Cassandra Kaczor is a Chicago-based composer, pianist and multimedia artist focused on issues of social justice and women’s empowerment. Kaczor is a passionate collaborator and has worked with artists in all mediums. As a dedicated advocate, composer and performer of new music, she champions any opportunity to educate adventurously through multi-media and experiential teaching methods.
Kaczor has produced a musical, ballet, several short film scores and many multimedia pieces with other artists. She recently accepted the position of music librarian and concert curator at Awakenings Foundation, a space that focuses on the work of sexual assault and abuse survivors, after receiving their Judith Dawn Memorial Fund Grant (2015). She is honored to be an Artistic Collaborator and consultant on musical matters for The Sunflower Project. She is also the co-founder of Brunch Project Productions, a production company which creates and manages musical works that impact and empower.
Her work with BPP focuses on her award-winning piece, the Dried Tobacco Project, and on the accessible new music series she curates, Musicians Who Brunch. In the next 2 years, BPP plans to produce two completely new major works focusing on new composition and the voice.
Kaczor completed her Master's degree in Music Composition as a Performing Arts Scholar at Roosevelt University Chicago College of Performing Arts, where she privately studied with Dr. Kyong Mee Choi. She won the Michael Hall Viola Composition Competition and the Zodiac Trio Competition during her graduate career. Prior to this, she studied with Dr. Christopher Biggs, Curtis Curtis-Smith and David Colson at Western Michigan University. She has received the Performing Social Justice Student Seed Grant (2015-2016), the Judith Dawn Memorial Fund Grant (2015), Ramon Zupko Collaborative Arts Grant (2013), a Performing Arts Honorarium (2013) from Kalamazoo College, the College of Fine Arts 40th Anniversary Legacy Grant (2011-2012), and the Lee Honors College Undergraduate Research Grant (2011), all of which were multimedia ventures. During her undergraduate career, she was the Irving S. Gilmore Scholarship holder of her class for excellence in piano performance, and was awarded the Theodore Presser Scholarship for her high achievement in academics and the arts.
She plans to open a Chicago-based multimedia art gallery and bar in 2017, which will focus on the work of emerging artists.
Kaczor currently works as a professional pianist and singer, entertaining on an international scale, and as a freelance teacher, performer and composer. When she is not working, Kaczor enjoys practicing the martial art of Muay Thai, feministing, songwriting, long runs on Lake Michigan, ogling strangers' dogs while out walking, good drinks, good company, and chronically overthinking as much as possible.
Kaczor has produced a musical, ballet, several short film scores and many multimedia pieces with other artists. She recently accepted the position of music librarian and concert curator at Awakenings Foundation, a space that focuses on the work of sexual assault and abuse survivors, after receiving their Judith Dawn Memorial Fund Grant (2015). She is honored to be an Artistic Collaborator and consultant on musical matters for The Sunflower Project. She is also the co-founder of Brunch Project Productions, a production company which creates and manages musical works that impact and empower.
Her work with BPP focuses on her award-winning piece, the Dried Tobacco Project, and on the accessible new music series she curates, Musicians Who Brunch. In the next 2 years, BPP plans to produce two completely new major works focusing on new composition and the voice.
Kaczor completed her Master's degree in Music Composition as a Performing Arts Scholar at Roosevelt University Chicago College of Performing Arts, where she privately studied with Dr. Kyong Mee Choi. She won the Michael Hall Viola Composition Competition and the Zodiac Trio Competition during her graduate career. Prior to this, she studied with Dr. Christopher Biggs, Curtis Curtis-Smith and David Colson at Western Michigan University. She has received the Performing Social Justice Student Seed Grant (2015-2016), the Judith Dawn Memorial Fund Grant (2015), Ramon Zupko Collaborative Arts Grant (2013), a Performing Arts Honorarium (2013) from Kalamazoo College, the College of Fine Arts 40th Anniversary Legacy Grant (2011-2012), and the Lee Honors College Undergraduate Research Grant (2011), all of which were multimedia ventures. During her undergraduate career, she was the Irving S. Gilmore Scholarship holder of her class for excellence in piano performance, and was awarded the Theodore Presser Scholarship for her high achievement in academics and the arts.
She plans to open a Chicago-based multimedia art gallery and bar in 2017, which will focus on the work of emerging artists.
Kaczor currently works as a professional pianist and singer, entertaining on an international scale, and as a freelance teacher, performer and composer. When she is not working, Kaczor enjoys practicing the martial art of Muay Thai, feministing, songwriting, long runs on Lake Michigan, ogling strangers' dogs while out walking, good drinks, good company, and chronically overthinking as much as possible.
Photo credit: A. Deran Photography
