2024 Awardees : TYLER JENKINS and
DAMALI WILLINGHAM
Tyler Jenkins
Tyler Jenkins (also known as Tyler Goldchain) is a New Haven based musician/composer whose artistic journey began with the vibrant music he experienced in his grandmother’s Jamaican storefront church in Bridgeport. At age 4, he was playing drums at church. By 4th grade, he played multiple instruments. He then continued to soar musically through high school – studying at both Neighborhood Music School and the Educational Center for the Arts — and achieving acclaim and awards. One example: A protest song against gun violence he wrote in his senior year was included in an album of student protest songs produced by a Grammy-winning producer.
Tyler continued to expand his creative reach while at Wesleyan College on a full scholarship. While there he scored several short student films, one of which, Graveyard, won multiple national awards including “Best Original Score” by the Los Angeles Crime and Horror Film Festival.
Since graduation, his upward trajectory has continued. He sang background on Alicia Keys’ 2022 World Tour and founded a music composition company, Goldchain Entertainment.
Also quite significant, especially in terms of the Bitsie Fund: He composed music for the award-winning play, Death by a Thousand Cuts, written and directed by fellow Bitsie Fund awardee Steve Driffin. Tyler is currently composing his first feature length film and composing for an experimental dance film. He has also received his first orchestral commission from the New Haven Symphony Orchestra, an arrangement for its 2025 family concert based on Anansi the Spider.
Tyler’s project for the Bitsie Fund is an original composition written for New Haven musicians. He describes the piece as an “introspective meditation of love and healing.” It “articulates the semi-autobiographical perspective of a black boy experiencing love in his life” and “purposely differs from the trauma-based storytelling that is very popular in the media.”
Damali Willingham
Damali Willingham is a conductor, composer, multi-instrumentalist and educator living in New Haven. They started playing saxophone at age 9, bassoon at 11, and when 13, began to compose, with some of their compositions performed by youth orchestras and the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra. At age 14, they began conducting; and by age 17, they had received major recognition in the conducting field.
Damali’s upward trajectory continued at the Berklee College of Music, where they served as music director and guest conductor of numerous ensembles, including the Berklee Motion Picture Orchestra, the college’s largest student-run ensemble. Since graduating Summa Com Laude, Damali has continued to garner accolades and awards, including a prestigious conducting award at the 2023 Aspen Conducting Academy.
They are currently working as a teaching artist and conducting fellow with the Greater Connecticut Youth Orchestras, fulfilling a passion for teaching and working with youth.
Although clearly destined for a distinguished career as a classical conductor, Damali realized that to be true to themselves, they had to change direction. “The confines of classical music,” they explain, “don’t provide the space for all parts of my artistic identity to be expressed, and I know that there is a tremendous potential for me to grow into the parts of my artistry that have been neglected by the classical pedagogy.”
Damali’s new pursuit, which the Bitsie Fund will support, includes exploring the music of their ancestors, focusing on various genres within contemporary music and bringing that into “conversation with their classical music education.” “Rounding out my skill sets in this way,” Damali explains, “will bring joy and honesty into the work I do which I want to be the basis of the career that I build.” Damali is also committed to collaboration with some of the extraordinary musicians in the New Haven area, and through that collaboration, to bring life, health and spiritual vitality to the community through music.