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Reinaldo Moya

Composer
Northfield, MN

Reinaldo Moya is a graduate of Venezuela’s El Sistema music education system, later graduating from The Juilliard School with both masters and doctorate degrees. Mr. Moya is the recipient of the Charles Ives Fellowship from the American Academy of Arts and Letters, the McKnight Composers Fellowship,
the Van Lier Fellowship from Meet the Composer, the Aaron Copland Award from the Copland House, and the Ellis-Beauregard Foundation Composer Award. His music has been performed in Germany, Colombia, Australia, Argentina, Venezuela, and throughout the United States.

What's an emerging opportunity that can be developed in the classical music performance world / how can classical music expand its impact in the present moment?

For me, the main goal should always be about increasing access to the music for as many people as possible. We shouldn’t overlook any opportunity that places you in front of an audience where people can be inspired to become musicians, or become involved in music. This can mean outreach, educational presentations, or some other kind of interactive performance. I also watch a lot of youtube, and have been
thinking about the potential for engaging with audiences through that platform, classical music’s presence on there is fairly small, and not particularly diverse.

How does your own artistic work reflect the values of the AVANT initiative in general, and/or the IMPACT PERFORMANCE competition in particular?

As a composer, I’m always drawn towards projects that engage with the immigrant experience in some way. So much of my work as a composer is an attempt to understand my own identity as an immigrant. I consider it important to tell these stories and share a bit of our own humanity in the process.

What could leaders of the classical music sector prioritize, to empower artists to achieve their visions?

I work with students who didn’t grow up listening to, or playing classical music, so I’ve learned some lessons about how people from outside the world of classical music look at what we do: most young people don’t think about musical genres. They have incredibly omnivorous musical tastes. They are pretty open-minded and curious. I think that we in the classical music world need to understand that most people
will never only listen to classical music, and that’s ok. If we understand the way in which our work intersects meaningfully with other genres and styles of music and can make that connection clear, I think we can engage and keep a whole new audience. This in turn would allow these audiences to trust the musicians to follow them as the artists pursue their own distinct paths.