Since the fall, I have had the pleasure of working with ÆPEX Contemporary Performance to produce and present a concert of music by living, diverse composers. I am the only “white” male composer on the program. This concert is today and you should either come or live stream it.
I present two arguments for supporting this project. 1.) diversity across experiences is more important than ever, and 2.) your ear needs to be challenged, and this music will challenge you.
Diversity.
In this political climate, diversity is a subject that keeps coming up. Regardless of your political leanings, the world is getting smaller and more mixed up. To assume you can avoid interactions with someone outside of your race, religion, socio-economic class, etc.- is to live in a bubble. Future generations need to be able to handle this, and this starts now. Part of the awareness of diversity comes from intentional inclusion. For my line of work, this is intentional inclusion within the arts.
If we want the arts to continue–meaning we have a continuation of audience, and a continuation of creators and performers–then we must cultivate artists that reflect the population around us. If we want contemporary classical music to reach more people, let’s start by presenting an actual snapshot of the people making this music. It’s not just white dudes, despite the majority of composer you will find as the “composer of the day” at the Society of Composers, and other such traditional organizations.
Our concert Something to Hunt features two women composers, an African American composer, a Mexican composer, and myself, the white male composer. We are not always defined by our gender and race, but statistics (and my day to day work interactions) show that we still move through our world with a white-male-dominated lens. Simply presenting and purposefully showcasing a diverse group of artists gives the audience a real slice of who makes up the classical contemporary music scene. It also gives future generations the ability to see themselves doing these things.
Your Ears Need to be Challenged.
Like any art form, the sounds of new music will most often challenge the ear. Tonight’s concert is no exception. The opening piece by Matthew Evan Taylor is a duet for saxophone and bass clarinet, boisterous and groovy, and will disrupt your evening. Follow that with a piece for solo violist by composer and friend Cassandra Kaczor. Then the most harmonic and soothing pieces appear on the program, the world premiere of my “glass studies” for solo piano. Consider this my gift to your ears. After intermission, we reach into the mind of Edgar Barroso who begins his piece with the instrumentalists’ making noise with anything BUT their instruments. Gestures and shapes abound, but it’s not your normal listening experience. The program will end with Ashley Fure’s “Something to Hunt,” a piece that is far more interested in timbre and effect than anything pertaining to melody and harmony.
Most of the time, we go out to be entertained. This program will do that, as the sounds you hear are so unusual they will captivate, but they never labor on. However, tonight’s program will also invite you to contemplate the titles, the sounds, and the meaning of what you are listening to and why you are here. This exercise of questioning is just as important as breathing, and will hopefully allow you to create an inner dialogue with yourself–dancing around the sounds you like and the sounds you don’t and why.
Tickets here. [K-College Faculty & Students Free, Students $5, $10 all other]
8pm, Dalton Theater, Kalamazoo College.
Live-streamed here: ÆPEX Contemporary Performance
and if tech goes well here: Adam Schumaker’s YouTube
