Annual Composers Concert showcases the musical prowess at Setnor School of Music

Get the latest Syracuse news delivered right to your inbox.
Subscribe to our newsletter here.

As Syracuse University music students shuffled into Setnor Auditorium before the start of their annual Composers Concert, nervous tension filled the air. The auditorium was filled with the sounds of clarinet, flute and saxophone players practicing.

“Part of learning about how to compose music is also having it performed, and sharing it live,” said Dr. Nicolas Scherzinger, a Setnor professor and one of the organizers for the event.

On Wednesday evening, Setnor School of Music held the Composers Concert in Crouse College’s Setnor Auditorium. The event introduced seven compositions, each written by an SU student.

The concert ran in direct correlation with composition seminar classes taught by Scherzinger, Natalie Draper and Loren Loiacono, where music composition undergraduate and graduate students gather to discuss relevant music and art topics.

Besides experience, the performances also provide recordings for students which they can use in future professional opportunities. Several composers are hoping to use the recordings from this concert in their portfolio to further their academic and artistic careers. Many students have expressed they want to submit them to scholarship festivals this summer, student composer Addison Flower said.

“Every single event like this is significant to me just because having the opportunity to hear your work played on a stage by a person is just such an incredibly special thing,” said another student composer, second-year graduate student Matthew Schlicht said.

Schlicht composed “Bones,” the program’s fourth piece, and it was performed by his friend and fellow student Holden Shea on the classical guitar. The concert showcased five of the eight movements of this piece, a microcosm of the whole set.

Jess Vann | Contributing Photographer

Student composers in the Setnor School of Music gathered Wednesday to perform original pieces. The Composers Concert was an outlet for them to share their music with faculty and friends.

Schlicht said his composition proposed some new obstacles, specifically while writing for a solo classical guitar. Through his process, Schlicht discovered that a lot of things he had written were either difficult or impossible to play on the actual instrument.

“You need to almost sit with the instrument, or someone who plays the instrument and just kind of pick their brain and see, is this kind of figuration possible?” Schlicht said. “And often the answers are long winded and you get a lot of … things are possible, but not feasible, not practical.”

Even after the four-month writing process was finished, Schlicht said he was still unsure how the piece would turn out. The creative process behind “Bones” was a fabricated image of “magical or paranormal bones that each have unique qualities,” he said.

Schlicht originally wrote the composition for Aidan Elwell, who performed it for his senior recital before graduating last year. Having his piece played again this year, by a different performer, offers an exciting, new perspective, Schlicht said.

Flower was another one of the concert’s composers. She worked with six student performers for a piece titled “On the Hill,” a woodwind quintet combining the flute, clarinet, oboe, french horn and bassoon.

“That was the real learning experience for me,” Flower said. “I learned more about what I should be writing for them, what I should be putting on the page, and how to explain it verbally.”

Flower’s composition was inspired by her typical day at SU and sitting atop Crouse Hill, not far from the concert’s venue. The piece begins with a flute, or what Flower interprets as a “bird call,” continues with the clarinet, “symbolic of grass blowing in the wind” and the French horn plays throughout, “mimicking the Westminster Chimes.”

“Working with performers you can write all of the music you want,” Flower said. “But if you write something that no one wants to play, it’s never going to get heard.”

Unlike Flower, some students also performed their compositions. Jihang Dai, a first-year Setnor graduate student, performed his piece “Reminiscences of Donghuamen Street” on the piano. Part of Dai’s process involves improvising, so he can connect with the instrument before he begins writing.

One of the reasons Scherzinger helps organize this concert is to provide students with real-world experience and encourage them to try new things before they enter the music industry. Scherzinger manages events, sets up concerts and facilitates the concert’s administrative side.

“None of this would be possible without the head of our program, Dr. Nick Scherzinger, who does so, so much for us,” Schlicht said.

Scherzinger said that the main lesson students learn through this experience is that “music making is collaborative” and, although composers write the music, the performers bring it to life.

“Having stuff performed is our bread and butter,” Schlicht said. “Music doesn’t exist unless someone is there to play it.”