introducing...A.Z.

A.Z. covers classical and pop music for the Boston Globe. The 2014 winner of the Rubin Prize in Music Criticism, her work is sponsored in part by the Rubin Institute for Music Criticism, San Francisco Conservatory of Music, and Ann and Gordon Getty Foundation.

I first met A.Z. at an Oberlin Collegium Musicum reunion - she was a recent graduate, fresh-faced, and super excited to be around other alums of the Renaissance a capella group under the direction of Professor Steven Plank. I then saw her a few short years later at the New Music Bake Sale at Roulette, where I was repping I CARE IF YOU LISTEN with founder Thomas DeNeuville. There's even a selfie of the three of us - looks like #newmusic bliss to me!

A.Z. is an inspiration: a real, live, working journalist in a turbulent time for the arts. Take a look at her articles here. It's wonderful to think that she's had so much support and mentorship at the start of her career - and she continues her distinctive voice to Twitter.