Motifs: January/February 2025

We’d love to hear from you! Submit your own motif.

Liz Lerman (IAC/NMC 60-62) was honored as a Dance Magazine Award winner on Dec. 2, 2024. An acclaimed choreographer, performer, writer, educator, and speaker, Lerman currently serves as a Herberger Institute for Design and the Arts professor at Arizona State University.

David Glass (IAC/NMC 65-66, IAA 65-67, IAC St 69) has been studying The Urantia Book (published 1955) for over five decades and has helped organize Urantia conferences at local, regional, national, and international levels. In 2024, he accepted membership on the Education Committee of Urantia Fellowship. He writes articles and poetry and has facilitated an online study program for Urantia Book readers since 2021.

Wes Horner (IAA 69-72) composed Three Songs for Baritone and Orchestra, which was premiered by the Oberlin Sinfonietta and soloist Timothy LeFebvre on May 2, 2024. Former Interlochen faculty member Timothy Weiss (IAA Fac 90-92; IAC Fac 91-94, 98) conducted the performance.

In October, publisher Dr. Marti (Homeyer) Thomas (IAC/NMC 82-83, IAA 87-89) released the book Guardians of the Vote: History, Heroes, and the Legacy of Voting Rights—1960s v. Today. The book includes a forward written by Tavis Smiley, a national TV host and Black community advocate. The book was awarded Amazon’s #1 release in four categories.

Brit Washburn (IAA 89-93, IAC St 92-93) will release a new collection of poems, What is Given, through Wet Cement Press on April 15. The collection, which is composed of poems written over the past five years, is currently available for pre-order through the publisher’s website.

Dr. Brett Griffiths (IAA 90-91) co-edited Two-Year College Writing Studies: Rationale and Praxis for Just Teaching, a comprehensive overview of the two-year college writing teaching experience. The book was awarded both the MLA Mina P. Shaughnessy Award and the 2025 CCCC Book Award for Best Edited Collection.

Julia Christensen (IAA 93-94) is one of the artist-investigators featured in Remote Sensing in the Field, an exhibition at the Center for Land Use Interpretation’s Desert Research Center that is part of Getty PST: Art and Science Collide. In addition to a recent iteration of her singing antenna-tree, Christensen will present a new work: A series of six videos that illustrates the behavior of SpaceX’s Starlink satellites.

Megan Sesma (IAC 97) was recently named to Cohort 7 of Sphinx LEAD, a two-year leadership program designed to evolve the arts landscape by empowering the next generation of executive arts leaders and addressing systemic obstacles within Black and Latino communities. Sesma is Principal Harpist with the U.S. Coast Guard Band and adjunct harp faculty at the University of Connecticut, Connecticut College, and Wesleyan University.

Keelan Whitmore (IAA 98-99, IAC St 99) was selected as one of the winners of the Joffrey Ballet’s Winning Works Choreographic Competition. As one of the competition’s winners, Whitmore will choreograph an original work for Grainger Academy of The Joffrey Ballet Conservatory, Trainees, and Joffrey Studio Company. The Winning Works will be presented at the Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago's Edlis Neeson Theater in March.

Gary Schultz (IAA 98-00, IAC St 01)—also known as JuniperFoam—is a film, video, and music artist and teacher based in Berlin. He is currently the Programme Lead for the Music and Sound Design for Visual Media course of study at Catalyst Institute of Creative Arts and Technology.

Maya Erskine (IAC 98, 02) was nominated for the 2025 Golden Globe Award for Best Performance by a Female Actor in a Television Series - Drama for her portrayal of Jane Smith in the Amazon Prime series Mr. & Mrs. Smith.

Kit Williamson (IAA 02-04) is a director and writer for the new series Unconventional, which premiered on streaming service Revry on Feb. 11, 2025. Williamson also stars in the series as Noah.

Rachel C. Allen (IAA 04-05) was recently appointed curator of modern and contemporary art at the Northwest Museum of Arts and Culture in Spokane, Washington. Allen, who is currently a Ph.D. candidate at the University of Delaware, began her new role on Nov. 1, 2024.

Neal Gupta (IAA 09-11) is the Associate Director of Good Night, and Good Luck, a new play starring and co-written by George Clooney. The play will premiere on Broadway in March 2025.

Alyssa Katahara (IAC 11, 13; IAA 13-14) was appointed principal harp of the Detroit Symphony Orchestra at the beginning of the 2024-25 season.

Sav Buist (IAA 12-13) and Katie Larson (IAC 05, 08-12; IAA 12-14) performed with country artist Lainey Wilson at the Country Music Association (CMA) Awards on Nov. 20, 2024. Buist and Larson, who co-founded the indie rock group The Accidentals, were part of the string section for Wilson’s live performance of “4X4XU.”

Shane Bagwell (IAA 15-17) served as director of photography for “Swollen,” a short film by screenwriter and director Roxy Sophie Sorkin. The film was one of just 57 shorts selected from more than 11,000 submissions to screen at the 2025 Sundance Film Festival in Park City, Utah.

Claud (IAA 16-17) was a special guest at the Ally Coalition’s 10th annual Talent Show. During the show, Claud performed their new song “You Sure Know How To Make Me” and joined Rick Antonoff—the father of legendary singer-songwriter Jack Antonoff—for a duet of “Soft Spot.” Claud also shared how they met and studied with Ally Coalition co-founder and Grammy Award winner Andrew Dost (IAC Fac 21-22, IAA Fac 21-23) while at Interlochen Arts Academy.

Andrew Burhans (IAC 19, IAA 19-21) joined the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra as associate principal horn at the beginning of the 2024-25 season.

Sonya Moomaw (IAC 22) won second place in the Junior Division of the 28th Annual Sphinx Competition.

Elaina Stuppler (IO 22) was selected as a 2025 YoungArts Winner with Distinction for Voice/Singer-Songwriter. Stuppler, who studied conducting with Dr. Matthew Schlomer via Interlochen Online during the summer of 2022, joined 34 other Interlochen alumni and 13 current Arts Academy students as winners in the prestigious national award program.