Carefully crafted works by music composition students will be the centerpiece of a recital Thursday night, presenting pieces that have been in progress since at least the beginning of the semester.
The recital is a chance for the composition students, consisting of both graduates and undergraduates, to showcase their work in front of an audience, something that Mark Phillips, professor of music composition & electronic music, said is invaluable for learning composers.
“Many composers are writing for an audience, writing for people who want to say something, so (the recital) gives them that chance,” he said. “Students want to get their music in front of their peers … Now is the time to share and get that sort of feedback (from an audience).”
Audience members will be exposed to many different styles of music throughout the program, from the unorthodox percussion instruments of Turner Matthews, a junior, to a poem sang over piano composed by Kaitrin McCoy, a senior, to a string octet written by Gregory Heaphy.
Sam Ferris, a second-year masters student who has two compositions in the recital, including one with a flute being processed by live electronic elements, said the recital was an opportunity to understand the music he has written by watching somebody else perform it.
“(The recital) is a lot different of an experience … it is very much rooted in the live performance aspect, the fact that you have to go to the concert hall and actually see the music and feel it rather than listening through headphones,” Ferris said. “There is risk to it.”
Cathy Yeh, a fellow second year masters student who has a solo performed on tenor trombone by visiting trombone professor Sarah Paradis, said the risk involved with live music is what influences her to write several variations of her compositions.
“The original I wrote for bass trombone because the tenor trombone couldn’t do some really low notes … I just changed some little things so that it became fit for tenors. There are different notes and techniques,” Yeh said.
Phillips said this kind of learning and thinking is the goal of the recital for his students.
“You learn more by doing, than by me telling me something. So they learn more by finishing the piece … saying ‘ok, now let’s do this’ and put it in front of an audience,” Phillips said.
ds834910@ohiou.edu
