Martha Canizares

Martha Canizares makes this gift to honor and perpetuate the artistic legacy of her daughter, Brittany Musumeci. Brittany, a highly skilled violinist, graduated with honors in Music from UWM in 2015. Brittany and her sister, Alexis, were tragically killed in an automobile accident while visiting their mother in Florida months after Brittany’s graduation. Her mother states: “Brittany strongly identified with her family heritage and truly embraced her Cuban roots. She wanted to share her passion, her devotion to celebrating the music and heart of Cuban culture with underprivileged children.”

“Brittany was just about to take that next step in realizing her dreams,” said Rebecca Ottman, a pianist who had been Brittany’s accompanist at UWM on many occasions. In their last conversation, Ottman said Brittany expressed her hopes to open a studio to teach music to underprivileged children. Bernard Zinck, Brittany’s violin professor at UWM, described her as “the best student a teacher can hope to teach – Brittany was gracious, humble, dedicated, insightful, sensitive, kind and respectful. She possessed a wonderful stage presence, and she had a marvelous sound. It was a blessing and a joy for our UWM community to see her blossom into such an honest and true artist."