Join us every Tuesday for Salastina’s Happy Hour: bringing you free, live musical performance, spirited conversation, and interaction with musicians and fellow music lovers.

Before sharing the work of our current crop of Sounds Promising Young Composers May 31 and June 14, we check in with a distinguished alum of the program: Sakari Dixon Vanderveer. A member of the New Music USA Program Council and a Los Angeles Chamber Orchestra Composer Teaching Artist Fellow, Sakari's desire to empower youth also remains a catalyst behind much of her work.

She recently founded the You(th) Can Compose! Summer Workshop, a personalized, online intensive program for students ages 10-18 who are new to composing. Sakari’s aim is that children from all walks of life will gain access to contemporary music and composition, allowing them to develop a better appreciation and understanding of concert music – new and old – so that they, too, can cherish it and engage with it throughout their entire lives.