The SUNY New Paltz Music Department presented Visions and Variations, a student composition concert, on April 30, at 7:30 p.m. in Studley Theatre. The concert featured 12 compositions, including “Girasole di Laura” by Elizabeth Distefano, “In Your Presence” by Carmen Costello, “Untitled” by Matt Hoffman, “Alba Luttusa” by Julian Slavin, “Will You Be Mine” by Daniel Aguilar, “Das Ornaments” by Logan Parmerter, “Moments” by Greg Hakobian-Leone, “Art of Growing Up” by Xandira Allen, “Early Bird” by Enzi Pascarella, “Hidden Hues” by Ryan Diener, “Daughter of Asmodeus” by Sarah Taxter and “Lighter” by Vince Mandracchia.
“It’s been amazing to watch the composition students start from scratch, with just a rough idea, and see them develop a personal voice and create a finished piece,” said Phyllis Chen, assistant professor of theory and composition as well as the event organizer. “The process is quite rewarding as you see their ideas gather together and become realized and played by themselves with their peers.”
The concert showcased individual works by student composers taking applied composition lessons or in the composition seminar course. The styles ranged from jazz fusions, to experimental electronic genres, to classical works with aggressive and provocative modern dissonances, to a Persian-influenced style piano accompaniment for a 1919 silent short animated film.
“Being my first major composition and something I’ve been working on for the whole of the spring semester, naturally this piece has become very important to me,” Parmerter, a third-year music major, said about his piece, “Das Ornaments.” “Learning and playing a piece you enjoy is rewarding, but the feeling of accomplishment that comes with creating something of your own that you enjoy just as much is even more amazing. As a musician, I am not one to really sing my own praises and often have feelings of imposter syndrome amongst my peers. However, this piece has really gifted me a creative freedom to mess around with my favorite instrument in ways I never have, and create something I feel very proud of.
“I often tell my students that being open-minded and open to new experiences is probably the most essential prerequisite to studying composition,” said Chen. “These varied experiences and projects open up our minds and ears to other ways of approaching music. By stopping to listen and think about something we otherwise wouldn’t do, we are trying to understand a perspective or approach that is different than our own. I think this essential value and attitude couldn’t be more important in our current world.”
For example, last spring, Chen traveled to Southern Taiwan to learn to play the Paiwanese nose flute, an Indigenous Paiwanese instrument historically only played by men. However, as all the elders of the tribe have passed on, the culture-bearer for the instrument is now Sauniaw, the first registered female nose flute player, who now keeps the tradition alive by teaching people outside of the tribe and Indigenous Paiwanese children at local schools. “One of the most radical things I learned in our interaction together is how deeply music and people are connected,” Chen shared. “In fact, she doesn’t call Paiwanese songs music, but simply an inevitable expression of her culture and people. I know I want to encourage that same personal authentic expression in composition.”
“Composition is a place where we process many of our ideas, inspirations and personal experiences and intuitively translate them into music,” Chen added. “There’s a lot of music to be made out there, but I encourage my students to focus on experimenting with new ideas and reflecting on what feels most authentic to them.”
The result of this is a melting pot of diverse musical genres, instruments, sounds and experiences over the course of the concert, each piece entirely unique and significant to the student composer.
“Composition is important to me because it helps me portray emotions, as well as giving me a creative outlet to release my energy,” said Taxter, a fourth-year music major. “I’m neurodivergent, and for me, listening to and playing music is one of my biggest stims.” This allows her to embody her own authentic identity.
This search for authenticity, as well as collaboration were at the heart of the process. The fact that the concert rounded up nearly 30 performers is a real testament to how much the student population loves to play music together. At one point in the night, students worked so closely together to perform a composition that a pair of grand pianos had two to three students crowded around each to play. Next semester, the music department will be debuting its first Composer New Music Ensemble course on campus, so even more collaboration opportunities are on the horizon.
“My favorite part about studying here is how communal the music-making experience is,” Slavin, a third-year composition major said. “Everyone is so eager to share knowledge and work on pieces together.”
Parmerter agreed, “I can’t say enough how fortunate I feel to have ended up at SUNY New Paltz and to have met the people that have steered me in the right direction. I firmly believe that each and every one of those experiences has influenced the way my own composition turned out and will undoubtedly continue to have a lasting impact on the way I write and think about music for the rest of my life,” he said.
With several student composers featured in the concert graduating, many are looking to continue their exploration, wherever life brings them. “I’m not totally sure what I want to do after graduation,” Pascarella said. “But, I plan to continue composing and performing no matter what occupation I choose.” The message is clear: composition is a way of existing in the world and making sense of the human experience, authentically, collaboratively and fluidly.