Founder, CEO, Musician
Current City: Durham, NC
Current Job and Entrepreneurial Focus: Founder and CEO of BaobaoTree LLC, dedicated to disseminating a transformative Africentric music education framework and supporting its application.
Notable Prior Jobs: Mellon Postdoctoral Fellow at Brandeis, Music Faculty at Tufts, Founder and Executive Director at BUMP, Inc.
When I Started Performing: 4th grade, age 9.
Performing Arts Background: My first instrument was violin, then piano became primary in third grade. I began directing church choirs in sixth grade as an apprentice to my piano teacher. I played clarinet from fifth grade through my freshman year of college, performing in marching bands and at church. I earned a B.A. in music at Stanford with a piano performance concentration, a Masters of Arts in music at Stanford and a PhD in musicology at Duke.
How did your performing arts background supercharge your entrepreneurship? Music for me has always been about community first and foremost, from early experiences like accompanying my fourth grade music class at Crispus Attucks Elementary School in E. St. Louis, IL, to college experiences like serving as alto section leader in preparation for the Stanford Chorus’s performance of the Bach St. Matthew Passion, to professional experiences like directing the Sacred Music Ensemble of the Historic Charles St. AME Church in Boston. All the things that drive strong ensemble performing skills and build community - listening, responsiveness, respect, curiosity, determination, precision, clarity, caring, excellence, preparedness, problem-solving and more - have direct application in my entrepreneurial success.
Favorite Performer: Nina Simone, who is with the ancestors, and Gregory Porter, who is living.
Follow Georgiary Bledsoe:
Twitter - @BaobaoMusic
Instagram - @georgiarybledsoe
Facebook - georgiary.bledsoe
LinkedIn - georgiary-bledsoe
