Our Mission

The New Music Initiative for Black Voices is a nationwide invitational that aims to celebrate and empower Black composers and their music. The NMIBV encourages any Black composer not under professional management in the United States to submit an original string quartet. There are no age restrictions, requirements, or fees. The students at the McDuffie Center will form a panel to choose four string quartets from the submissions, and each chosen piece will be worked on throughout the course of the 2021 Fall Semester and recorded at the historic Capricorn studios. Composers and students will be able to meet over zoom multiple times throughout the fall semester and collaborate together to achieve a deeper understanding of the composition. In addition, student groups will receive coachings by Annie Fullard, violinist of the Cavani Quartet and Director of Chamber Music for the McDuffie Center, and Lawrence Dutton, violist of the Emerson String Quartet. Every student at the McDuffie Center stands behind this idea, and we aim to not only provide a polished and professional recording to composers, but to also build and nurture relationships between our fellow composing colleagues, and to further develop and encourage a new age of classical music led by Black voices.