What We Do
Empowered Creatives offers a variety of workshops for all ages, with content including graphic score creation, music fundamentals, found instrument performance, rhythm in movement, and more! Each workshop is designed based on the idea that every person has innate creative, musical, and artistic potential- and as such, no instruments, prior experience, or traditional music education is necessary.
Mission & Approach
Empowered Creatives is a community-rooted project founded on the belief that everyone is innately creative. With the aim of unleashing the power of the arts through accessible and personalized programming, we are reimagining what individual and collective artistic expression can look like.
​
There is a critical lack of access to meaningful arts education. By introducing participants to the fundamentals of music and the arts, we believe we can increase their confidence in their own innate creativity and reduce the perception that there must be a steep learning curve before one can explore artistic expression. It is our hope for every participant to feel empowered to develop their creative voice and share it with the world.
Our Team
As a strong advocate for new music, Mason Spencer is dedicated to expanding the breadth of the classical canon through commissions and performance. His passion for musical variety has led to collaborations with storytellers, singers, a variety of chamber and orchestral ensembles, and even a soloistic tea kettle. As a performer, he has toured and competed internationally as a member of the Sileo Quartet, winning Grand Prix in the 2023 International Music Competition in Malapolska. He has also toured nationally with video game shows Undertale and Journey LIVE, and has performed at the inaugural Patreon Assembly in Los Angeles. Additionally, he has performed with groups such as the Lyric Opera Orchestra, Joffrey Ballet, Fifth House Ensemble, Chicago Opera Theater, Dal Niente, and the Chrysalis Rock Orchestra. Mason has also appeared as a part of the Chicago Symphony Center Presents concert series, Hyde Park Jazz Fest, Caroga Lake Music Festival, New Music Chicago Presents, and as a featured recorded artist on the American Viola Society’s 2024 album. This year, he can be found performing as a member of the Civic Orchestra of Chicago and the Civic Orchestra Fellowship Program. Mason is also a passionate educator. He has conducted workshops on topics including composition, public speaking, and SEL at universities across the United States- including at University of Milwaukee, Denison University, and Southeast Missouri State University, as well as at Chicago community organizations such as the Norah B. Jones House, Deborahs Place and Ignite Teen Transitional Housing Center. Additionally, he maintains an active teaching schedule, while also serving as Executive Director of the Suburban Youth Symphony Orchestra, where he is dedicated to bringing quality music education to the south suburbs of Chicago. Combining these passions for music and community engagement led Mason to co-found Empowered Creatives, where he serves as Executive Director. This organization is dedicated to bringing accessible creative and musical outlets to all audiences - regardless of previous access or experience. Mason believes that creativity and self-expression are important tools for emotional regulation, community and relationship building, and mental health - and aims to use his experience as a performer, educator and administrator to build meaningful partnerships with like-minded organizations and facilitate the implementation and operations of Empowered Creatives projects.
Mason Spencer
Executive Director
Hailing from Philadelphia, Max Reese is currently an in-demand freelancer and educator in the Chicago area. After completing a 1-year position in the Milwaukee Symphony Orchestra as Assistant Principal/2nd/Eb clarinet, he will be joining the Civic Orchestra of Chicago as a regular member for the 2025-26 season. He has played under the baton of Edo de Waart, JoAnn Falletta, Ken-David Masur, Han Na Chang, Carl St.Clair, Matthias Bamert, Keith Lockhart, Tim Weiss, Marcelo Lehninger, Yaniv Dinur, Cliff Colnot, and many others. He has also been a fellow at the Round Top Festival Institute and the Brevard Music Center. As a chamber musician, Reese was engaged to perform the Brahms Clarinet Quintet with the Southeastern Young Artists in Gainesville, GA in December 2022, and a variety of chamber music and unconducted orchestral works at the same festival in 2025. He also spends part of his summers every year at the Caroga Lake Music Festival in upstate New York. His chamber groups have won the Oberlin Conservatory’s annual Orientation Recital and Danenberg Honors Recital. Reese’s wind quintet can also be heard on WCLV 104.9, Cleveland’s classical music radio. An advocate for new music, Reese has additionally performed with Rhythm Is Image, and has participated in numerous recording projects for the advancement of new music. Reese is an active educator and has a studio of clarinet students ranging from the ages of 7 to 85. He is a founding teacher at Virtu.Academy, an online lesson platform for students without immediate physical access to high quality music lessons. He also teaches through the Ravinia Festival’s Reach, Teach, Play education program in the Austin neighborhood of Chicago. During his master’s, he was a teaching artist at the DePaul Community Music division, where he taught clarinet in school districts throughout the Chicago area. He completed a master’s degree under the tutelage of Stephen Williamson, principal clarinet of the Chicago Symphony Orchestra. Prior to that, he received a bachelor’s in music from the Oberlin Conservatory studying with Richard Hawkins, and has additionally studied with Charles Salinger. Expanding on his aptitude and love for education, Reese has helped develop the Empowered Creatives Project with two fellow musicians and a public health professional. This project explores the idea that the arts can be used to bring out every person’s inner creativity as well as encourage community building, and personal growth. He helps curate, develop, and lead workshops, and is the director marketing and social media.
