I am overwhelmed with gratitude to have received one of the Borletti-Buitoni Trust’s 2024 Artist Fellowships. The nomination process asked me to dream about what I could accomplish with the kind of latitude that this funding and administrative support would represent, but I found the range of possibilities almost too tantalizing to imagine, as if I could permit myself only an oblique gaze at what might be.
As my career has developed organically, it has brought me to projects, collaborators, and places I might never have dreamed of on a more narrowly defined career path. I am so grateful that my life has unfolded such that my ideals as a communicator of text and music can remain central to my work, honed by close relationships with composers and other performers. However, the transformative support of the BBT will provide me the freedom to dream bigger, to make more daring choices, to share and explore more widely: in short, to turn that oblique gaze into a direct one.
The plans I have been discussing with the BBT are projects I had already set in motion prior to this nomination, but which will be able to have a greater impact thanks to their assistance. Toby Smith, chief executive of BBT, recently remarked that the vision of this organization and its founders is “to nurture musicians who are shaping a future where classical music’s remit and reach is urgent, relevant and broad.” As I consider how I could possibly express my deep gratitude for this gift, I hope that the work I accomplish with their support will help to continue that vision.
For more about my work through the BBT, please see my profile on their website.
Lucy Fitz Gibbon, soprano 