BERLIN ACADEMY OF AMERICAN MUSIC

August 19, 2025 - Published on Substack / By Kira G. Alvarez

 

In a world increasingly divided by borders, crises, and conflicts, the role of music in cultural exchange serves as a vital bridge, connecting communities separated by geography, politics, and culture. In 2020, during the early months of the pandemic, American conductor Garrett Keast launched the Berlin American Academy of Music (BAAM), an orchestra that brings American music to Europe and connects musicians from both continents through performances and premieres. The ensemble fosters artistic relationships rooted in the distinct classical music traditions of the U.S. and Europe.

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This July, BAAM broadened its activities with the first Berlin Transatlantic Composers Workshop, offering a fresh take on the traditional summer music program. Unlike long-established U.S. institutions such as Tanglewood or Aspen, BAAM’s workshop in Berlin’s Weißensee district merged American and German perspectives for an international group of emerging artists. Uniquely tailored to Berlin’s cultural landscape, the initiative immersed participants in one of Europe’s major classical music centers, leading them to form connections that will continue beyond the summer.

 

Concept and Creation

 

The workshop, co-founded by Keast and Middlebury College composer-pianist Matthew Quayle, brought together sixteen composers from the U.S., Canada, Mexico, Denmark, Germany, Israel, and Taiwan for a week of lessons, seminars, and dialogue. The idea took shape after Keast and Quayle met at the Atlantic Music Festival last year.

 

“We saw this as an opportunity to offer emerging composers an alternative path—one that is open-minded, collaborative, and exposed to a rich array of musicians and mentors in both Germany and the U.S.,” said Keast, who views the workshop as a natural extension of his organization’s educational mission: supporting transatlantic artists who have taken an innovative approach to their careers.

They designed a schedule that addressed aesthetic and practical realities. Amy Harris, BAAM’s administrative director, described the workshop as a democratic space where participants could engage diverse styles in an open environment: “It is not about competition or where someone is in their career. It’s about shared experiences and everyone growing together.”

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Community Making

 

Over the course of the week, the gathering in Berlin became a meeting point for these artists from different backgrounds—from Manhattan School of Music composition students, to a physics major at Princeton, and an undergraduate at Temple University in Philadelphia. They worked closely with faculty from both sides of the Atlantic, and took part in the kind of informal conversations that define intense creative spaces. Together, these experiences formed the foundation of a community that gradually emerged.

 

Private lessons were given by core faculty Matthew Quayle and Manhattan School of Music composer Reiko Füting, as well as guest faculty composer Aviya Kopelman. On the first evening, Kopelman opened the workshop with a performance and presentation of her music, offering candid advice on navigating the creative process.

 

Participants also shared works in progress, which deepened dialogue and strengthened their sense of connection. Guest artist presentations included Berlin-based Christoph Enzel, Craig Urquhart, Kelly Watson Woelffer, and Michaela Catranis, alongside U.S.-based William Anderson of Sarah Lawrence College and Jonathan Dawe of the Juilliard School, whose contribution extended beyond the scheduled seminar. Dr. Kerstin Schüssler-Bach of Boosey & Hawkes Berlin spoke about current trends in music publishing. At the Staatsoper, the students also attended Bernard Foccroulle’s opera Cassandra. The week concluded with two concerts of the participants’ compositions, performed by BAAM’s orchestra musicians.

 

The selection of guest artists and faculty underscored the transatlantic focus that Keast and Quayle envisioned. For Quayle, however, “the most profound benefit may be the connections they make with each other as they go through this intensive experience. These friendships and professional bonds can be long-lasting and impactful.” By the week’s end, these ties, created through planned and spontaneous meetings, had set in motion projects for future collaborations.

 

A Composer’s Place in Society

 

Although seminar discussions largely focused on aesthetics, they often expanded into questions about a composer’s social role and creative methodology. Füting urged students to remember that they do not live in isolation and cannot ignore their responsibilities to humanity. He connected the idea of society to the concept of space, and ultimately to the interweaving of time and space. For him, a composer’s relationship to time offers a path to a deeper understanding of their place in the world—a relationship that is personal and cultural, demanding exploration and curiosity, qualities he described as “essentially and radically artistic.”

 

As Füting explained, a composer “composes a vision of society, whether consciously or not.” For that vision to become reality, however, they must develop a personal methodology grounded in daily rituals drawn from the guidance of other artists or taken from other practices. Ultimately, “discipline and repetition” remain non-negotiable, which Füting believes will eventually lead them to a better understanding of their societal role.

 

The Practicalities of Succeeding as a Composer

 

But how can a composer pursue such an artistic vision while confronting the realities of monetary compensation and collaboration? These questions became a recurring theme during the week. Jonathan Dawe recognized that although financial challenges persist, they can also offer a certain freedom:

 

“Art and the essence of the creation of art defy rigid models of commodity and compensation, and part of being an emerging composer is developing a personal self-awareness of what ‘feels fair’ in the undertakings that are chosen—and for all who are involved. This is far from an exact science, but there is a powerful freedom in this too.”

 

Developing such self-awareness demands a supportive community—the kind Keast and Quayle nurtured during the workshop—as well as an education that empowers artists to define their place in society. But when collaboration is involved, it is a process that, as Dawe cautioned, requires “careful curation.”

 

“Art for art’s sake” no longer applies. As Füting and Dawe’s seminars showed, artists must not only pursue aesthetic goals, but also define their place in society. For Quayle, a virtual community, “can open lines for meaningful discovery, connection, and collaboration.” For participants united for only a week, sustaining the Berlin network on social media becomes essential.

 

Combined with lessons and performances, the seminars contributed to a week of profound artistic growth and meaningful transatlantic dialogue. This shared experience forged connections intended to last long after the workshop.

 

Berlin as an Innovation Hub for Transatlantic Musical Exchange

 

“Germany is opening up!” Keast remarked at one point, noting how Berlin’s new music scene has grown more vibrant, accessible, and widely performed since the pandemic. He thinks the city has great potential to expand even further, creating greater opportunities for musical exchange. As the BAAM seminar demonstrated, bringing in faculty from New York—another major center for new music—can help spark a flow of artists and ideas between transatlantic classical music communities.

 

Composer Craig Urquhart, longtime assistant to Leonard Bernstein and one of the week’s guest artists, emphasized that the exceptional importance of gathering diverse artists for such workshops cannot be overemphasized:

 

 “When people can share diverse ways to approach the compositional process, the benefits are often surprising and, in many ways, lead to a revised way of thinking about what it means to be a composer. Like composition, it is the dialogue that is creative.”

 

BAAM’s inaugural composition program offered compelling proof of this – and a model for mentoring and showcasing emerging composers. Far from being a cultural luxury amid multiple global crises, this gathering showed that international musical exchange is indispensable for building bridges and strengthening the classical music community.

 

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Kira G. Alvarez, PhD, is an academic and educator whose work explores the intersections of music, politics, and cultural diplomacy. She has received research funding from the German Research Foundation and Stanford University, and her writing has appeared in Deutschlandfunk Kultur, taz, and Forbes. Originally from Chicago, she is based in Germany.