Max Reese
Director of Marketing
Dawning (Welliver) Vajdi
Artistic Director
Violinist Dawning (Welliver) Vajdi is a versatile performer, researcher, and educator based in Indianapolis, Indiana. A graduate of the Jacobs School of Music, she completed her Masters in violin performance with Grigory Kalinovsky in 2022. Her undergraduate career took place at Vanderbilt University, where she studied with Cornelia Heard and pursued minors in International Leadership and Development and Arabic Language. Dawning’s professional path reflects her curiosity about the intersections of music, culture, and communication, and she involves herself in diverse projects that allow her to explore the arenas of multiple genres of music, musicology, and equitable music education. An avid chamber musician, Dawning performs regularly with Sileo Quartet, which won the Grand Prix at the Małopolska International Music Competition in 2023. Sileo studied under the guidance of the Pacifica Quartet at Indiana University and has performed across the United States and internationally. Dawning brings her passion for chamber music education to her teaching, having coached students through the Chamber Music Connection in Columbus, Ohio, and designing a chamber music curriculum for The Wellington School. As a soloist, Dawning has spent over a decade researching and performing the music of Blair Fairchild, a largely forgotten composer. She is currently co-authoring the first comprehensive biography of Fairchild and preparing an album of his previously unrecorded violin works. Inspired by this work, she frequently performs pieces by rarely performed, forgotten, or underrepresented composers. Alongside her work in historical repertoire, Dawning enjoys blending and bending genres in the recording studio, pop-up performances, and intimate, informal venues. Her creative range as a performer has led her to record not only in the Western classical tradition, but also in genres including alternative rock and rap—bridging musical worlds with a spirit of curiosity, and reimagining the violin as a voice that can speak across diverse and evolving artistic landscapes. Beyond performing and teaching, Dawning is committed to community-building through music. She co-founded the Empowered Creatives Project with a fellow member of Sileo Quartet, an initiative dedicated to increasing access to meaningful music education and fostering connections across diverse communities. As Artistic Director, Dawning focuses on sharing the transformative vision with new collaborators, extending the reach and influence of this vibrant initiative which channels the power of music for individual and societal change. Dawning lives with her husband, Aarya, and their son, Cyrus. As a family, they devote themselves to community life, drawing inspiration from the Bahá’à Faith and its evolving framework for action. In their neighborhood and beyond, they strive to build capacity for service, cultivate spaces for collective learning, and nurture communities rooted in spiritual purpose. Weaving together the rhythms of family, an unfolding musical journey, and a life of service, Dawning feels tremendous gratitude to be living a life fulfilling her dreams and sense of purpose.
Eva Spencer
Director of Strategic Programming
Eva Spencer is a public health professional who received a Bachelor’s of Science in Public Health from West Virginia University. Eva works in the public health department at NORC at the University of Chicago, a not-for-profit research organization, in Chicago, IL. She currently supports survey and data instrumentation efforts on a range of evaluation projects related to sexual assault and harmful behavior prevention. Eva works with the NORC Walsh Center for Rural Health Analysis in their partnership with the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) to conduct a viability assessment to determine the feasibility of creating a technical assistance (TA) Center aimed at strengthening foundational public health services in rural health departments. She has also worked with the Walsh Center and the Federal Office of Rural Health Policy in developing a community health toolkit for rural residents to inform gaps in access, wellbeing, and usage of community health workers. Eva has strong experience in qualitative coding and analysis, having supported multiple perinatal research projects at NorthShore University HealthSystem as well as a NORC project funded by the National Science Foundation to examine the role of social media influencers as opinion leaders who may counter false information and concerns about the recent maternal RSV vaccine. Eva has a strong background in program design, development, management, and evaluation. She has designed a program evaluation plan for a corporate-based horticultural therapy program in Cork, Ireland. With this background, Eva desires to monitor and assess the effectiveness and efficiency of Empowered Creatives and its impact on participants. Eva believes the goal of public health is to improve the health of everyone and is dedicated to supporting community-based actions that address health disparities and systemic inequalities in our societies. She believes that non-medical social and economic factors can have an enormous impact on the health of individuals and populations. These Social Determinants of Health (SDoH) include education access and quality, healthcare access and quality, neighborhood and built environment, social and community context, and economic stability. Through its programming, Eva believes that Empowered Creatives is poised to create meaningful opportunities for creation and connection by increasing access to creative spaces in communities that lack arts infrastructure, ultimately increasing health by improving social and community contexts in the greater Chicago area.