EXCELLENCE | THE FORMATIVE EXPERIENCE From studio to stage, the young artist experience at
New endowments and funds established this year to support programs, faculty, and special initiatives are listed below, followed by several donor snapshots and a comprehensive list of active endowments and funds.
Interlochen keeps getting better. The past year has shown the remarkable heights Interlochen’s young artists can attain when they are given the philanthropic support to catalyze achievement of their aspirations.
Students Debut Music That Rose from the Ashes
Grammy-nominated harpist Yolanda Kondonassis (IAA 78-82) performs with Academy choristers; composer Reena Esmail describes the inspiration and creation of “Terra Infirma” at an Interlochen community meeting.
When Academy students and a world-renowned harpist gave the world premiere of Reena Esmail’s Terra Infirma at Interlochen last October, it was the culmination of a multi-year project, inspired by environmental disaster and fueled by the creative youth voice. It was all made possible through the generosity of the Allen B. Cutting Foundation. Through the foundation’s support, Interlochen commissioned the new work from Esmail to offer Academy students a rare opportunity: to collaborate with a high-profile composer as they took a musical work from ideation and score to performance and recording. What no one could have anticipated was the calamity that ultimately inspired Esmail’s work. In January 2025, she was living in Los Angeles as the city grappled with the devastation of its widespread wildfires; her own neighborhood of Altadena was ravaged. But from the ashes, ideas for Terra Infirma emerged. A concerto for harp, percussion, and string orchestra with multimedia components, “the work explores our human relationship to fire—a force that can be at once devastating and illuminating,” Esmail explained to IPR, adding that the piece ends “with the hope of new growth.” For students, being the very first to interpret Esmail’s complex and fascinating musical journey was an opportunity to bolster their own artistic confidence as they collaborated
with distinguished professional artists. The Allen B. Cutting Foundation’s grant enabled an extended residency with Grammy-nominated harpist Yolanda Kondonassis (IAA 78-82), who, alongside Esmail, guided Academy performers in masterclasses and rehearsals. Working together, they prepared both the debut performance and the first professional recording of the new piece, released this April. “At the inception of this project, it seemed clear to us that this was something that only a place like Interlochen would be capable of bringing to fruition. The talent and dedication that their students brought to Terra Infirma was nothing short of awe-inspiring, and culminated in a performance that could rival that of any major orchestra,” noted a representative of the Allen B. Cutting Foundation board. “We feel this shows what is possible when we are able to put world-class artists in front of Interlochen’s world-class students,” the board member concluded. For Kondonassis, Terra Infirma offered a kind of artistic homecoming. “I began my life in music at Interlochen Arts Academy… and this project has brought me full circle,” she says in the recording’s liner notes, adding, “I cannot imagine bringing this music to life with anyone but young artists.” Thanks to the support of the Allen B. Cutting Foundation, those young artists were Interlochen’s own.
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2026 ANNUAL REPORT OF GIFTS
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