I am beyond excited to have been a special guest at Northern Illinois University’s Festival of New Music, with an emphasis on connections from Chicago for their twelfth annual festival, which took place November 6-8, 2024. It was in fact like a mini-residency and I spent three days in DeKalb, IL, meeting students and faculty members and getting to know what a fantastic, supportive environment they have created in their School of Music.
Wednesday began with the NIU Philharmonic rehearsing my piece, Emome, for orchestra. I wrote this piece as a commission in 2021, and am thrilled that it received its third (and fourth) performances by the student orchestra, under the masterful direction of Silas Huff. I got to speak with the students and tell them a bit about the background of the piece and work with them on their interpretation.
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Wednesday evening was Concert #1. I played a short piece by Marc Mellits with percussionist extraordinaire Greg Beyer, who in fact is the wonderful person who put this whole festival together and also who invited me to take part. After that, I got to introduce my piece, Mi-Mi, for vocal ensemble, written in honor of my late grandmother. The NIU Chamber Singers, under direction of Eric Johnson, did a wonderful job bringing this piece to life, which I hadn’t heard live in a number of years. Thank you, Eric and company!
You can watch the entire concert here: (Music starts at 10:48). Click here for the concert program.
Thursday, I was honored to speak at the All-School Convocation, along with my fellow Guest Artists, Jonathan Hannau and Kyle Flens, who together make up the Flannau Duo. We spoke about our experiences moving to Chicago and what a wonderful community we have in the Chicago New Music scene.
After that I got to spend a class period with the Choral Arranging class, and spoke with the students a little more about my background, my inspiration, my process as a composer, and how I make my way in the music world. The students were lovely to meet and asked insightful and thoughtful questions. Many thanks again to Professor Eric Johnson for inviting me to his class!
Thursday evening’s concert was incredibly inspiring, The Flannau Duo and I played 9 works by student composers on the first half of the program. I cannot say enough about how imaginative, creative, and unique these student pieces were. It was an honor to be able to work with the composers, give them feedback, and premiere their pieces. The second half of the concert featured “The Abundance Project” which on this evening comprised works by jazz professor Geoff Bradfield and Greg Beyer’s own composition Amen(ding) Thirteen: A Sign of Abundance. The jazz ensemble was fabulous and had a lot of music for thumb piano which I particularly enjoyed. It was a special highlight for me to be able to hear Greg’s piece for a second time. Not only is Amen(ding) Thirteen an excellent piece of music, I find it to be truly inspirational in its origin and its manifestation, and it literally gets people dancing onstage. The good news is that you can listen for yourself!
(music starts at 16:00, with speaking before that). Click here for concert program.
Friday morning brought a piano masterclass led by me and Jonathan Hannau. We listened to four fabulous student pianists play music from Bach to Bolcom and gave them some feedback and tips to use in their future studies. The students were wonderful to work with and their professor, William Goldenberg was very gracious in sharing his students with us.
Friday afternoon was a visit to David Maki’s Composition Seminar class, where I once again got to speak with the students and get a little more into detail about my compositional ideas, processes and works. At this point I was starting to recognize many of their faces and once again I found all the students to be so engaged, interested, and curious. I was so touched to see that composition faculty Brian Penkrot and Band Director Tom Bough also came to hear me speak. It was lovely to share a bit about my music with all these wonderful people.
Friday evening was our final concert. The Flannau Duo played an impressive set which really showcased their skills and their easy rapport with each other in their collaboration. They featured a premiere of a piece by NIU composition faculty Brian Penkrot. After them, Greg Beyer and I played a set which included music by NIY composition faculty David Maki, a second work by Mark Mellits where we were joined by Greg’s wife and partner Daphne Gerling, and finished with the Flannau Duo in a performance of David Clay Metten’s work Graft, which was a real tour de force for the four of us and so much fun to put together over the past few months.
The concert ended with a performance of my orchestral work, Emome, which was originally commissioned by the Chicago Composers’ Orchestra back in 2021. The NIU Philharmonic, under the direction of maestro Silas Huff, did an outstanding job in bringing this piece back to the stage. The piece was part of a collaboration with visual artist Susan Giles and it was wonderful to revisit the inspiration for this piece, which I was invited to talk about immediately before they played it.
Watch it all here!
Music starts at 8:00. Click here for concert program.
In summary, the Festival of New Music was an incredible experience for which I will be forever grateful to Greg Beyer and the entire staff and student body at NIU. They were so welcoming, so supportive of each other, and so interested in music in all its various forms. I came back inspired, uplifted, and energized by all the positivity music brings to the world. Thank you, NIU!
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