Our Mission
Sisters in Sound celebrates the unsung works of women composers who lived as nuns in 16th—and 17th-century convents. Our online platform provides free access to professionally engraved arrangements and recordings of works by nun composers for brass ensembles that can be shared digitally with both students and professionals worldwide.
Due to the relative modernity of brass instruments, much of the brass repertoire consists of arrangements of Baroque works originally written before the invention of the modern brass instrument. However, noticeably absent from this repertoire of Baroque arrangements are the works of women composers who lived and worked as nuns in convents. Despite their historical significance, there are very few arrangements of Baroque music by nun composers. Sisters in Sound hopes to expand the repertoire of brass arrangements to include works by women composers who were actively influencing the musical landscape of the 16th and 17th centuries, celebrating these oft-unsung works and unknown composers while simultaneously diversifying the brass canon.
Our Story
The arrangements published on this website were first performed and recorded at the New World Center in 2024 as part of the New World Symphony’s “Inside the Music” program. The program was an interdisciplinary collaboration featuring New World Symphony brass musicians, arrangers, and a musicologist. Co-founders Abby Black and Bridget Conley envisioned a program that would not only provide an enriching experience for live audiences, but could be digitally documented and used as a means to provide free access to quality brass arrangements.
Black and Conley collaborated with Dr. Lynette Bowring of Yale University to provide musicological context to the program live via Zoom. Dr. Bowring spoke of the rich history behind music-making in convents, providing an opportunity for audience members to engage with the stories behind the music and enriching our emotional understanding of the works performed.
About Us
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Bridget Conley (she/her) is a first-year Tuba Fellow at the New World Symphony. She has performed with ensembles such as the Charleston Symphony, Spoleto Festival U.S.A. Orchestra, and Seraph Brass.
As a soloist, Bridget was the winner of the 2021 Leonard Falcone International Euphonium and Tuba Solo Artist Competition. She was also a finalist in both the 2022 and 2023 Yale School of Music Concerto Competitions and the winner of the 2020 Vanderbilt Wind Symphony Concerto Competition. An avid lover of new music, Bridget has commissioned and premiered various new works for solo tuba, including new works by Madeline Merwin, Emma Cardon and Guillermo Lago (commissioned by Néstor Martínez Jara and co-premiered by Martínez Jara and Conley).
In addition to her experience as a performer, Bridget is also a passionate educator and administrator. She holds a minor in pedagogy from Vanderbilt University, where she studied psychology and music cognition, and conducted independent research on brass pedagogy with Jeremy Wilson, Associate Professor of Trombone at Vanderbilt University. Bridget has also served on various councils and committees, including the Yale School of Music Student Advisory Council, Vanderbilt Blair Student Council and Vanderbilt University COVID-19 response committee.
Bridget holds a master of music degree in performance from the Yale School of Music, where she studied with Carol Jantsch of The Philadelphia Orchestra. She holds a bachelor of music degree in performance with a minor in brass pedagogy from Vanderbilt University’s Blair School of Music, where she studied with Gil Long. In 2019, she spent a semester studying at the Conservatory of Amsterdam with Perry Hoogendijk, principal tubist of the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra.
Bridget is a native of Charleston, South Carolina. When she’s not playing tuba, Bridget loves cooking, exercising and a good book.
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Abby Black (she/her) is the incoming Principal Horn of the Lyric Opera of Chicago. She is currently a second-year Horn Fellow at the New World Symphony and a section horn with The Central City Opera.
Prior to joining NWS, Abby was an educator and freelancer in the Chicago area. She held positions with the Milwaukee Ballet Orchestra, Axiom Brass, and Millar Brass. Abby has performed with numerous premiere ensembles nationwide, including the Chicago Symphony, St. Louis Symphony, Buffalo Philharmonic, Rochester Philharmonic, and Chicago Opera Theater. Abby was also a Horn Fellow with the Civic Orchestra of Chicago under the baton of Ken-David Masur. Summer festival appearances include Spoleto, Brevard, Chautauqua, and National Music Festival.
While living in Chicago, Abby enjoyed working with young musicians of all ages. Her teaching roles included serving as the Winds and Brass Coach for the Chicago Youth Symphony Orchestras Debut Orchestra and as the Horn Instructor at The People’s Music School and Carthage College.
Abby received her bachelor’s degree in performance and education from the Eastman School of Music and her master’s and post-master’s certificates at DePaul University. Her primary teachers include Jim Smelser, Oto Carrillo, W. Peter Kurau, Daniel Gingrich, and Neil Kimel.