Fellow Highlights

Not On My Resume: Paola Prestini

April 17, 2022

Paola Prestini, a 1999 Fellow, is a composer whose work explores interdisciplinary forms in conversation with art, science, and social justice. She has architected many large-scale projects, from the Hubble Cantata—the first mass VR opera—to Con Alma, her 2020 album with jazz chanteuse Magos Herrera, recorded remotely with over 30 artists across 3 continents. Her compositions have been commissioned and performed around the country and world. Paola is also the co-founder and artistic director of the Brooklyn-based arts institution and incubator National Sawdust. Born in Italy, she currently makes her home in Brooklyn with her son Tommaso and her husband, the cellist Jeffrey Zeigler.

Why did you (or your family) come to America? We came to America because my father’s business was seeking a new market. He makes reeds and instruments and the cane used was grown in Northern Mexico. So we took a huge leap and moved to the Mexico/Arizona border. Shortly upon arrival my parents separated, and my mom and I began our life together.

Which living New American do you most admire? I admire Maria Popova, an amazing thinker, writer, and blogger who writes The Marginalian (formerly Brain Pickings). The generosity with which she gifts the world her thoughts and curations, often at the intersection of poetry and science, moves me. Her raison d’etre is so pure, and it comes across as essential nourishment for the soul.

What is your current state of mind? At the moment I am feeling out of flow. It’s a moment of tremendous learning, trying to adapt, listening, and trying to find new ways of being so that I can enter flow again, more prepared, and ready to activate what I am learning.

When was the last time you felt imposter syndrome? I often felt that as I was starting National Sawdust, the space I co-founded in Brooklyn. I was learning so much so quickly, and because I was trying to be multifaceted-a woman composer-starting a business-who was at the time mostly single handedly raising a child as my husband was always on tour-I felt like I was constantly being told I had to choose one thing. I am glad I did not listen, but it pains me how out of sorts I felt. I wish I could go back and rest my hand on that woman’s shoulder and tell her it would be alright.

What is your greatest fear? My greatest fear is not giving my son what he needs to thrive.

If you could change careers and do anything, what would it be? I would never change careers. I would change the times so that when I started it was a more equitable world. But then again, I believe I was born when I needed to be born with the challenges and opportunities I was meant to have.

What is your idea of a good life? Writing, listening to music and to others, collaborating, learning something new, and with time to enjoy those I love and time to look at nature and feel and experience its beauty.

What is the one habit that you can’t live without? I cannot live without coffee!

What is one piece of advice that you live by? Don’t take constructive criticism from anyone who hasn’t constructed anything.

Who or what makes your heart beat faster when you think about them? I am enamored by people who strive for the impossible. That often takes my breath away as I love to witness what it takes to do things that are uncharted. Performers also take my breath away. Their bravery moves me.

This interview was originally published in the March, 2022 issue of The Paul & Daisy Soros Fellowships’ monthly Distance Traveled newsletter. Sign up to receive the latest issue here. ∎