As I speak with Grace Hale, she is walking the streets of New York City, the sirens and other city noise dispersing our conversation. Hale is visiting the “Big Apple” to work with the New York Youth Symphony, who will be premiering her newly commissioned orchestral work This is Not a Dream on March 10, 2024, in Carnegie Hall under the direction of the esteemed Andrew Kim. Having only graduated from CC in 2020, the degree of this accomplishment is impressive on its own. However, it is apparent how Hale’s time at CC was a launching point for her to achieve this success.

CC brought out the challenge-seeker in her. While she was always looking for new things to try, the college made her feel safe to push her limits because of the flexibility of the Block Plan (she mentions that she took a Calculus 2 class her first year knowing it would be over quickly), the supportive faculty, and the strong sense of community. Unlike many first years who arrive at CC, Hale knew exactly what she wanted to study. While drawn to the liberal arts program and study abroad opportunities, she was also familiar and enticed by the compositions of professor, Ofer Ben-Amots, who was the first person she met at CC and who eventually became one of her mentors. Parts of Hale’s compositions fondly and inadvertently nod to the musical language of Ben-Amots, something she notes with surprise, humor, and pride.

While at CC, Hale also worked closely with Susan Grace, Associate Chair, Senior Lecturer/Artist in Residence, and head of piano performance faculty. During Hale’s four years on campus, Grace regularly gave her challenging pieces that were outside her comfort zone, asking her to prepare them under short deadlines while simultaneously expecting a strong stage presence during performances. But Hale could feel these pushes came from a place of support and care. Today, Hale often finds herself on stage in front of large audiences saying she must “put her Sue shoes on” to channel her own confidence and eloquence when speaking about her compositions.

Hale learned a long time ago that to become a good composer, you must first become a good musician, and to become a good musician, you must first become a good human. This concept became a reality for her at CC due to the people she met and the opportunities that were presented to her. Ben-Amots and Grace were just a small part of the larger community that Hale found at CC. She comments on the benefits of the Music Department’s office and performance hall being so centralized, not realizing until she reached the University of Michigan for her master’s degree how advantageous it was knowing exactly where everything could be located and who would answer your specific questions. Another unique thing she notes about CC is the support it draws from patrons who regularly attend performances and who take the time to get to know the students both on and off stage.

“It’s in these off-chance interactions that you have in the Music building that added to that ‘growing as a human’ kind of thing,” Hale says. “You learn to see music as something that is created in togetherness. It’s not just ‘me, me, me,’ but you’re going on stage and giving a performance for the people that you love in the audience.”

She further explains that the closeness and togetherness that CC offers provided a more individualized experience – a place where her uniqueness could be celebrated – which added to her growth as a confident human, musician, and composer. This uniqueness is now being celebrated in her compositions, which are sometimes categorized as “music that has never been heard before.”

Finally, the Block Plan taught Hale how to pace herself on larger commissions and projects. She explains that she dissects projects into blocks, dedicating several weeks of meaningful work to something, and then taking a break to reset. The Block Plan taught Hale that taking a break should be a guilt-free experience since everyone is expected to be off, returning a few days later with newfound dedication and focus.

These days, Hale travels the country working on many other commissioned pieces for various ensembles, including an experimental electronic piece. She normally isn’t in one place longer than a couple weeks, but her life keeps moving forward in exciting directions. While she’s not sure where she’ll be in five or ten years, we are excited to see where the future takes her.

Visit Grace’s website to see what else she’s been up to »