Educational & Residency Programs
Black Moon Trio offers engaging educational programs for K–12 students and families that combine live chamber music with storytelling, guided listening, and interactive elements. Designed to meet audiences where they are, these programs introduce musical concepts, instruments, and creative thinking in an accessible and inspiring way. Because of their flexibility and educational focus, these programs make excellent additions to university community engagement initiatives, pre-concert activities, family series, and arts education outreach. By bridging professional performance with pedagogy, Black Moon Trio’s educational offerings foster intergenerational learning and meaningful connections between universities and the broader communities they serve.
Once Upon a Score Series
Programs rooted in strong narrative structure and created in close partnership with arts organizations, educators, writers, cultural institutions, and community groups. These projects are built through deep collaboration, integrating music with storytelling, text, movement, visual art, or place-based themes to create cohesive, immersive experiences. By working closely with partner organizations from concept through performance, Black Moon Trio ensures that each program reflects shared values, audience needs, and artistic vision, resulting in performances that are context-specific, mission-aligned, and resonant long after the final note.
Black Moon Trio transforms Bud Finds Her Gift by Robin Wall Kimmerer, with illustrations by Naoko Stoop, into an immersive concert performance where music becomes the voice of the story itself. Through live chamber music, narration, and evocative soundscapes, the trio brings Bud’s gentle journey of curiosity, growth, and belonging vividly to life.
Celebrating one of our region's and the world’s most precious natural resources, Black Moon Trio collaborates with author Barb Rosenstock; illustrator, Jamey Christoph; and the DuPage Children's Museum to tell the story of the Great Lakes.
Black Moon Trio is excited to collaborate with author Candace Fleming, illustrator Eric Rohmann, and Brushwood Center to create a unique and educational experience for young audiences that blends music, storytelling, and nature.
Assembly Programs
Black Moon Trio’s K–12 assembly programs introduce students to the world of live chamber music through carefully curated repertoire spanning classical masterworks and contemporary compositions. Students are invited to listen actively, ask questions, and discover how composers and performers use sound to tell stories, express identity, and spark creativity.
Programs are adaptable for elementary, middle, and high school audiences and can be tailored to align with curricular goals, thematic units, or school values. Whether performing in a gymnasium, auditorium, or multipurpose space, Black Moon Trio transforms assemblies into immersive musical experiences that foster curiosity, creativity, and a deeper appreciation for the arts.
The history of music is nearly as long and complicated as the history of humanity itself. In this engaging 50-minute, interactive workshop, Black Moon Trio takes audiences on a dynamic journey through the major eras of music.
Feel the lively rhythms of Latin America with Black Moon Trio in a performance that celebrates the rich traditions of Latin music and dance.
Higher Education Engagements
Black Moon Trio offers a range of higher education programs designed for colleges, conservatories, and university music departments, including private lessons, masterclasses, and interactive workshops. These offerings address both artistic and professional development, with topics spanning chamber musicianship, interpretation, collaboration, and performance practice alongside career-focused discussions on entrepreneurship, marketing, promotion, and building sustainable artistic projects. Tailored to the needs of each institution, these engagements provide students with practical tools, real-world insight, and direct mentorship from working artists actively navigating today’s musical landscape.
Artistry
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Black Moon Trio provides students with practical knowledge on how a professional ensemble rehearses as well as an understanding of how chamber music can become not just a hobby, but a lifelong and rewarding career. Student chamber groups will have the opportunity to be privately coached by Black Moon Trio musicians, learning rehearsal etiquette and musical approaches specific to their individual repertoire and personal challenges. In a masterclass setting, students will be given the opportunity to both perform for their peers and learn from each other’s strengths and weaknesses in a more performance-based, but relaxed and fun, environment.
