Contemporary Composer Recital Theme

.....from Sally's Studio

Often we concentrate on the “old masters” when it comes to performance-worthy songs.  I have recently begun to have recitals that instead highlight the music of current composers.

The first such recital featured the music of Kevin Olson.   He has written a wealth of music for pianists ranging from beginners through late intermediate and beyond.   My students love his pieces and were eager to learn more about him.   We discussed the things he did with his compositions to make them unique.  It gave me a chance to explain more about form and harmonic structure along with the aspects that made his music different from that of other composers.  For example, his Sonatina in Colors afforded the opportunity to make the sonata form a concept that they could easily understand but relate it to contemporary music.

My students were so surprised to find out that he lived in Illinois, right next to their home of Wisconsin (he has since moved to Utah)!  Our students have always performed music by composers from Europe or other “far away places” but to think that a real composer was that close and actually alive now, was very exciting to them.  In addition, I talked with Kevin and he had offered to come and speak to them.  We tried to arrange a time for that but since my schedule was so busy, we weren’t able to connect at that time.  He wrote a letter to my students that we read at the recitals. 

When our recital is featuring the music of one or two composers, I have contacted them.  They are always willing to send a message to the students which I include in the recital program.  This makes it very special and makes the composer more “real” to them.

Like many of you, we are in the process of choosing the theme for this year.  We are considering Robert Vandall music.  In addition, Bob has offered that I could send the music to him and he would autograph the students’ books and sheet music and send them back to me.  What a great memento for them!