2020 AWARDS
In January 2020, we announced our first round of awards. We are immensely inspired by these 10 leaders who build positive change in their communities through music.
All of the 2020 Lewis Prize for Music awardees are doing extraordinary work to build community, foster engaged citizens and support the holistic growth of young people through the catalytic force of music.
To learn more about how we selected our awardees and our grantmaking process, click here.
Accelerator Awards
$500,000
Accelerator Awards provide multi-year support to enable leaders and organizations to make sustained progress toward ambitious community change initiatives that align with The Lewis Prize for Music’s values and vision.
Access the work of our 2020 Accelerator Awardees
Sebastian Ruth
Organization: Community MusicWorks, Providence, RI
Sebastian Ruth and Community MusicWorks (Providence, RI) are identifying and rethinking the euro-centric norms of classical music to foster more egalitarian and inclusive musical practices. Sebastian founded the organization in 1997. The organization believes that music plays a pivotal role in forming a strong and loving community that gives young people, their families and professional musicians a base of strength from which to imagine new possibilities. The program is grounded in a long-term chamber music residency, with 14 professional musicians teaching, performing, and building community in the Providence neighborhoods most affected by systemic racism and poverty. Their sequential free Youth Music Program serves young people ages 6-18 with individual/small-group instrument lessons, a Daily Orchestra Program, composition and improvisation classes, and a teen leadership program. The Lewis Prize will support a new alumni fellowship and leadership of the MusicWorks Network of community-based music programs that collaborate across the eastern United States to spread and deepen these new practices with and for the youth they serve.
Brandon Steppe
Organization: The David's Harp Foundation, San Diego, CA
Brandon Steppe and The David’s Harp Foundation (San Diego, CA) have developed “Beats Behind the Wall” for incarcerated young men and women to develop job skills through music and “Beats Beyond the Wall” for their further development and employment as instructors and audio engineers upon release. In 2006, Brandon left a corporate job and returned to Southeastern San Diego to pursue a career in music production. After he transformed his father’s garage into a professional recording studio, young people soon packed into it after school. Brandon saw how powerfully music production earned mentoring relationships with youth and the academic improvements that resulted when youth “paid” for studio time with improved grades. He founded The David's Harp Foundation (DHF) in 2009. DHF is now located in a state-of-the-art facility and has a diverse team of 11 Artist Mentors. DHF holds a safe and creative space for 300+ youth learning project-based music and media production. In 2018, DHF developed recording studio backpacks to provide access to art, mentorship and training/job placement to youth incarcerated in juvenile detention facilities and diversionary probation centers. The DHF team has aligned diverse community partners, from the probation department to local churches, to support these young people on their journey to personal and economic freedom. The Lewis Prize will support DHF’s capacity to grow these programs into a model for replication.
Ian Mouser
Organization: My Voice Music, Portland, OR
Ian Mouser (In Memoriam) and My Voice Music (Portland, OR) bring songwriting, recording and performance to lockdown facilities, such as mental health treatment and detention centers, to help young people heal. Ian founded My Voice Music (MVM) 11 years ago from his experiences as a youth counselor in a mental health facility. When he helped young people learn to play guitar and write songs, they became more engaged in school and their therapeutic outcomes improved. MVMʼs Community Outreach Program uses songwriting, recording and performance to help over 1,100 young people each year in mental health facilities, migration and juvenile detention centers and other residential programs heal. Its Artist Mentorship Program is based in a neighborhood studio that serves over 400 young people annually from all backgrounds through music classes, summer camps, an after-school drop-in program, and professional development opportunities. MVM’s team believes that music is uniquely effective in helping youth voice their experience, be heard, and realize their ability to impact their communities. MVM counters the effects of trauma by engaging young people as artists and poets with powerful stories to share. With its free neighborhood-based studio, MVM provides a safe space for young people to return to community life. MVM has codified its methods and is poised to share its practices across Oregon. The Lewis Prize will support MVM’s move into a larger community studio in East Portland and MVM’s statewide expansion.
Infusion Awards
$50,000 each
Infusion Awards provide single year support to leaders and programs creating new musical platforms and pathways in their communities.
Clare Hoffman
Organization: Grand Canyon Music Festival, Grand Canyon, AZ
Clare Hoffman and Grand Canyon Music Festival’s Native American Composer Apprentice Project (Grand Canyon, AZ) give Native youth guidance to share their stories through music. Clare is a co-founder and Artistic Director of the Grand Canyon Music Festival, which launched in 1983 after park rangers heard her playing flute in the Grand Canyon. In 2001, she developed the Native American Composer Apprentice Project (NACAP) with Brent Michael Davids (Mohican Nation); an immersive music composition program that pairs Native American youth with professional Native composers. Its goal is to embrace the history and culture of Native students while giving them the tools needed to express their unique voices as 21st-century Native citizens. Since its founding, over 500 new works written by Indian community students have been recorded, premiered and heard around the world, including on stage at Carnegie Hall, by the US Army Band and on NPR. The Lewis Prize investment directs $10,000 for the Native American Composer Apprentice Project and $40,000 to strengthen opportunities for the next generation of Native music educators.
