There are so many people beyond the four of us who make Spektral Quartet float and soar – people who aren’t on stage with us, but without whom being on stage wouldn’t even be a thing.
Started in the 2018/19 season, our paid internship program involves production support, concert promotion, data entry (yay!), and fundraising assistance. Benefits includes career guidance, free admission to concerts, score proofing, and opportunities to sit in on rehearsals…or head downtown and play ping pong, for instance.
We’re lucky that our roster of interns is not made up of just some board member’s nephews, but outstanding creatives in their own right. Folks who get what we’re about, aren’t afraid to get weird, and who are already making some of the most thoughtful and searing art you’re likely to encounter.
Today we celebrate them and thank them for being an essential part of our team…and tomorrow, you go seek out their shows and the beautiful things they’re making.
This year, we brought on these three outstanding humans:
Leslie Allison (photo credit: Willow Reese)
Leslie Allison is a queer interdisciplinary composer working in music/sound, language, movement, and textiles. A graduate of the Wesleyan University Music MA program with a specialty in composition, she recently relocated to Chicago where she writes music, performs, and teaches private somatic singing and piano lessons.
Autumn Selover
Autumn Selover is a freelance harpist, improviser, and music educator based in the Chicagoland area who is passionate about engaging artists and audiences in a dialogue of learning and crafting. An advocate of new music, she has performed with groups such as Fifth House Ensemble and the Chicago Composers Orchestra, is a member of the conductorless orchestra, Unsupervised, and co-founded the improv-based Sonder Trio and genre-hopping deaf rabbit duo. Autumn is an associate of the Civic Orchestra of Chicago and recently received her M.M. in Harp Performance from Northwestern University, studying with Lynn Williams and Liz Cifani.
Nick Zoulek
The Wall Street Journal writes, “…Dr. Zoulek’s performance, on saxophones in every range, is stunningly virtuosic, whatever the genre… None of that would matter much (except to saxophonists) if Dr. Zoulek were a less imaginative composer.” His influence on the fields of contemporary music has added color, energy, and light to the enigmatic world of the saxophone. An artist of “pure mindfulness and talent” (PopMatters), Nick’s craft encompasses solo performance, composition, videography, improvisation, and commissioning new works. All facets of his work can be seen on his 2016 project Rushing Past Willow (Innova Records).