Springboard to success

Natalia Warthen and Jacob Nance earned the top prize of $2,500 in the 2023 Running Start Competition.

When two music performance students in the Michigan State University College of Music decided to enter the College’s annual Running Start Competition, it was both a goal and a springboard to the future they envision.

The saxophone duo known as SiP – which stands for saxophone in progress – is Jacob Nance and Natalia Warthen, and their recording and commissioning project earned them first place in the 2023 competition and a cash prize of $2,500 to further the idea. Nance is a masters student and Warthen an undergraduate, and both study with MSU Professor of Saxophone Joseph Lulloff.

Music alum, co-founder and CEO of Crescendo Detroit Damien Crutcher (far right) served as a Running Start Competition judge in 2023. Here he is seen post-concert in 2022 with (from left) Kevin Sedatole, Arris Golden, and Omar Thomas.

Nance said the duo’s goal is to diversify classical music through commissioning and outreach, so they commissioned eight underrepresented composers – BIPOC, LGBTQ+, women, disabled – over the summer of 2022. They pitched it to the composers as a recording project to produce a studio album of their works.

“The project was entirely paid for out of pocket by us, and we drew up budgets and contracts in order to make the entire idea work from beginning to end,” Warthen explained. “Shortly after, we decided the Running Start Competition would be a fantastic opportunity to further fund this idea into another level, which is how the concept of recording an album and outreach concerts occurred.”

Jacob Nance and Natalia Warthen met in 2022, and they soon found they share the goals of creating more diversity within the classical saxophone canon and stimulating artists creatively and economically.

Natalia Warthen was presented a Research in Progress award by College of Arts and Letters Dean Christopher Long at the MSU Honors College Diversity Research Showcase. She and Jacob Nance have shared SiP’s work widely, earning support and funding.

Nance explained that when the duo formed in 2022, they discovered that both are “invested in the diversification of the classical saxophone musical canon.” Their Running Start Competition proposal began from that standpoint, which fit with what Warthen said is a goal of SiP, to stimulate artists economically and creatively.

SiP’s mission is to share the gift of live music in schools and various community-based events in the Greater Lansing area. With the funding, the project will create tangible recordings for both composers of the music and listeners of music.

“This way, the works will be programmed more than once, which addresses a problem that many commissioning projects have: getting played one time and never found again,” Warthen said. “After sketching these ideas out, we began applying to smaller grants in order to build towards the Running Start Competition.”

The annual Running Start Competition is designed to help students fund their visions within their professional music careers. Participants craft projects and businesses that are unique in their approach, creative in content, can reach more audiences, and maybe solve a problem within the world of music. Past winning ideas have included recording projects, percussion summer programs, a sustainable instrument-building business, and a food/music concert series.

Full list of 2023 Running Start Competion finalists, their awards and projects:

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