Scholarship Benefit Concert features the Michigan premiere of Three Disparate Sisters, a vignette of poems written by Ann Arbor poet and playwright Ken Gaertner
Ann Arbor, MI May 15 Over the past year, several Ann Arbor high school students have been fitting one more activity into their lives. After orchestra rehearsal, at lunchtime, or before crew practice, these young musicians have been working on writing their very own compositions. Some focused on string orchestra pieces based on their favorite online comic, some wrote moving piano pieces dripping with nostalgia and some wrote a solo work for the instrument they play in the Pioneer orchestra program. As these young Ann Arbor composers sought to explore their musical creativity, several young people from Canada were doing the same.
Taking lessons via Skype and working on several projects over the past year, all of these young musicians are part of Chicago composer (and former Ann Arborite) Stephanie Boyd's composition studio. These aspiring composers are having their works performed next Monday, May 20th in a studio recital and benefit concert at the Kerrytown Concert House at 8:00 PM to raise money for scholarships so that they can continue taking lessons in the coming year.
Featuring works by seven composition students ages 15 to 33, the concert will also feature some of Ann Arbor's best young talent. Giancarlo Latta, a student who is performing two solo violin works at the concert, has said of working with Stephanie's students that 的t's rare for young performers like myself to have the opportunity to learn and perform a piece whose ink is still wet Other performers include former concertmaster of the Pioneer Symphony Orchestra Davis West and former principal cellist of the Michigan Youth Orchestra Nathaniel Pierce. Also participating in the concert as the Narrator in Three Disparate Sisters is Zach Hendrickson, of the Michigan Shakespeare Festival's touring company.
Three Disparate Sisters, the grand finale of the concert, was written as a collaboration between composition teacher Stephanie Boyd and popular Ann Arbor area poet and playwright Ken Gaertner. When asked about this piece that describes three very different young women, Boyd said 的 really focused on crafting the music in such a way that it would bring out the inherent beauty of the poems and give a completely unique aural picture for each sister
An up-and-coming composer and arts entrepreneur, Boyd was Composer in Residence for the Ann Arbor Pioneer High School Orchestra's 2012 Interlochen Music Camp and will be Composer in Residence this summer at the Cremona International Music Academy in Italy.
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