2025 Medici Circle Scholars

UC Irvine Claire Trevor School of the Arts names 14 new Medici Circle Scholars

UC Irvine Arts is pleased to announce the 2025 Medici Circle Scholars. These scholarships allow recipients to extend their education beyond the classroom, collaborating with academics and artists in the community and worldwide.

With funding in art, dance, drama and music, Medici supports artists and scholars' projects within their respective disciplines. This unique program assigns a faculty mentor to oversee each project, ensuring students receive an enriching educational experience. These projects further students’ creative activity and research to enhance their portfolios and graduate dissertations. 

Each scholarship is generously sponsored by a Medici Circle patron, who is directly paired with an awarded student to help them reach their creative professional goals. 

Congratulations to the Summer 2025 Medici Circle Scholar awardees:

Alex Van Duyne, B.F.A., Dance '26: Jasmin Vardimon Summer Intensive
Faculty Mentor: Lindsay Gilmour, Assistant Professor of Dance
Research: The Jasmin Vardimon Summer Intensive is a 1-2 week immersive program in the UK that combines physical theatre, voice, and digital technology. This experience will strengthen my choreographic voice and enhance my final B.F.A. project.

Alyssa Wixson, Ph.D., Music '27: NIME Conference: Performance of Xylocyclos
Faculty Mentor: Kojiro Umezaki, Professor of Music
Research: This summer project allows the opportunity to perform the original composition Xylocyclos at the international NIME conference, integrating electronic music with custom-built digital instruments.

Beatrice Schleyer, M.F.A., Art '27: Trip to Marfa, TX to view the collection at the John Chamberlain Building
Faculty Mentor: Amanda Ross-Ho, Professor of Art
Research: This summer, Beatrice will travel to Marfa, TX for the Chinati Foundation's annual viewing of the John Chamberlain Building. The thesis work addresses materiality, collapse, and scale, which will benefit from experiencing Chamberlain's large-scale assemblages in person.

Collin Felter, Ph.D., Music '27: Research as Composition: A Piece Connecting Rhythmic Scholarship with Contemporary Jazz-Funk
Faculty Mentor: Amy Bauer, Professor of Music
Research: This composition explores the connection between rhythmic structures in non-Western traditions and contemporary groove-based jazz-funk. The piece will be performed live with community musicians.

Colt McGuire, B.S. Mechanical Engineering and B.A., Drama '27: Oregon Shakespeare Festival Automation Internship
Faculty Mentor: Efren Delgadillo Jr., Associate Professor of Drama
Research: Colt will be working as an intern in the Automation Department at Oregon Shakespeare Festival, gaining experience in programming and maintaining automated stage equipment to advance technical theatre design practices.

Gwyneth Bulawsky, M.F.A., Art '26: We Begin to Wilt Beneath The Sun, Thesis art show
Faculty Mentor: Monica Majoli, Professor of Art
Research: A research trip to Greece to help influence and complete the final body of work for Gwyneth’s thesis show. The trip will involve site-specific photography and material collection.

Isabel Toteda, B.A., Drama '27: Historical Costume Research
Faculty Mentor: Marcy Froehlich, Associate Professor of Drama
Research: Isabel’s summer project will be to use the pattern she developed to create a historically accurate costume based on a 16th-century portrait, contributing to her thesis on authenticity in theatrical costuming.

Kayla Ephros, M.F.A., Art '27: untitled (short story video)
Faculty Mentor: Rhea Anastas, Associate Professor of Art
Research: This June, Kayla will be attending the 17th International Video Art Festival in Montreal with the opportunity to screen and discuss a short video work that blends speculative fiction and performance.

Kendal Villa, B.F.A., Dance '26: ¿Te Tiento?
Faculty Mentor: S. Ama Wray, Professor of Dance
Research: The narrative of Kendal’s dance film follows two dancers navigating touch and consent within cultural frameworks. It will be filmed in collaboration with cinematographers and sound artists from UC Irvine.

Kurt Kanazawa, M.F.A., Drama '27: L'OPERA!
Faculty Mentor: Andrew Borba, Professor of Drama
Research: L’OPERA! is a solo performance piece incorporating opera, storytelling, and drag to examine Asian American queer identity through the lens of classical European performance traditions.

Marketa Nicole Mccoy, Ph.D., Drama '29: Dolphy
Faculty Mentor: Zachary Price, Associate Professor of Drama
Research: Marketa will develop a dramatic piece inspired by the life and music of jazz saxophonist Eric Dolphy, incorporating live music and poetic text.

Michael Balerite, Ph.D., Music '26: Summer Conducting Institutes in New Jersey and California
Faculty Mentor: Irene Messoloras, Director of Choral Activities and Associate Chair of the Department of Music
Research: Summer Conducting Institute at Rider University and another in California will provide intensive training and conducting lab time with professional vocal ensembles, supporting Michael’s dissertation research in choral methods.

Teresa Ho, M.F.A., Art '26: Mưa Hồng
Faculty Mentor: Kevin Appel, Chair and Professor of the Department of Art
Research: Teresa’s printmaking project explores diasporic memory, grief and longing through Vietnamese pop ballads of the 1960s, blending image, text and abstraction.

Yadira Dockstader, M.F.A., Art '27: La Resiliencia es un Proceso Continuo (Resilience is a Continuous Process)
Faculty Mentor: Simon Leung, Professor of Art
Research: La Resiliencia es un Proceso Continuo examines trauma and healing through Latinx cultural practices and collaborative community art-making.

The Claire Trevor School of the Arts gratefully acknowledges our 2025 Medici Circle Scholar Patrons: Gerald and Veronica DeVries, Valerie Glass, Susan Hori, J. Nami Kaur, Claire Trevor Dean of the Arts Tiffany Ana López, Sheila and Jimmy Peterson, Richard and Cheryll Ruszat, Steve Sorenson, Rick and Alison Stein and Mary Watson-Bruce. 

Learn more about how you can become a Medici Circle Patron and unlock opportunities that would otherwise be out of reach for remarkable Claire Trevor School of the Arts students at arts.uci.edu/medici-circle.