First-Year Music Major Gives Socially Distant Serenades
First-year music major and guitarist Will Chant and his band Rose Avenue — pictured above — have performed more than 40 socially distant serenades in the past two weeks, raising over $3000! The group's members — past and present students from La Canada High School — are using some of the money to complete a record album. They are donating anything else they earn to feedingamerica.org. The group typically performs for two households each evening. Check out the ABC7 news story with video.
Music Major Releases Song
Sheridan Liaw and Edmond McGinley
In January, music major Sheridan Liaw released her first song, titled “Run Away,” to the public on all music streaming platforms. Music major Edmond McGinley and physics major Michael Haneman assisted her with the recording and production.
“I wrote ʻRun Away’ last spring when I was going through a hard time in my life,” Liaw said. “Singing and songwriting is the best way that I can express my emotions, and I hope others can interpret and connect to my songs in their own way. I learned so much about production and collaboration working with Edmond and Michael. It would be great to work with them again. After I graduate, I plan to have a career that involves songwriting, whether in music therapy or performance.”
“Collaboration is key to making a vision or goal come to fruition,” said McGinley. “The process itself is so exhilarating and educational. You continuously learn throughout the process and gather different phrases of music language and start to mesh them together. Completing a project gives me — and everyone involved — a jolt of inspiration and encouragement to continue the process, which soon starts to become second nature.”
Composition Forum
Composition Forum hosted Dale Trumbore
for a virtual presentation on May 19
Composition Forum is a new club that is dedicated to learning about music composition. It provides resources for students to compose and perform new music, analyze and discuss compositions, explore potential careers and foster a sense of community. The forum grew from the vision of two music majors: Davis Zamboanga and Kent Giese. They wanted music majors interested in composition to gather informally and share ideas. Its 10 members have delved into the complexities of Beethoven's Ninth Symphony and tried composing for a solo instrument. Zamboanga is club president, Nico Borst is vice president, Davis Lerner is treasurer, and Anya Restivo is secretary. Composition Forum is open to all majors and skill levels. During winter quarter the club had weekly meetings in the Davidson Music Center that covered a range of interests including video game music, classical music, pop music, performances and recitals. During spring quarter the club is meeting via Zoom, and has even more presentations than last quarter, such as introducing the basics of some instruments to help with composing for those instruments, going over music software programs, and a few guest speakers. There are still composition projects, but to present them, members must record their parts beforehand instead of sightreading on the spot. There are also listen and discuss meetings about compositions.
On May 19, Dale Trumbore was a guest speaker. She is a composer and writer who is passionate both about composing music and writing about music. She looks to how poetry and music can work together, striving to take the text from living poets and writers. She also writes about working through artistic struggles and has published a book about this, titled "Staying Composed: Overcoming Anxiety and Self-Doubt Within a Creative Life."