Homegrown voices, lasting legacies: Honoring UCLA’s 2025 Class Artists

For the winners of the third-annual Chancellor's Council on the Arts Class Artist competition, Sydney Richardson and Jorge Parra Jr., UCLA has left its mark.

Both Parra Jr. and Richardson are Los Angeles natives. Both first set foot on UCLA's campus during elementary or high school field trips. Both have also earned degrees in the social sciences. And now, after their lifelong connections, the pair are leaving their own marks, enshrined in UCLA history having just been honored by the Chancellor's Council on the Arts for the strength of their work and the clarity of their artistic voices.

Now in its third installment, the Class Artist program recognizes students whose work showcases the presence and purpose of the arts at UCLA.

Graduating student submissions from the academic units represented on the Chancellor's Council on the Arts - UCLA School of the Arts and Architecture, the UCLA Herb Alpert School of Music, the UCLA School of Theater, Film & Television and the divisions of humanities and social sciences in the UCLA College - are reviewed by a panel of alumni jurors and judged on originality, aesthetics and potential reach and impact. Each honoree receives a financial award.

This year's undergraduate winner, Richardson (world arts and cultures/dance B.A. & African American Studies, B.A.), is a choreographer who blends faith, history and Black dance traditions. Her work, "The Story I'll Tell," is an exploration of resilience and shared testimony, rooted in her strong faith and lifelong spiritual practices.

The judges also awarded an honorable mention to Michal Kanter (global jazz studies, B.A.), a jazz pianist and composer working at the intersection of Afro-Latin and Mediterranean traditions. Her submission featured original works that celebrate cultural connection through rhythm and harmony.

In the graduate category, Parra Jr. (film, theater & television, M.F.A.) is a writer/director whose work frequently centers on Latinx identity and emotionally resonant storytelling. His film "¡Que Suene La Banda!"is a vibrant story of cultural rediscovery told through music and memory.

Graduate honorable mention winner Merry May Ma (film, theater & television, M.F.A.) is a filmmaker whose work blends fantasy, science" and queer identity. Her short film, "Gardeners," takes place in UCLA science labs and explores scientific discovery through a surreal, imaginative lens. It was inspired by the research of UCLA alum Jessica Yue Wang, who was part of a group of scientists to grow organic semiconductor crystals vertically for the first time.

Sound, memory and joy: A director's ode to Banda

Parra grew up in El Monte, just east of UCLA. He was an avid amateur filmmaker as a child, always carrying around his parents' camcorders. Even as he earned his undergraduate degree in geography at UCLA, he continued to make films.

"Anytime there was a class project, I would ask, 'Can I do a video instead?'" he said.

The short film Parra Jr. submitted for the competition reflects a personal shift in both tone and subject matter for the emerging filmmaker.

After years of exploring gritty realism and crime dramas, he wanted to create something more joyful: a love letter to Banda music, a subgenre of Mexican folk music that features brass and percussion, and the tight-knit communities that keep it alive. The short features live performances by a local Banda group, including one from a recording session in UCLA's state-of-the-art Mo Ostin Music Studio. A staff member told Parra Jr. it might have been the first time a Banda ensemble had ever recorded there.

Video above: Banda musicians in behind-the-scenes footage from Parra Jr.'s film. (Double click the image to watch full screen.)

For Parra Jr., the music is personal. He played trumpet and trombone in middle and high school and joined the UCLA marching band as an undergrad.

"At my first party with the Banda group, we started playing, and everyone got up to dance. It was so different from marching band," he said. "That experience made me want to bring this music to the screen."

Parra Jr. also achieved another honor for his short. He was just awarded the Grand Jury Prize Award at the annual TFT (theater, film and television) Director's Showcase.

Faith in motion: A choreographer's journey of healing and praise

Storytelling is at the heart of Sydney Richardson's practice. A double major in world arts and cultures/dance, and African American studies, Richardson is known for having brought an uncommon level of care to both the art and administration of the world arts and cultures/dance department, where she worked as an undergrad. She helped manage communications, served on multiple student councils and even organized an artist residency, writing her first grant proposal to bring celebrated alumna Charm La'Donna to campus for a master class.

Richardson first visited UCLA on school field trips growing up in the Wiseburn Unified School District in El Segundo.

"To actually be a student here felt surreal," she said. "But UCLA's dance program is full of people who didn't all look the same or move the same. That really mattered to me."

Her winning piece, titled "The Story I'll Tell," was a collaboration with fellow arts student and recent UCLA alum Maya Faith Hadaway. It was performed earlier this year at WACsmash, the annual undergraduate showcase for world arts and cultures/dance students. Drawing on her background in liturgical praise dance and shaped by personal grief, the work became a space for vulnerability, healing and collective expression.

"It wasn't just about choreography for me. It was about worship, about release," she said. "And we really were in it together."

Letting go, yet holding on

For both artists, making work at UCLA has been about returning to their roots while embracing growth.

Parra Jr. credits faculty mentors such as TFT lecturer Mark Rosman and the hands-on training of the film program with giving him the confidence to pursue a directing career.

Richardson said she now knows how to manage productions, lead teams and advocate for the kinds of opportunities she once thought were out of reach. As she prepares to graduate, Richardson has an internship lined up with L.A. Dance Project, followed by an invitation-only residency at Radio City Music Hall with the Rockettes. And she'll return to teach at the dance studio where she honed her skills as a child.

Parra Jr. is finishing several feature-length scripts and hopes to direct for television.

Asked why the arts matter, Parra Jr. is quick to point out that every profession fills a need, but the arts remind us what it means to be alive. Richardson agrees: "Art helps us process the truth. Even when there aren't words, artists know what to say."