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Programming is about so much more than the tasteful selection and ordering of music—yet this is where many program ideas leave off. Are you really telling with your programming and connecting it to your audience in the most effective way? Learn how programming relates to venue and site selection as well as how to pick the right partners both within and outside of the arts. In this workshop we’ll arm you with the right questions to pose to potential partners, explore the role of commissioning, and survey approaches to programming across a variety of spaces both traditional and adventurous. Your artistic programs will never be stale again after this invigorating plunge into sonic storytelling.
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A symphony orchestra thrives under the centralized leadership of a conductor, while virtuoso soloists are used to calling their own shots. But chamber music—in which a small group of musicians combine their individual parts into an organic whole without the top-down leadership of a conductor—presents truly unique organizational strategies for accomplishing creative work as a team. In this workshop we explore the building blocks of effective collaboration through the lens of chamber music, discussing selecting a great team, rules of engagement, shared leadership, flexible conversational models, and engaging external partners.
Career Development
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In this roundtable discussion, ensemble members share their experiences making the transition from students to professionals in the music field. Topics include finding freelance and teaching opportunities, building a full career from multiple income streams, the orchestral audition process, networking and self-promotion.
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Black Moon Trio shares strategies for co-creating artistic programs with non-arts partners through social and civic practice work. Case studies include projects with juvenile detention centers, workers’ rights organizations, and conservation groups. The workshop covers selecting great partners, how to frame introductory conversations, co-creation and design, and evaluation.
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For those students who are interested in starting their own ventures, this discussion provides tools and ideas for getting started. After an interactive exercise designed to help participants find their voice and mission, we share our philosophy of taking a service-based approach to entrepreneurship. This workshop explores how to select the business and funding structures that support participants’ vision and programs, in both for-profit and nonprofit models. Topics include selecting a business structure, networking, marketing via the web and other sources, and resources for continued learning.
Marketing and Promotion
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Join Black Moon Trio for an engaging and practical workshop designed for young composers or performers eager to understand the fundamentals of commissioning agreements. In this session, participants will explore the key components of composer-performer collaborations from establishing clear expectations and timelines to navigating contracts, rights, and payment structures.
Through real-world examples and interactive discussion, Black Moon will share insights from their own experiences commissioning new works, offering guidance on how to foster respectful, transparent, and successful creative partnerships. Whether you’re preparing for your first commission or looking to refine your professional practices, this workshop will equip you with the knowledge and confidence to manage the business side of your artistry.
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Did you know that the fear of public speaking is more common than the fear of death? As an artist, you will have many opportunities to connect with audiences of all types through speaking from the stage. In this session, we’ll share how to select content in a way that is responsive and relevant to audiences of varying ages and experience levels; we call these connective statements. We’ll also share some public speaking tips and tricks from our friends in the acting world to help you warm up your voice and to overcome common obstacles.
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Tooting your own horn can be a challenge for many young artists, but it’s a necessary part of building a career. Two of the most powerful communication tools you will use as an emerging artist are striking photography and a bio that captures who you are. We’ll share tips and tricks for creating compelling images (whether you work with a professional or go DIY), workshop your artist bios, and discuss tools and strategies for combining these into effective print marketing materials. We then extend these materials into an engaging online presence, using a website as the centerpiece for a social media strategy across multiple platforms. We’ll share best practices for timing, content, and voice, and will also discuss how to build a network through face-to-face interactions.
Water(color) for the Soul
Water(color) for the Soul is a series of music composition workshops for outpatient Veterans from the Captain James A. Lovell Federal Health Care Center and other local Veteran organizations. In collaboration with world-renowned visual artists, poets, and community organizations, the musicians of Black Moon Trio explore music composition using graphic notation - a way of expressing musical ideas using shapes, colors, and images rather than traditional Western systems that take many years of study to understand.
The culmination of each series showcases the creation of 10-20 original pieces of music all created by the Veteran participants, performed by Black Moon Trio, and displayed in a pop-up exhibition in gallery space at Brushwood Center in Riverwoods, Illinois.
Get In Touch
If you're interested in working with us, complete the form with a few details about your project. We'll review your message and get back to you within 48 hours.