By Hiba Nawaid ’23
Staff Writer
Relyn G. Myrthil ’19, an artistic administrator, independent curator and art and music historian, recently landed an internship at Silkroad, a Grammy-winning touring ensemble of global musicians founded by cellist Yo-Yo Ma in 1998.
Myrthil, who hails from Miami, began playing violin and viola at age 7 and was heavily involved in her local orchestra and chamber music communities. She participated in festivals with renowned artists Mimi Zweig, the Amernet String Quartet, the Bergonzi String Quartet and the New World Symphony during her early years.
At Mount Holyoke, Myrthil delved deeper into music and art history, curating numerous Afrocentric exhibitions with the Mount Holyoke College Art Museum. She was also the president and assistant conductor of the Mount Holyoke Symphony Orchestra. Expanding on her interests in orchestral music and Afrocentric art history, Myrthil graduated in 2019 as a Posse Scholar in music and art history with concentrations in orchestral conducting and performance and museum studies and Black art.
Myrthil went on to work with various arts organizations post-graduation, including the Pioneer Valley Symphony Orchestra, the Massachusetts Museum of Contemporary Art and the Boston Symphony Orchestra at the Tanglewood Music Center. Prior to getting the Silkroad internship, Myrthil worked as the assistant orchestra personnel manager of the Houston Symphony. Currently, she is working as a research assistant for curator, scholar and Mount Holyoke Visiting Lecturer in Art History Stephanie Sparling Williams.
The Silkroad ensemble uses music and the arts to create social impact and expand cross-cultural understanding, performing in museum galleries, concert halls, public squares and amphitheaters. Myrthil, whose interests are geared toward advancing arts equity and diversity on and off the stage as well as in the museum world, will now be working with the multicultural music collective based in Cambridge, MA.