Student blogger: Alex Johnson, class of 2012
The saying “be careful what you wish for” has been a big factor in my senior year of college. Film composing was always something that I wanted to experiment with while at Lawrence, and this year I went from wanting to dabble in film composing to being offered an opportunity to compose an original film score for the Lawrence Symphony Orchestra, which they were to perform on a major concert that Maestro David Becker would conduct live to picture. Despite my lack of experience in composing for film, I said—exclaimed—“YES!”
I knew from the beginning that many challenges would present themselves. Luckily, I had a six-week winter break during which I could compose the score to filmmaker Rachel Crowl’s portrait of Lawrence, A Place Transformed. I saw this opportunity not only as an exercise in artistic discipline, but as a peek into the life of a professional composer. I established a daily composing routine and finished a draft score early enough to receive feedback from Professors Sturm, Metcalf and Becker. I returned to campus in January with a completed score. Attending the orchestral rehearsals was unbelievable; for a composer, there is no greater feeling than hearing your music played for the first time by eighty expert musicians. At the concert, anticipation and excitement overflowed as the LSO captured the audience’s attention with their expressive playing to the film.
I learned many different things from this experience, but the most important was just how much I love to compose music. It strengthened my already strong passion for composing and gave me the confidence that I could become a professional composer. So, be careful what you wish for, because if you get it, it may end up being one of the greatest experiences of your life.
Listen to the music for the film A Place Transformed:
Our good friends in the Lawrence Symphony Orchestra will play the music of student composer Alexander Johnson ’12 in their February 3 LSO Goes to the Movies concert. The orchestra will perform Alex’s film score A Place Transformed live to picture at 8:00 p.m. in Lawrence Memorial Chapel. Alex has promised to write a blog post for us after the event about the process of composing the music and collaborating with filmmaker Rachel Crowl. In the meantime, you can join us on Friday night for the live webcast—or if you can’t make it then, a stream of the concert will be posted on the webcast page shortly thereafter.
We have great collaborative partnerships with our large ensembles, including Lawrence Symphony Orchestra, Lawrence Wind Ensemble and the Lawrence Choirs.
It was an honor for IGLU (Improvisation Group of Lawrence University) to perform with Pauline Oliveros and Stuart Dempster on the Deep Listening Band concert this past Saturday evening. IGLU performed Oliveros’s One Hundred Meeting Places, and Dempster’s Milandra Embracing. One Hundred Meeting Places was a challenge because it required all performers to improvise using extreme dynamics and articulations. As Pauline emphatically told us, no mezzo forte allowed! IGLU members were quickly reminded how difficult it is to perform an extremely short sound. Milandra Embracing provided directions for creating an improvisation and was performed with dancers Rebecca Salzer and Jeff Wallace. What a thrill to perform with these masters of composition and improvisation!
IGLU is an ensemble dedicated to improvising in various musical styles, including rock, contemporary classical, Arabic taqasim, klezmer, jazz, and electronic music. Transcending boundaries, IGLU draws from the innovations of specific composers as well as from specific improvisational techniques. All music is learned by ear or created by members of IGLU. Our next concert is Sunday, November 13, at 8:00 p.m. in Harper Hall and will feature improvisations in a wide range of styles. Future IGLU plans include improvisations set to the silent film The Great White Silence and performances with dancers from the studio of professor Rebecca Salzer.
We’re happy to welcome the Deep Listening Band to Lawrence this week. It will be great to have Stuart Dempster back for a return visit, and we’re excited to meet Pauline Oliveros this time around. Stuart and Pauline will be working with IGLU (Improvisation Group of Lawrence University), and Pauline will meet with composition students for a master class on Saturday. Find details of the Band’s public performances over on the New Music at Lawrence blog.
IGLU director Matt Turner (on cello, right) in concert
Your composition faculty have been hard at work over the past year releasing CDs, winning prestigious international prizes, and more… Asha Srinivasan won the Ruam Samai Award for Dviraag at the Thailand International Composition Festival, and was commissioned to compose Shadja-maalika: Modal Illusions for a consortium of nine CBDNA wind ensembles. Joanne Metcalf’sO Shining Light was released on the CD Carmina Celtica by Scottish ensemble Canty; International Record Review called O Shining Light “extraordinarily beautiful.” IGLU director and cellist Matt Turner released his CD To the Moon, had publications of several works by Carl Fischer and Alfred, and guest taught jazz, rock, and improvisation at Duquesne University. And David Dies released his solo CD, agevolmente, on the Albany Records contemporary music label.
