RESIDENCIES
In rehearsal · Cabrillo Festival, 2026 · Photos: Crystal Birns
For two decades, I have been using music to empower youth to achieve greater means of self-expression through various programs and residencies.
Music education is not one size fits all. Every residency I build starts from the people in the room: who they are, what they already do, and what their institution actually needs.
Some last a few days. Some last four seasons. Some end in a premiere, and some end with a room of teenagers hearing a piece they wrote themselves played by an orchestra. No two have been the same, and that is the point.
Residency Programs
Songwriter Idol
Young people write, record and perform their own music and lyrics about what is going on around them: current events, personal experience, social movements.
See how Songwriter Idol works
VOXploration
An award-winning class in spontaneous music creation, theater and improvisation. Open to musicians, actors, dancers and non-musicians of any experience level.
Learn more about VOXploration
Composer Mentoring
One to one with composers: the piece in front of you, workshopped bar by bar, orchestration, and the career questions that actually need answering.
Learn more about mentoring
PHOTO CREDIT: UMD – Taneen Momemi Moments
2022–2027 Residencies
University of Maryland School of Music
In 2025 I was the Arts for All Artist in Residence at the University of Maryland’s School of Music (Terps Music), leading interactive musical sessions and taking part in performances and educational activities across the university.
Albany Symphony
Through a residency with the orchestra as part of the Water Music New York festival, I immersed myself in the communities along the Erie Canal: walking the towpath in Medina, collecting environmental sounds, and talking with residents whose lives and heritage are bound up with the waterway. That work became the foundation for a trilogy of pieces premiered across 2024 and 2025.
Allentown Symphony Orchestra
From 2023 to 2027 I am composer-in-residence with the Allentown Symphony. I have written two major orchestral works for them, curate the chamber music series, teach, and conduct regular visits with children from the EL SISTEMA project.
KMFA
In 2023 I was the Draylen Mason Composer-in-Residence and wrote Baião N’Blues, which has become one of my most requested orchestral works.
MIT
At MIT I explored Amazônia Sem Lei (“Lawless Amazon”), a Brazilian term for the way corporate institutions escape accountability for their greed and their actions against nature and the people who live off the land. The residency brought informative journalism together with music and poetry.
St. Paul Chamber Orchestra
With the St. Paul Chamber Orchestra I took part in the SANDBOX program, working for a year on a performance art piece called THE EVOLUTION OF AI, which explores the intersection between acoustic music and technology.
In the Spotlight: Austin Classical Guitar
Do What’s In Your Heart is a 32-minute documentary chronicling 2022 triple Grammy nominee Clarice Assad’s Artist in Residence project at Austin Classical Guitar, through which she co-created a musical work with more than 50 students from Austin, Texas. The short film includes the students playing their original work, as well as a performance by guitarist Jorge Caballero with the Miró String Quartet playing Assad’s reimagination of the same work for their ensemble.
Also Available
The Mosaic Project
A unique collaborative music experience that brings together people of all ages, backgrounds, and cultures to create music.
More About The Mosaic
Click To Find Out More
PAST RESIDENCIES (Select List)
ALBANY SYMPHONY & GIRLS INC.
BOSTON LANDMARKS ORCHESTRA
Clarice Assad with high school students from Girls, Inc. creating an original, collaborative composition. The students began by analyzing Sojourner Truth’s
“Ain’t I a Woman” speech from the 1851 Women’s Convention in Akron, Ohio. They discussed how society’s perception of women has changed throughout history and how it influences girls’ lives today. Together, they worked to construct the foundation of their new piece with inspiring lyrics, compelling spoken word, and beautiful melodies, culminating on a performance in June, 2019 with the Albany Symphony’s Dog of Desire ensemble as part of the American Music Festival.
Clarice’s skills as composer, singer, pianist, and improviser have enabled her to collaborate with Boston musicians of many ages and backgrounds. Clarice, joined by percussionist Keita Ogawa led workshops at three separate youth programs. At Camp Harbor View, they have made glorious music with singer David Fuller and the young campers of his Music Club. At ZUMIX in East Boston, they have jammed with young students and with faculty members Sissy Castrogiovanni and Jenny Shulman, under the care and guidance of ZUMIX Co-Founder and Executive Director Madeleine Steczynski.