Catherine Branch Lewis

Location: Rochester, NY

Challenge: Cerebral Palsy

Website: www.beauportclassical.com/difference

Catherine Branch Lewis is a passionate advocate of integrating disability advocacy and the arts. As a flutist with diplegic cerebral palsy, she holds a unique perspective on music’s ability to act as a catalyst for conversations and an instigator of positive change. Ms. Lewis is dedicated to exploring the arts as a vehicle to promote social inclusion for people with disabilities, and in 2008 was awarded a Thomas J. Watson Fellowship to research the role of art in social activism around the world.

While traveling, Ms. Lewis found herself eager to investigate the concert as a medium for civil rights advocacy. While in Sydney, she formed a chamber ensemble dedicated to performing music that reflects upon the experience of disability. Composers from both Australia and the United States offered pieces exploring disability from a variety of perspectives, whether personal, historical, satirical, or familial.

During 2009, at concerts in Sydney and Melbourne, the ensemble showcased newly composed pieces about disability alongside works by prominent historical composers who experienced disability during their lifetime. Thus began the "Music of Difference" project: a concert series whose goal is to encourage positive conversations about disability and diversity. Upon returning to the United States, the project continued to grow. In 2011, the first Music of Difference album was released on the Beauport Classical label. Ms. Lewis and her colleagues have since taken the project to stages, conferences, colleges, and classrooms around the country, including the VSA International Disability Arts Convention in Washington, DC. The second Music of Difference album, At the Root of Identity, was released in March 2014. As the project evolves, a dedication to championing socially impactful music by living composers remains at its core.

Ms. Lewis is an ardent supporter of contemporary music for the flute. At the 2006 Society of Composers Inc. conference in Houston, she gave the premiere performance of Aaron Alon’s Hibakusha for solo flute, and later recorded the piece for Capstone Records. On the 2007 Aspen Music Festival’s chamber music series, she performed Barbara White’s Enough Rope for flute and soprano on a concert dedicated to the composer’s works. From 2009-2013 she performed as an active member of Brad Lubman’s new music ensemble at the Eastman School of Music, Musica Nova. At Eastman, she worked with composer Oliver Knussen and performed with members of the New York City-based new music ensemble, Signal. Ms. Lewis enjoys regular collaboration with living composers. She is particularly grateful for the collaboration of composers involved with the Music of Difference project.

Catherine Branch Lewis has participated in music festivals both in the United States and abroad. In 2007, she was invited to Festival de Musica de Santa Catarina, a Brazilian orchestra festival directed by Alex Klein, where she studied with Michel Debost, Kathleen Chastain, and Brazilian flutist Curt Schroeter. Ms. Lewis has also participated in ARIA International Summer Institute, the Oberlin Flute Institute and the Aspen Music Festival. During the summers of 2011 and 2012 she performed at the Lakes Area Chamber Music Festival in Brainerd, MN, where Eastman students join forces with members of major symphony orchestras from across the Midwest. She has performed in master classes with artists such as Mindy Kaufman, ZAWA!, Marianne Gedigian, Michel Debost, Elizabeth Buck, Bonita Boyd, Paul Edmund-Davies, Jean Ferrandis, Jan Gippo, Katherine Hoover, and Andreas Blau.

In 2008 Ms. Lewis graduated from Rice University’s Shepherd School of Music, where she was a student of Leone Buyse. Studying with Bonita Boyd, she completed her Master of Music degree at the Eastman School of Music in 2009. In 2014 she completed a fellowship with the national Leadership Education in Neurodevelopmental and Related Disabilities (LEND) program at University of Rochester Medical Center.

Currently, in addition to working toward her Doctor of Musical Arts degree at the Eastman School of Music, Ms. Lewis is a fellow of the New York State Partners in Policymaking program. Ms. Lewis works as Assistant Director at Rochester Center for Community Leadership at the University of Rochester (UR). There, she collaborates with an invigorated group of colleagues to empower students to become engaged citizens and leaders capable of effecting positive social change. Ms. Lewis focuses especially on programs supporting inclusive higher education for students with intellectual disabilities as well as political and community engagement among college students.

Music of Difference