Scotia Festival of Music Young Artist Program

Hello! My name is Matt Liston and I am currently a masters student at the University of Minnesota studying Cello Performance with Tanya Remenikova. This summer, I have been selected as one of six cellists, internationally, to the Young Artist Program at the Scotia Festival of Music in Halifax, NS, CA. This program offers professional development and performance experience for each fellow, including chamber music performance, outreach concerts through Halifax, and lessons by the distinguished guest artists of the Scotia Festival. A large focus of this year’s fellowship is planning and performing a sensory friendly concert in Halifax, a project of particular interest to me. Sensory friendly concerts are a chance for people with exceptionalities to experience a concert in a relaxed environment. Often times, sensory friendly concerts will provide fidgets, hearing protection, and other devices to ensure a safe and inclusive environment for all. This is an important opportunity as these concerts continue to be programmed and will allow me to program sensory friendly concerts of my own in the future. Unfortunately, these programs cost money. As a graduate student, I work irregular hours and don’t earn as much as I did out of school. I’m asking for your help to cover airfare (which includes a seat for my cello), tuition, and room for the duration of the festival. I humbly thank you for considering donating to this GoFundMe. Have a wonderful day.