Hailed by The Washington Post as “Sweetly Lyrical,” violinist Ariel Horowitz has performed as a soloist with orchestras around the world and premiered her original pieces for violin and voice at Carnegie Hall’s Weill Hall and the Kennedy Center’s Terrace Theater. An avid teacher, she serves on the Mount Holyoke College faculty and is the Founder and Artistic Director of The Heartbeat Music Project, a tuition-free program for K-12 children living in the Navajo Nation. She is the recipient of numerous prizes and in 2020 was honored with the Concert Artists Guild Ambassador Prize, joining the CAG roster.

Hello! I am Sharon Nelson, and I serve as Executive Director for the Heartbeat Music Project. Prior to this position, I also served as a Recruiter and Assistant in 2016 and as Project Director from 2017-2018. In the current capacity as Executive Director, I oversee the program at the Navajo Technical University (NTU) campus in Crownpoint, New Mexico. This involves synchronizing NTU Departments so that Heartbeat functions effectively. Most importantly, I ensure NTU provides a safe and culturally relevant space for Teacher Artists and students to make intellectual, emotional, spiritual, and musical connections. Heartbeat has given underprivileged and underserved Diné children the musical opportunity to convert their own vibrations of thought, heart, and soul using western instruments, allowing them to become centered and explore endless possibilities. In addition to my work with Heartbeat, I am Diné and teach at the Navajo Technical University as Assistant Professor of Diné Culture, Language, and Leadership. Tódích’íí’nii nishłį̨́, Ta’neeszahnii baa shishchiin, Tótsohii da shicheii dóó Tł’ááshchí’í éídah shinalí (I am Bitter Water clan, born for Tangle Water clan, Big Water are my maternal grandfathers, and Painted Cheeks are my paternal grandfathers).

Canadian violinist Gregory Lewis has established a reputation as an artist possessing “brilliant technique and control” (Chronicle Journal) and “wonderful musical personality” (Winnipeg Free Press). Lewis has appeared as soloist with orchestras including the Winnipeg Symphony Orchestra, Kitchener-Waterloo Symphony, Thunder Bay Symphony Orchestra, Consortium Aurora Borealis, and others. Lewis is a prizewinner of the National Music Festival of Canada, Concours de musique du Canada, WMC McLellan Competition, American Protégé International Piano and Strings Competition, Yale Chamber Music Competition, and the Virtuoso e Belcanto Violin Competition. Lewis received his education at the Colburn School, Yale University, and the University of Manitoba, studying with Martin Beaver, Ani Kavafian, Oleg Pokhanovski, and Olga Medvedeva. He is currently in the residency stage of his Doctor of Musical Arts degree at Yale University, where he also teaches for the Yale College Chamber Music Seminar, Yale Secondary Lessons, and graduate music history classes. Lewis joined HMP as a Teaching Artist in 2018 and is thrilled to be involved as the program’s Assistant Director since 2021.

Natalie R. Desiderio is a recent graduate of Navajo Technical University in Crownpoint, New Mexico, a small community on the Eastern side of the Navajo Reservation. She received her Bachelor’s Degree in Diné Culture, Language, and Leadership. She currently serves as an Office Assistant in the Graduate and Undergraduate Diné Culture, Language, and Leadership program at Navajo Technical University. Since 2018, Desiderio has been a researcher for a Navajo Language Program under the National Science Foundation (NSF) that is building an Online Lexicon for Navajo Language learners. The program works to preserve the Navajo language and helps non-Navajo speakers learn the language. Recently, she became part of the Heartbeat Music Project as its Administrative Assistant.

Desiderio helps to advertise the program, accommodate the participants’ and their parents’ needs, and inform them of upcoming events. An Indigenous individual that helps many programs, Desiderio is family orientated. Her beliefs and values are strongly rooted in her Navajo (Diné) culture. She is a modern Navajo who likes to applyNavajo culture and language to today’s society. Ms. Desiderio feels like her knowledge in the Diné philosophy can help shape and provide guidance to the younger Diné generation. With outside sources and opportunities available to Diné children, we can spark young minds to look within themselves and evolve to become greater individuals. 

Lehuanani DeFranco is a mixed Kanaka Maoli (Native Hawaiian) protector for Indigenous rights and a Brooklyn-based dancer. She organizes with Uprooted& Rising to end higher education’s support for Big Food and white supremacy in the food system. She is currently campaigning for the University of California to divest from the Thirty-Meter Telescope in order to protect Mauna Kea from desecration.  DeFranco is also the Interim Coordinator with Roadwork Center, an organization formed in 1978 to build multi-racial coalitions through women’s culture by focusing on the intersection of arts and BIPOC- and LGBTQIA-led social justice movements.  Recently, she became the Director ofCharitable Giving for The Heartbeat Music Project. 

DeFranco is also an artist with Te Ao Mana, a performance group expanding the presence of Polynesian culture worldwide through creative projects, dance classes, workshops, and community gathering. While learning her ancestral language, ʻŌlelo Hawaiʻi, DeFranco explores how the study of language lends itself to the creation of movement scores in her own performance work.Her work investigates how our brains and bodies recognize and form coalitions with others through this intersection of movement and language.  DeFranco graduated Cum Laude from Skidmore College with a B.A. double major in History and Dance. In 2015, she graduated with an M.F.A. in Dance from the NYU Tisch School of the Arts. DeFranco is a guest on Lenape and Canarsie lands.