Composer and Frost School of Music associate professor Shawn Crouch has been named executive artistic director of IlluminArts, a nationally known, Miami-based organization that is one of the city’s leading arts groups.
Crouch’s leadership of IlluminArts, which collaborates with museums, galleries, and community organizations to create original, site-specific performances that interact with visual art, establishes a connection that promises to expand opportunities for Frost School students and deepen the school’s reputation for adventurous creativity.
“I am deeply honored to serve as the new executive artistic director of IlluminArts,” said Crouch. “I look forward to building on its extraordinary legacy by creating bold, innovative programs that fuse music with visual art, architecture, movement, and multimedia.”
“I am ecstatic to have Shawn taking over,” said IlluminArts founder and original artistic director Amanda Crider. “I know that Shawn will build on my vision for the organization through his own passion for music and for developing how performances are presented in the 21st century.
“The board of directors of IlluminArts chose Shawn because of his commitment to the arts community in South Florida, his experience in leading ensembles and education initiatives, and his desire to create one-of-a-kind experiences that bring music and the arts together.”
Crouch, who teaches in the composition and theory department and is artistic director of the Ensemble Ibis, the school's new music ensemble, said he has long admired and been inspired by IlluminArts. He will work with company manager and Frost School alumnus Antonio Urrutia, B.M. ’19, an oboist and Stamps Scholar who was one of Crouch’s students.
“I love the way Amanda thinks about pairing music and art, which aligns with the way I think about music,” said Crouch, who was commissioned to compose for IlluminArts’ 2022 production “To Reach the Light,” with vocal ensemble, dancers in original choreography, and mixed media, at the Rubell Museum. “I’m always thinking visually – I think in blues and greens, not in sharps and flats.”
IlluminArts presentations have included composer David Lang’s Pulitzer Prize-winning chamber opera “the little match girl passion,” based on Hans Christian Anderson’s story “The Little Match Girl,” which brought contemporary experiences of homelessness to attendees at the Pérez Art Museum Miami; and Benjamin Britten’s gothic “The Turn of the Screw,” staged in the courtyard of Vizcaya, which used historical photos and live video to intertwine the opera's story with the history of the Miami mansion and museum.
Crouch is also thrilled at the prospect of expanding his growing interest in storytelling and new technology, which intensified when he composed 'Stained Glass,' an opera using advanced virtual and augmented reality technology. It was produced and directed by visionary opera director Jeffrey Buchman, and premiered at the Frost School’s Thomas D. Hormel Music Innovation Stage in April of 2024.
“I’ve always been interested in storytelling, whether in choral works, song cycles, or instrumental music,” said Crouch, who has received awards from numerous prestigious institutions, including the American Academy of Arts and Letters, ASCAP, BMI, Yale University, and Meet the Composer. “But Stained Glass was my first time telling a story in a narrative way. Working with IlluminArts is a new and exciting project in line with where I am as a composer now.”
In addition to the four IlluminArts productions that Crouch will oversee, he has created a coproduction with the Frost School’s vocal performance department, which he hopes will become an annual event. It will be a multimedia cabaret inspired by Coconut Grove in the 1960s, when it was a bohemian haven that drew legendary folk singers such as Donovan, Joni Mitchell, and Jimmy Buffett, featuring photos, film, and all genres of music from the era. Taking place on March 20 at the Hormel Music Innovation Stage as part of the Frost School’s Signature Series, it will be directed and curated by Craig Terry, an acclaimed pianist, conductor, and music director who will serve as the vocal performance department's Artist in Residence for the 2025-26 school year.
