meet our 2025
alumni fellows!
Thea King
Thea is a proud alum of the Young Women’s Leadership School, a Willie Mae Rock Camp partner site. A passionate guitarist and songwriter, she thrives on creative expression through music and the arts. Thea is always exploring bold new ways to connect with others and share her voice through her work.
Find Thea on Instagram @tttheaan
aadi mckain
Aadi is an arts management student at SUNY Purchase with a passion for music that transcends genres. Under the bold and unforgettable moniker “pretentiouspissbaby,” she crafts a sound that fuses the raw energy of alternative rock and shoegaze with the experimental textures of ambient and noise music. Her work explores the messy, emotional terrain of coming of age—equal parts angst, vulnerability, and rebellion. Aadi is also a proud alum of Willie Mae Rock Camp, where she’s been a deeply involved participant in the Digital Mentorship program, and most recently, as a summer assistant in 2024.
Find Aadi on Instagram @nichesuperstar
Alumni Fellowship
Alumni Fellowship
2024 Fellows
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Born and raised in the Norwood section of the Bronx, Carys “Cabø” Dixon is nurtured by the sounds that surround her. Growing up, Carys knew her passion for music was unordinary. Learning piano at the age of three skyrocketed her musical abilities as an instrumentalist, which led her to later pursue guitar, bass, and the drums. In 2017, Carys decided to shift gears and focus more on the music production scene. With influences from various creatives, Carys began creating her own sound that merges R&B, alternative, rock, and hip-hop.
An alumni of Willie Mae Rock Camp’s in-school programming, Carys was a fellow during our first Alumni Fellowship. In April 2024, Carys debuted a new, recorded work composed over the course of the fellowship that combined her unique style with quadraphonic and spatial audio techniques. This evening was hosted in partnership with the CT::SWaM ExChange, a monthly meet-up and listening session at the Fridman Gallery Media Room focused on multi-channel works and spatial sound.
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Ella Josephine Julia Moore is a multi-disciplinary artist whose practice uses participatory art, music composition, instrument-making, bandleading, installation and fabric arts. Under the alias Cleo Reed, they complete musical projects that are rooted in their ancestral & cultural lineage. Recently, they developed software instruments for Jon Batiste’s “American Symphony” at Carnegie Hall and their debut album project, “Root Cause" was released in 2023.
An alumni of Willie Mae’s Summer Rock Camp program (and a former Teaching Artist), Cleo Reed was a 2024 Alumni Fellow. In June 2024, Cleo presented Digital Distraction, a new work composed over the course of their fellowship. Cleo performed alongside Bina48, a humanoid robot powered by AI.