Creative Professional Lecture Series, Alana Wiesing

Alana Wiesing will present a lecture for the Creative Professional Lecture Series as part of the School of Music Harmony Initiative. She will also present at timpani masterclass to members of the percussion studio. Wiesing is one of the few Black women timpanists to hold a principal position in a symphony orchestra. She hopes to change that and encourage others to break barriers—and the proverbial glass ceiling. Wiesing plays principal timpani in the Tucson Symphony Orchestra and also serves as an adjunct professor of percussion at the University of Arizona’s Fred Fox School of Music. Wiesing believes the skills she passes on to her students have great relevance to their lives off the stage. “The skills we learn in our musical training help us to become better people,” she says. “Things like time management, effective communication, organization, discipline, work ethic, creativity, and exploration, can all be learned and developed through the study of music. These things don’t just make us better musicians; they make us better humans.” To further her goals as an educator, Wiesing took part in launching a nonprofit called Network for Diversity in Concert Percussion. “In the wake of George Floyd’s murder in the summer of 2020, there was a rising tide shifting toward needing to address issues of racism as they pertained to classical music—and, in this particular case, concert percussion,” she explains. “As an African American woman in a largely male dominated field, I’ve experienced both racism and sexism. I felt I needed to be a positive force for good, and help establish meaningful, lasting change.” Back on stage, her position as a role model for women and orchestral musicians of color is inevitable. “Winning a job as a Black woman timpanist in a symphony orchestra—that visibility—is everything. Whenever I make it to the final round in a timpani audition I’m aware that I’m probably the first Black woman in the orchestra’s history to achieve this. I’m doing everything I can to be a resource for others like me."

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