Roughly seven years ago, Max Keller, chair of the Department of Music, started the now annual Composers Concert at Andrews University. The concert allows composers on the campus to showcase their talents on stage by choosing one of their original pieces and gathering a group of students to perform it for the audience. This year, the concert will take place on Sunday, March 8, at 4 p.m., at the Howard Performing Arts Center.
Keller explained that the concert is “a good experience for the composer to understand more what an instrument can do—and what it’s like to set up rehearsals, answer questions, all that kind of thing.” Through this concert, the composers are able to learn what is required to adjust music based on the performers’ feedback. The concert is not just for music composition majors, but also for any other composer at Andrews University who wishes to have their work performed.
Composer Bethany Hawkins (sophomore, music composition) agreed with Keller on the benefits and challenges of working with real musicians. She explained that rehearsals with the musicians are often challenging for her.
“As a composer, there's an idea of what you want the song to sound like…when working with performers you kind of re-compose the songs, either so that the sound you want is there or so that it's attainable for the performers,” she said.
Working with real musicians and real instruments forces the composers to look at their work in a new light and adjust to achieve the sound they are aiming for. She composed a piece titled “Questions” for violin and piano that will be performed by Yohance Mack and Aiyana Ybarra. Though she does not remember how long it took her to compose the piece, she said: “There's aspects of it that I did all at once, then some details that I've been editing even a year after I ‘completed’ it,” ensuring that all the details were just how she wanted them to be.
David Angelo Suralta (sophomore, music composition) said that hearing his piece come to life through the performer has given it more depth and meaning than ever before. Titled “Huni sa Gugma” (Melody of Love), his piece will be performed by pianist Derek Joseph Inapan. The piece took Suralta a little under four months to complete.
“The inspiration behind the piece was my desire to explore how love can be portrayed through music. I wanted to capture its emotional journey, the ups and downs, the tenderness, the intensity and the vulnerability that comes with it,” he said.
Suralta was able to experiment with harmonic colors, textures, and melodic gestures through the process of composing his piece to “reflect these shifting emotions.”
Kayla Garnett, Kurt Dela Paz, Hannah Perez, Oscar Flores and Jonathan Clough will perform a piece by Devanee Williams (junior, music composition) titled “For Better or for Worse.” Williams was inspired by a melody that was stuck in her head. She said, “in order to get it out, I decided to turn it into a song.” The piece took her three weeks to compose.
Williams stated “It has been a joy to work with each of these performers, and I cannot wait for everyone to see what has been put together!”
Daniel Henry Saturne’s Saxophone Quintet No. 1: “Explore” will be performed by Vladimir Puzanov, Barnaby Gichana, Isaiah Scaffidi, Matthew Bourne and Chantel Blackburn. Saturne (sophomore, computer science and music) said that he wrote this piece as part of an endeavor to write more for small ensembles, and that the theme stemmed from a couple of pieces that he had written earlier on adventure and exploration. He pointed out that the hardest part of preparing for this concert has been organizing rehearsal times for the ensemble despite everyone’s busy schedules. Despite that struggle, Saturne said that it has “been a lot of fun, and super rewarding hearing notes on a page come to life.”
The concert is free and no tickets are required. More information can be found on the Howard Performing Arts Center’s website.
The Student Movement is the official student newspaper of Andrews University. Opinions expressed in the Student Movement are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the opinions of the editors, Andrews University or the Seventh-day Adventist church.