, such as workshops with the Silkroad ensemble, with artists such as Maeve Gilchrist and Hadi Eldebek, and Castle of Our Skins, with artists Francesca McNeeley and Ashleigh Gordon. Caden is also active in community orchestras Horizon Ensemble and Apollo Orchestra. With a love for social liberation, new music and history, Caden explores the music of underrepresented composers and advocates for using music as a vehicle for Black empowerment and liberation. Caden is currently studying with Sharan Leventhal at Boston Conservatory at Berklee, completing his B.M. in Violin Performance, with a minor in Africana Studies.
“I love to crochet and be in nature!”
Ceci Pineda
“My name is Ceci Pineda. I was raised in Wampanog lands known as Sampanesset, also today known as Cape Cod and Falmouth, Massachusetts, and I've been mostly living in the northeast my whole life, with around a decade in Lenape lands in Brooklyn And I am a singer songwriter. I mostly play guitar and an instrument from southeastern Mexico known as the jarana, I also love to sing and most of my songs are for the Earth.”
Ceci Pineda is a brown queer musician, ecosystem caretaker, community educator and facilitator living between the northeast and Puerto Rico. A singer, guitarist, and jaranere, Ceci writes music for Tlalli (earth, land, and soil), our more-than-human relationships, community liberation and dreaming of new relationships-based climate justice worlds. Musically, they are influenced by Mexican and US folk music, including Ranchera, Son Jarocho, Cumbia, Bolero and Indie music. Their musical lineage includes Natalia LaFourcade, Chavela Vargas, Marisol from La Santa Cecilia, Joel Castellanos from Los Cojolites, Los Vega, Jamila Woods, Ganavya and Aly Halpert.
Ceci comes from a familial lineage of singers and musicians rooted in Mexican Ranchera and Latin music. At an early age, their paternal grandmother showed them the power of song to hold and transform emotions. Ceci uses song to channel the ecological crises we are moving through and to hold a musical container for emotions of grief, anger, despair, faith, love and gratitude. Ceci writes songs for cultivating community, weaving collective liberation, climate reckoning and calling forth different worlds. Through their performances, they create a sentient space where we can connect to our relationship with land, feel the suffering falling upon our human and more than human kin, and move into prayer, healing and action in community.
Ceci began composing and performing music in 2010. In 2012, Ceci began to compose acoustic songs in Spanish, English and a little Nahuatl to process and reconcile their feelings related to the climate crisis. Ceci has performed their original work at the Brooklyn Museum, Downtown Art, Brown University, community events including Bed-Stuy Pride, Colombia County’s Latinx Festival, Audre Lorde Project’s Tribute to Audre Lorde, and at several community gardens and farms including Soul Fire Farm, Avena Botanicals, and many community gardens in Brooklyn, the Hudson Valley and Puerto Rico. They have shared their music through community radio stations in Brooklyn and Dolores Hidalgo, Guanajuato, México to support community struggles against extractive projects. In 2018 they were featured on NPR Alt Latino for their Tiny Desk submission. Stefanie Fernández, who chose their song Para la Cima for its profound lyrics described their music as “deeply rooted in the ranchera tradition as well as protest music of Latin America in the 60’s.” Ceci was an art resident in the Strange Foundation’s Earth 1.0 Decelerator in 2020.
Ceci is currently in the post production process of their first album, Tlalli, which they plan to release between the fall of 2023 and winter 2024
“I am a compost enthusiast and take pleasure in connecting with plantitas and plant lovers, ocean and mountain cleanses, sharing food with beloveds and loving up on my pup boo Yali.”
2022 Artist-Fellows
EMMA-ROSE BAUMAN is a freelancing flutist in the Boston area, specializing in interdisciplinary, improvisational, and session work. Her solo project fife has seen a recent album release plus live performances, and her characteristic improv style is also featured on her trio’s electronic/neo-jazz album, fife flux & matt (2020). Emma-rose is a graduate of the Boston Conservatory (B.M. ‘21) and entering a Master’s program at the CA Institute of the Arts. From Emma-rose: I love dancing, poetry, knitting, cooking, my punk band, & napping.
CHÉ BUFORD is a NYC-based artist whose work explores creating new narratives within the world of music while engaging in themes of memory and place. Che has performed in Carnegie Hall, Joe’s Pub, and The Kimmel Center, to name a few. His music has been performed by groups and artist such as NY Phil, Tilt Brass, Mimi Stillman, and more. Recent accolades include being the youngest winner of Eugene Opera’s 2020 Call for Scores and 1st place winner of Abundant Silences Art Song Composers Competition. From Che: I enjoy plant-based cooking, walks, time with friends, & thrifting.
A recent graduate of Boston Conservatory at Berklee, SARAH NICHOLS teaches at the Symphony Music Shop in Dartmouth, is Asst. Coordinator of the Southeastern MA Youth Orch., and Educ. Asst. with the New Bedford Symphony Orch. Sarah participated in a residency at the Boston Center for the Arts combining improvisation with Negro spirituals written by enslaved people, and studied with Charlene Monte, Bonnie Harlow, Mihail Johatu, and Andrew Mark. Passionate about dismantling racial supremacy and patriarchy in the music world, Sarah says: I love yoga, reading the stars…can daydreaming count too?
PHILIP RAWLINSON is a violist, composer, and improviser whose work centers around new musical sound worlds, resilience, and liberation. Originally from Greenville, South Carolina, and now based in Boston at the New England Conservatory for undergraduate studies, they hope to create music that inspires and uplifts and brings meaning to their audiences. Outside of their musical work, Philip loves reading, getting coffee or food with friends, and taking long walks listening to music.
Violinist, violist, and composer SARAH ZAHORODNI puts her whole heart into every artistic endeavor she pursues. Her holistic and passionate approach to creative collaboration and chamber music has shaped her multifaceted career as a performer, creator, and arts administrator. From Sarah: I love to do arts & crafts, cook for friends, say hi to dogs, and take pictures of the sky.
STEPH DAVIS is a marimbist whose work explores race, gender, and Black liberation. Steph has worked with Nathalie Joachim, Castle of Our Skins, Modern Marimba, among others. As an arranger and commissioner, Steph has contributed over 20 works by Black composers to the marimba’s repertoire. A student at the Boston Conservatory at Berklee, their teachers include Nancy Zeltsman and Sam Solomon. Steph is a Marimba One Artist. From Steph: I enjoy paddle-boarding, cooking, reading about various topics in Black studies, and I'm passionate about community, ancestry, and love.
This program is made possible in part by grants from the Mass Cultural Council, local community council grants, and donations from community members. We also thank Greenfield Solar, Nolumbeka Project, and Everyday Farm for their support!
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