Michael Reyes and Elizabeth Stone
Organization: We Are Culture Creators, Detroit, MI
Michael Reyes, Liz Stone and We Are Culture Creators (Detroit, MI) are training and opening employment pathways for 18-24-year-old music creatives. Reyes and Liz are the co-founders of We Are Culture Creators (WACC) which they launched in 2012 as a result of meeting numerous talented young people with no resources for sharing their music. Through WACC they provide high-quality music and entrepreneurship education for young musicians of color in Detroit. Their model blends instruction and mentorship that emphasizes professional development, strategic goal-setting, aesthetics, leadership development and artistic integrity. Beyond its neighborhood house with audio, video, photography and merchandise studios, WACC is a music collective and platform featuring Detroitʼs newest talent at festivals and performances locally, nationally and internationally. WACC members have been featured on Complex, Pitchfork, Vibe Magazine, The Source and HBO. The Lewis Prize award supports increased capacity for training and residency experiences in the WACC neighborhood house.
Eugene Rodriguez
Organization: Los Cenzontles Cultural Arts Academy, San Pablo, CA
Eugene Rodriguez and Los Cenzontles Cultural Arts Academy (San Pablo, CA) ensure children of immigrants feel pride in their roots and share their culture through the study of traditional Mexican music. Eugene founded Los Cenzontles in 1989, and it has since grown into a cultural arts academy, a performing ensemble and a media production studio. The academy has produced 30 albums of traditional and cross-cultural music, documentaries broadcast on PBS, and hundreds of video shorts. Los Cenzontles has collaborated with scores of traditional and popular musicians including Linda Ronstadt, Los Lobos, Ry Cooder and Jackson Browne. Most importantly, this work has been achieved by young people. Los Cenzontles has developed a strong national and international presence that makes visible and celebrates the heritage of a generally invisible community: working-class immigrant and second-generation Mexican Americans. The Lewis Prize will invest in the long-term continuity of their master artists.
Derrick Tabb
Organization: The Roots of Music, New Orleans, LA
Derrick Tabb and The Roots of Music (New Orleans, LA) support and instruct the next generation of New Orleans brass band musicians. Derrick began envisioning the framework for The Roots of Music as he reflected on the many ways his middle school band teacher helped steer him away from crime and toward music. After Hurricane Katrina, he watched as many music education programs were shut down and felt compelled to fill that void, opening The Roots of Music in 2007. Today, the organization’s after-school marching band program provides music history and theory as well as instrumental instruction and performance experiences. They serve over 150 young people, ages 9-14, growing up in low-income households. Roots provides students with hot meals and round-trip transportation, as well as mentorship and academic tutoring resources — delivering over 2,500 hours of music education and other academic tutoring year-round. The Lewis Prize award will strengthen its organizational capacity to grow and sustain this unique cultural tradition.
Finalist Awards
$25,000 each
Finalist Awards provide single year support to leaders and programs with impressive impact and reach.
Joseph Conyers
Organization: Project 440, Philadelphia, PA
Joseph Conyers and Project 440 (Philadelphia, PA) provide teen musicians with entrepreneurial training so they develop the competencies to thrive as individuals and collectively. Joseph is a co-founder and Executive Director of Project 440 (P440). This creative youth development program, established in 2007, has evolved from Joseph’s experience merging his talents as a professional musician in the Philadelphia Orchestra with his passion for community service. P440 uses a shared love of music from any genre and the skills inherent in being a musician as the jumping-off point to strengthen identity, build community and ultimately help young people develop the competencies needed to thrive. Whether the student plays the bassoon, creates electronic music, or anything in between, P440’s entrepreneurship and service curriculum provides young people with opportunities and tools for individual growth and community impact. The Lewis Prize investment will strengthen the organization’s capacity for program growth.
Kasandra VerBrugghen
Organization: Spy Hop Productions, Salt Lake City, UT
Kasandra VerBrugghen and Spy Hop Productions (Salt Lake City, UT) mentor young people in musical and digital media arts to help them find their voice and tell their stories to affect positive change. Kasandra has been the Executive Director of Spy Hop Productions, established in 1999, since 2010. In collaboration with schools, other arts and community-based organizations, and Utah’s Juvenile Justice System, Spy Hop serves 15,000+ students a year, ages 10-20, across the state and from its studio in Salt Lake City. Kasandra and her team envision a world in which all young people possess the skills and mindsets necessary to succeed in life and where their voices are heard and valued. The Lewis Prize will support young people’s self-expression for the benefit of their communities.