Composition at Lawrence will be especially exciting this year. We will host the Society for Electro-Acoustic Music in the United States (SEAMUS) National Conference February 9-11, 2012. Lawrence University will provide its excellent facilities and resources for the conference, and the co-hosts will be Lawrence music composition professor Asha Srinivasan and Ed Martin of our neighbor UW – Oshkosh’s music composition program. Please visit us on the SEAMUS 2012 website for details on works submissions, the ASCAP/SEAMUS Student Composer Commissioning Program, travel and lodging, conference registration, and the conference schedule.
Frequent composition collaborators: Lawrence University Saxophone Quartet
Having one’s music heard and appreciated is the greatest reward of being a composer. I have been very fortunate to have many performances and recordings of my works here at Lawrence. Of my thirty-three completed works, twenty have been performed or recorded at Lawrence, some in selected movements, but most in their entirety.
While some of this success was due to my persistence, most of it is due to the willingness of Lawrence performers to play and premiere new works. Not only are performers in the Conservatory willing to take on new music, but they bring all of their artistry, skill, and effort into performing new compositions, which not only makes for a good performance or recording, but brings new ideas for interpretation to the composer.
By far my most successful experience with performers has been with the Lawrence University Saxophone Quartet, who asked me to write Black Waters. Not only is the quartet a fine group of musicians who perform the piece at a professional level, but they have performed it three times at Lawrence. They will perform it a fourth time on the Commencement Concert in June, an honor that they earned by audition.
I have learned many important lessons by working with Lawrence performers, but the most important one is to enter every rehearsal and coaching with an open mind. Making music is a collaboration, and while your own interpretation of your work is very important, a great performer can bring new ideas and suggestions that will take your piece to the next level.
Black Waters played by the LU Saxophone Quartet:
Evan Michael Williams is a fifth-year composition major from Matteson, IL. He will begin graduate studies in composition at Bowling Green State University in August.
Ten compositions/albums I’ve been listening to (in no particular order):
1. Luciano Cilio: Dell’ Universo Assente
2. Alfred Schnittke: Life with an Idiot
3. Sofia Gubaidulina: Quasi hoquetus
4. John Zorn: Naked City
5. Frank Zappa: Zappa in New York
6. Toru Takemitsu: Rain Tree Sketch (I & II)
7. Henry Flynt: You are My Everlovin’
8. Brian Eno: Music for Airports (Bang on a Can All-Stars)
9. Aphex Twin: Richard D. James Album
10. Talk Talk: Laughing Stock
I just want to mention that not enough people listen to Luciano Cilio’s Dell’ Universo Assente. It was discovered a couple of years ago by the producer Jim O’Rourke, and I think that most people have never heard of it. It is really a stunning collection of music (listen to Primo Quadro da Della Conoscenza and you will see what I mean). One of my favorites.
… and I humbly include an example of some of my own work:
Mit silbernen sohlen for Solo Alto Voice and Piano
My name is Diana Sussman and I study composition, voice, and percussion at Lawrence University. I began looking into colleges early and made my first round of visits after my sophomore year of high school. I had heard how important it is to actually see a campus and get a feel for the students, and [...]
Electronic music composition is an important field in today’s composition arena and a growing area of study at Lawrence. The Lawrence Electronic Music Studio, designed for composers, has state-of-the-art studio equipment along with a Macintosh computer with Digital Performer, Reason, Max/MSP, Sibelius, Finale and other music software installed. The studio also has several top quality [...]
Last year our featured electronic music guest artist was Sonict Duo (Matt Sintchak, saxophones and Jeff Herriott, electronics). During their two-day residency Matt and Jeff presented a stunning multimedia concert, met with our composition studio class, led an electronic music workshop and met informally with composition students. It was inspiring for us to hear—and see—Sonict [...]
The Composers of Lawrence University (CLU) is a student-run organization that has taken on many forms since its inception. This year, in pursuit of its mission to support and promote composition, performance, and understanding of new music, we decided to compile an anthology of student scores. The anthology, Stretto, was entirely conceived by CLU members [...]
Professors Joanne Metcalf and Asha Srinivasan and the composers of Lawrence University Conservatory of Music welcome you! We created this blog to share the excitement of composition at Lawrence with young composers everywhere. Find music by our students and recent graduates in the Listen category and music by faculty on the Faculty page.
