Nancy Olivares, a Master’s student in Cello Performance in the Music Department at URI, has been selected to participate in the National Orchestral Institute + Festival held at the University of Maryland this summer. Thanks to the travel support from the Center for the Humanities, she will have the opportunity to perform in various concerts as part of the orchestra, including touring to the Ravinia Festival in Chicago. At Ravinia, she will provide orchestral training and mentoring to students from Chicago’s public schools and communities that are part of the El Sistema Ravinia program. She will also gain professional-level exposure to orchestral masterpieces such as Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony, Mahler 1, and other canonic works of historical significance in the promotion of freedom and human values. As a Teaching Assistant in URI’s Music Department, Nancy will be able to bring back all the knowledge she gains to the URI community, in particular to the URI Symphony Orchestra, where she serves as the Principal Cellist.