Instrumental Music
Mary Elizalde is a violinist, arts education advocate, and incoming freshman at the University of Southern California. She began playing the violin through the Youth Orchestra of Los Angeles when she was eight years old and was awarded the title of concertmistress her sophomore year, graduating as such. Aside from playing the violin, Mary advocates for musicians’ mental health and wellness through her project Classically Imperfect, an organization dedicated to providing mental health and wellness resources to young classical musicians. Classically Imperfect provides resources including articles, interviews, playlists, workshops, and surveys, sparking conversations on topics musicians don’t talk about in hopes of creating a happier and healthier music community for all musicians. Mary has had the opportunity to reach many communities with her work at Classically Imperfect including YOLA, El Sistema USA, and The Los Angeles Philharmonic, and hopes to continue this fight for the future of classical music education. Mary was also named an El Sistema USA Youth Ambassador, a program dedicated to student voice and leadership, where she had the opportunity to present the lack of mental health and wellness resources in our community to music educators and administrators from around the country, in addition to presenting feasible solutions. Mary will be pursuing degrees in music and psychology at USC, hoping to research further on not only musicians’ mental health, but the connection between music and the mind.