A4TY: Album for the Young, Volume 1.
Sunday, 7 May at 2:00 p.m.
David Greer Recital Hall.
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A4TY:
Album for the Young
by Kevin Shihoten
“Wait, could you please stop?” Politely, Abby Miller,
age nine, halts rehearsal for some last minute score revisions in
her violin duo, Fire of the Waves. “There’s a measure
missing,” she realizes, correcting the score in front of violinists
Lina Dabhour and Nina Wade, ages nine and ten. Written in collaboration
with close friend ten-year-old Annie Rose Fidoten, the work is slated
for its premier in May at Bloomingdale’s Student New Music Project,
A4TY: Album for the Young. “No, it got cut off when it
was photocopied!” exclaims Ms. Fidoten, relieved.
Having received scores only two days earlier, Ms. Dabhour and Ms.
Wade are actually at ease in their first rehearsal with the composers
themselves present, their rapport so organic you’d think they
were sisters. But until today, they’d only seen each other occasionally
in the hallway. “This is our first time playing together—and
really talking together,” says Dabhour.
“I think A4TY will be a first for many students—and
first experiences are always exciting,” affirms piano
faculty member Katy Luo. One of three faculty coordinators of the
event, Ms. Luo led the beginning of the Student New Music Project
last year. Unlike its inception, this year’s will include student
works.
An alumna of UC Berkeley’s Young Musicians Program, Luo became
accustomed to playing student works early on. Through the program,
known for its comprehensive, across-the-board approach to music education,
she was encouraged to study composition. “In high school, the
concept of premiering your friend’s piece was already very normal
to me,” she says. “I’ve always been interested in
teaching new music to my students, but found little repertoire in
beginner to intermediate levels.” The sentiment resonating with
her colleagues, faculty members Janey Choi and Matthew Gold joined
forces this year with Luo in running the Student New Music Project.
“I have long felt there is a lack of really good music for an
ensemble that is at a level somewhere between young students and college
age,” says Mr. Gold, director of BSM’s Percussion Ensemble,
which commissioned two works last year. “There is a lot of percussion
music about which I am really passionate, but which is maybe too difficult
for an ensemble of this level.”
Adult composers can be reluctant when offered commissions intended
for young performers, fearing stylistic compromise. “Most are
very concerned that in simplifying their language, their voice won’t
speak,” says Luo, who feels such writing is a challenge, requiring
an incisive sense of one’s style and vernacular. “You
have to ask yourself, ‘can I write an easy five-minute piece?’”
This year, in addition to adult commissions, Gold suggested inclusion
of student compositions. Luo made a call for scores and posters were
put up in December 2005.
One night, Fidoten felt inspired and wrote Fire of the Waves
for solo violin, finishing past her bedtime. She showed it to her
teacher, BSM violin faculty member Emiko Shinozaki, who suggested
her good friend Abby Miller write a second part. Ms. Shinozaki guided
them and the two girls were on their way. |
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Left to right, Lina Dabhour, Nina Wade, Abby Miller,
Annie Rose Fidoten
Collaboration has been a breeze, as both were a chamber
duo in their first semester of String Training Ensemble. “We’ve
been friends for about two years now, and we know each other very
well,” says Fidoten. “It was a lot of fun making it together.”
Seeing Luo’s posters and enticed by the opportunity to have
their piece premiered, the pair handed in their work.
“The response was overwhelming,” says Gold. BSM students’
friends who accompanied them to school wished they could apply. “I
even had parents writing music but had to reject them…because
they aren’t kids,” Luo says.
Anticipating their first premier, Fidoten and Miller are ecstatic
and look forward being listeners free from any performance anxiety.
“I think it’ll be like a walk in the park, except for
the players,” says Fidoten, comparing her role to the performers’.
“Yeah, although the piece really isn’t that hard,”
Miller adds.
But the work’s accessibility is a plus for players Dahbour and
Wade, for whom A4TY will be their first chamber music performance.
Both sometime prefer their peers’ works to those more conventional.
“They’re more kid-friendly,” explains Wade. Adds
Dabhour, “Mozart has more complicated rhythms.”
Performers can consult with the student composers directly should
technical issues arise, and “not just their teacher, their book,
Google,” says Luo, who feels most students aren’t aware
that classical music is still alive and developing. “It’s
important for them to know that classical music isn’t just Beethoven,
Bach, and Mozart.”
In addition to works by 13 BSM student composers, A4TY will
feature music by established composers Dennis Desantis, Colin McGrath,
and Frederic Rzewski, who was commissioned to write a work—entitled
No More War, an eight-part round for 24 voices—especially
for BSM students. The event will also be the first student-centered
Internet Concert Project (ICP). Check out www.bsmny.org for the
ICP site after the concert. |
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