Current Student and Alumni Achievements

JUAN MEGNA, MUSIC

Young Alumni Commissioning Project Award Winners

Juan Megna, Music

2023 recipient of the Young Alumni Commissioning Project Award including $5,000 in commissioning support; the award will support Megna’s new project, titled Trailblazer, an album of original compositions that will build a dialogue between jazz and Afro-Brazilian genres

Carlehr Swanson, Music

2023 Young Alumni Creative Development Award winner including $3,000 in commissioning support; the award will fund her new project Growing Pains, an extended play record of original music, combining the styles of jazz, R&B, and gospel, exploring love, loss, faith, and hope along the transition to adulthood

Kyle Finnegan, Film and Video Studies

2023 Young Alumni Creative Development Award winner including $3,000 in commissioning support; the award will support his new documentary film, exploring the complicated role of MSG (monosodium glutamate) in the United States, as influenced by pervasive misinformation and the uniting love of food across cultures

Meagan Arnold, Hannah Looney, Mike Rose, Film and Video Studies

2023 Young Alumni Artistic Support Grant winners including $2,000 in unrestricted support; the grant will support the creation of Momentum/Memoriam, an experimental music video that explores and contextualizes the group’s grief over the loss of their late collaborator and Mason alum Jason Cortez, BA Film and Video Studies ‘15

Mohammed Saffouri, Film and Video Studies

2023 Young Alumni Artistic Support Grant winners including $2,000 in unrestricted support; the grant will support the development of his first narrative feature film, a deeply personal story about the experience and perseverance of a Muslim-American immigrant woman in the United States

Saffouri’s senior thesis film, Touchline (Khat At-tamass), premiered in North America at the Tribeca Film Festival and was the first Jordanian film and the first film from George Mason University to be selected by the Festival

Touchline also screened at Malmo Arab Film Festival in Sweden, won the Jury Award at the Franco-Arab Film Festival in Amman, Jordan, and was a semi-finalist at Flickers’ Rhode Island International Film Festival

Current Student & Alumni Achievements

Michael Barranco, Music

Invited to present his dissertation topic, “The Sound of Metal: Timbral Characteristics of Crash Cymbals, Triangles, and Tambourine” at the Athens Institute for Education and Research 13th Annual Visual and Performing Arts Conference in Athens, Greece

Dominique Bianco, Music

Awarded Vocal Jazz Soloist - Undergraduate College Outstanding Performance in the 45th Annual DownBeat Student Music Awards

Eduardo Fajardo, Music

Selected to perform for the Marina Piccinini International Masterclasses in summer 2022 in Marlboro, Vermont

Carlos E. Figueroa Dasilva, Music

Accepted into the Fairfax Symphony Orchestra Diversity Fellowship Program, which encourages greater racial and cultural diversity in the orchestra field by helping to provide meaningful opportunities for talented minority musicians to achieve their full potential

Stephanie Fuselier, Arts Management

Accepted the position of managing director of Joy of Motion Dance Center in Washington, D.C.

Megan Hajdo, Film and Video Studies

Had her film A Clean, Well-Lighted Place accepted by the 2021 Virginia Emerging Filmmakers Festival, presented by Shenandoah University at the Alamo Drafthouse Cinema in Winchester, and was a finalist for “Best FirstTime Filmmaker”

Alexander Hammett, Film and Video Studies

Won the Best Director Award at the Miami Indie Film Festival for his latest film, Tale of Tarot

MOHAMMED SAFFOURI, FILM AND VIDEO STUDIES

Taj Kokayi, Film and Video Studies

Won Next Wave Initiative’s Spike Lee Directing Award, a project focused on amplifying emerging Black artists

Alexandra Kowalski, Music

Received the Paul and Ginny Ebert Horn Studies Scholarship Award

Drake Leach, Theater

Performed in Signature Theatre’s production of She Loves Me! from March 2-April 24, 2022, while a senior at Mason

GaYoung Lee, Music

Won a Gold Medal in the 2021 Grand Maestro International Music Competition; the Grand Maestro International Music Competition, a worldwide competition organized by the Concours de Musique et des Beaux Arts Canada, is judged by a panel of international concert artists, university professors from renowned musical institutions, and experienced pedagogues

Marcia McCants, Music

Performed at the Colour of Music Festival in South Carolina and with the festival at PASIC (Percussive Arts Society International Convention) in Indianapolis

Julie McDonald, Music

Won a piccolo/C flute spot in the Professional Flute Choir for the National Flute Association’s 2022 Convention taking place during summer 2022 in Chicago

Adelina Mitchell, Theater

Originated the role of Ruth in Olney Theatre Center’s world premiere production A.D. 16!, which followed her recent appearances in Signature Theatre’s production of Rent and Round House Theatre’s production of Quixote Nuevo

Alicia Rodriguez, Film and Video Studies

Worked as 1st assistant director on Hess (2021), which screened at the Cannes International Pan African Film Festival and Toronto Independent Film Festival

Nicholas Thompson, Music

Joined The President’s Own United States Marine Band in a full-time role, after previously holding the principal clarinet seat with the Lima (Ohio) Symphony Orchestra and the Flint (Michigan) Symphony Orchestra

Dylan Toms, Theater

Performed in Signature Theatre’s production of She Loves Me! from March 2-April 24, 2022

Kristine Tran, Ryan Strong, Music

Awarded The NAMM President’s Innovation Award from The NAMM Foundation, which honors college students who demonstrate excellence in the field of music and who are interested in pursuing a career in the music industry

Alaa Zabara, Film and Video Studies

Selected to participate as a director in the second cohort of the CBS Leadership Pipeline Challenge; the mission of this program is to empower early-career storytellers to step into creative leadership positions and to reconfigure the entertainment industry’s “talent pipeline” to make it more equitable

Zabara’s film Selahy was an official selection of the Bentonville Film Festival in Bentonville, Arkansas, chosen to compete within the festival’s Competition Shorts program

ADELINA MITCHELL, THEATER

Photos provided by subjects