NEC Violinist Builds "Time to Listen" with Boston Police
As a City of Boston Artist-in-Residence, violinist/composer Shaw Pong Liu will use music to address gun violence, race, and police-community relations.
Selected as one of three City of Boston Artists-in-Residence (Boston AIR), violinist/composer Shaw Pong Liu will use music to address gun violence, race, and police-community relations. "I've already learned that many Boston police officers are also musicians," Liu says. With her project "Time to Listen," she will run songwriting workshops with police, and proposes to "organize a network of professional musicians to support families of homicide victims by offering free live music performances for funerals, memorials, candlelight vigils at sites of homicides, and public performances to raise awareness about gun violence." Liu will be awarded a $20,000 stipend for her six-month residency, along with a $5,000 project budget.
Liu graduated from NEC in 2008 with a master's degree in violin as a student of Miriam Fried. During her search for a graduate school, Liu contacted Tanya Maggi, director of NEC's Community Performances & Partnerships (CPP) Program, because of her interest in attending a school where she could be active in the community. During her time at NEC, she was part of a CPP Fellowship Ensemble, and post-graduation she has continued to act as a mentor to current students involved in CPP and in NEC's Entrepreneurial Musicianship Performance Projects.