Music composition students to give recital tonight
USC’s School of Music is about to give audiences something they have never heard before.
Music composition students have been preparing all semester to showcase their original pieces in the first “New Voices” concert of the year, which will be held tonight at 7:30 p.m. in the School of Music Recital Hall .
This free concert is open to the public and will include 20 student composers from USC’s School of Music who have chosen about 30 music students to perform their original pieces.
The night will showcase everything from piano and solo guitar to instruments a little more unique.
“There will be a wide variety of music,” said Isaac Brockshus, the “New Voices” graduate assistant and composer.
Brockshus said the audience will hear orchestral and vocal compositions as well as unusual mixes of instruments and purely electronic sounds.
The instruments used in these originals are only half of what the composers want to give to the audience.
Brockshus explained that the students drew inspiration from all kinds of influences, even ancient and mythical ones.
For third-year featured composer Jude Alanna Fox, these influences also included Disney movies.
“It started when my sister asked for help on a paper about the mythical hero Hercules,” said Fox, adding that “Hercules” is one of her favorite Disney movies.
From the research about Hercules, Fox said she then learned about the 17 stages every hero in literature goes through.
Fox, who has composed vocal pieces in the past, put five of these stages to music to create a series of miniature compositions that will be performed by a woodwind orchestra. This is the first orchestral piece she has ever composed.
Inspiration from personal experiences is also a prominent theme among the composers.
“They’ve created some really personal, intimate pieces,” Brockshus said.
As personal as the compositions are, Brockshus added that when the composers were creating their pieces, they did have a set of limitations because they are not the ones performing the pieces.
“You always compose with the performer in mind,” said fourth-year music composition student and “New Voices” composer Simms Oliphant.
Oliphant has composed a five-minute flute and piano piece and said she created a great relationship with her performers, fourth-year flutist Caroline Beard and graduate pianist Lindsey Vickers, which was helpful in the composition process.
“They can give you really good feedback,” Oliphant said. “They can tell you whether something sounds wrong or if something is unplayable.”
Oliphant, who hopes to go on to graduate school for film composition, said the “New Voices” concert is a great chance for everyone to showcase what they have been working on all semester.
Almost every other major in the music school, except music composition, gives students long solo recitals.
“This is our recital,” Fox said. “And it’s important to come and support us.”