Kahn Award in Hand, CFA School of Music Grad Returns to Her Hometown

Tuba player Nyla Mawire (CFA’25) will use the $20,000 prize to bolster music education in her hometown

A portrait of Nyla Mawire standing against a white wall, smiling warmly at the camera. Nyla is a tuba performance undergraduate student at Boston University School of Music and the University's 2025 Kahn Career Entry Award recipient. She wears a blue dress layered over a white pinstriped shirt and has her hands loosely clasped in front of her.

Photos by Tracy Nguyen (COM’27)

CFA Students

Kahn Award in Hand, CFA School of Music Grad Returns to Her Hometown

Tuba player Nyla Mawire (CFA’25) will use the $20,000 prize to bolster music education in her hometown

April 28, 2025

This article was originally published in BU Today on April 25, 2025. By Molly Callahan

Excerpt

For Nyla Mawire, playing tuba is a way of being part of something greater than herself—it’s being part of a community. As a performer in an orchestra, she says, “you really are the foundation of the sound we’re making. That’s pretty cool.”

Mawire (CFA’25) wants to be that foundation for other young musicians in her community, too. In her hometown of Somersworth, N.H.—a small city that bumps up against neighboring Maine—she is aware that funding for music education can be hard to come by. Like so many communities across the United States, when budget cuts are called for in Somersworth, arts education is often among the first on the chopping block.

With help from a recent award, Mawire plans to help fill that gap. She is Boston University’s 2025 winner of the Esther B. and Albert S. Kahn Career Entry Award, which comes with a $20,000 check intended to jump-start the career of one graduating College of Fine Arts student each year. Five other Kahn Award finalists each receive $2,500.

Music is something that has taught me so many other life skills, and I really think that having a strong music foundation can only be a positive thing for young students.

-Nyla Mawire (CFA’25) BM Tuba Performance

The prize left Mawire in shock. She stood on a small platform along with the other Kahn Award finalists and listened as Young described each worthy endeavor and student.

“I was super impressed by everyone,” she says. “I was in good company, and knew that even if I didn’t win, I was among so many people who obviously deserved the prize.” When Young announced her name, “it almost didn’t feel real,” she says. “In some ways, it still doesn’t.”