Isabel Folkers is orchestrating advocacy through music.

After receiving the VSA International Young Musicians Award in the spring, the rising third-year ethnomusicology student is set to take the Kennedy Center’s Millennium Stage on Saturday as part of the VSA’s annual International Young Musicians Award Winners in Concert, which will also be streamed online. The only singer-songwriter in this weekend’s performance, Folkers said she is making her original music debut. Resonating with the VSA’s focus on uplifting musicians with disabilities, Folkers said the upcoming performance provides an opportunity to demonstrate her passion for inclusion within the music industry.

“Disability can often be something that tears down a lot of people who are trying to amplify their creative voices,” Folkers said. “My hope in becoming apart of the VSA Kennedy Center community is that I can work with them and their professionals and the other winners … to build a platform and a voice for students like me.”

VSA programmer Wynsor Taylor said the International Young Musicians Award Program’s mission is to amplify the voices of young artists with disabilities and establish a community that celebrates individuality. The program, open to young musicians of all instruments and genres, is designed for those in the onset of their professional career with the hopes of providing personalized guidance on navigating the music industry, Taylor said.

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By offering mentorship and resources for professional development, the Kennedy Center encourages participants to explore their potential in the arts, educating students on how to advocate for accessibility within an often exclusionary industry, Taylor said. Incorporating current professionals into their workshops, Director of Accessibility at VSA Betty Siegel said the Kennedy Center promotes opportunities for professional growth to artists at every stage of their career.

“A critical piece of this program … is creating an environment where people with disabilities, whether those disabilities are apparent or non-apparent, can feel like for once, they can be their true and authentic selves,” Siegel said. “They can accept that as being one of the many parts of their identity.”

Paired with Nashville-based songwriter Olivia Frances, Folkers said mentors were directed not to discuss the upcoming performance and focus instead on long-term development as an artist. As Folkers prepares for her upcoming album release, she said having guidance from a current professional in the industry provided a personalized foundation for her career, including her specific passion for activism.

By incorporating storytelling into her songwriting, Folkers said she utilizes her creative outlet to promote resources for survivors of domestic and sexual abuse. During her first year at UCLA, Folkers said she conducted research relating to resources available to survivors in the UCLA community. Within her performance, Folkers said she hopes to introduce each song by articulating the story behind them, advocating for equity and inclusion of underrepresented communities.

“My main goal with this performance, and what I hope people take away from this, is the feeling to enact change themselves,” Folkers said. “That drive that I have, as a creator of this music, to bring a voice to communities that don’t have one, and bring a voice to the systemic issues that we’re currently facing.”

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Beginning her musical endeavors through local choirs and musical theater, Folkers said the ability to connect music with advocacy is part of what drew her to UCLA’s ethnomusicology program. Inspired by the diversity within music, she said understanding the impact music has as a form of expression has been integral in developing her own way of communicating through it. As the only student to perform original music at this weekend’s performance, Folkers said she initially faced self-doubt and anxiety. However, Folkers’ ability to tell stories through her music was a key element in her acceptance into the program, as it demonstrated her talent and potential as an artist, Taylor said.

Allotted 12 minutes on the Millenium Stage, Folkers said she will be performing three original songs from her upcoming EP, “You Forgot my Birthday,” culminating in her first single, “Devil’s Praise.” Influenced by her own experiences, Folkers said the song captures the cyclical nature of abusive relationships and the feelings of being trapped that result from a lack of resources. By sharing her story on the Kennedy Center stage, she hopes it will stimulate a larger conversation regarding support for survivors and encourage artists to find purpose in their platforms Folkers added.

“Just because you’re young doesn’t mean that you can’t become a changemaker,” Folkers said. “It just takes the drive and the motivation to do it to actually get your work out there and to take that next step in your career.”