Graduate Composers Out and About

Composers and YOCA Flute Choir
Photo by James A. Marshall

The local paper, The Daily Progress, billed it as “Flutists premiere UVa composers’ works”. Sounds like another town and gown collaboration, but it was much, much more than that! It was about expanding TJ’s Academical Village experiment to East Main and beyond, exciting the mind and engaging an even younger student wherever he and in this case, also she, happens to be! As Wayla Chambo, director of the Youth Orchestras of Charlottesville Albermarle (YOCA) Flute Ensemble, stated, “With this project I wanted to bring together two of my great loves: playing new music and working with young people. I have found the experience of working in collaboration with composers extremely rewarding, and it's an opportunity I didn't have until graduate school. I thought, wouldn't it be great if I could offer my flute ensemble that chance now, while they're in high school and some still even in middle school? I hoped to expand my students' musical horizons, give them the experience of learning some new techniques, work with ‘real, living composers’ and give us some great new repertoire to explore.”

Wayla had previously worked with Steve Kemper, UVA McIntire Department of Music graduate student and they approached Aurie Hsu and Lanier Sammons to collaborate. All three composers wrote original music for the YOCA Flute Ensemble, attended the flute ensembles rehearsals, which are held on the Pantops side of town on land once owned by Jefferson. They described their ideas and inspirations and made suggestions and changes on the spot with the young flutists. They so inspired this group, that one of the members, Anna Russell, a junior at Charlottesville High School, also composed a piece that was performed at McGuffey Art Center, Sunday, May 3, 2009.

The famous phrase by Chinese philosopher, Chuang Tzu, "I do not know whether I was then a man dreaming I was a butterfly, or whether I am now a butterfly dreaming I am a man" inspired Aurie Hsu to write “Les Papillons et Les Rêves” (Butterflies and Dreams). Aurie remembering what it felt like to be a teenager said, "This piece is based on my imaginations of sitting in a butterfly house as a child. The timbres of the flutes seem well suited to reflect this imagery. I hoped to portray a youthful, light and whimsical quality in the music."

Steve Kemper had the River in mind, not the Moldau, but the Rivanna, or as he called his composition, “River Anna”. Steve was considering “…the interactions between Virginia's Monocan Indians and the colonial world of Thomas Jefferson set against the backdrop of the timeless nature of the river itself. Through passages of static chords and linear motion, ‘River Anna’ sonically represents the flow of this river and the history of the people it has sustained.”

Lanier spent his winter of composition on the road and experienced all sorts of weather from the New England coast to UK to Florida beaches and expressed the various forms winter could take in his music. “Three Winters”.

Anna’s "Sans Nuages" (without clouds) was written as a compilation of several melodic ideas, the first of which was composed at the Piedmont Regonal Science Fair while waiting for the judges. The entire range of the flute is explored in this piece which uses the timbres of four flutes to create harmonies that move from a jazz-inspired sound to a more pastoral one. Anna said “…the initial scene is of a flutist who stands up in a smoky jazz bar and starts playing, defying all stereotypes and expectations. She finds her way out of the clouds of smoke and through the smog and bustle of the big city. Finally, she emerges in the pristine countryside, catching a much-needed breath of fresh air -- without any clouds in sight.”

The May 3rd “A Premiere Performance” was videotaped and may show up on You-Tube. Jefferson’s Academical Village has gone global with music as its international language and music still as a favorite passion of the soul!