The Wired Ensemble -Instruments, Voices, Players

Catalog description

Three concurrent streams comprise The Wired Ensemble: 1) composition and performance of original works for instruments and voices; 2) development of a "Composer's Tool Chest"; and 3) musical analysis and reflection. As composers and performers, students concentrate on instruments, voices, and the symbolic language that brings them to life. They compose music for every family of instruments (woodwinds, brass, strings, percussion), as well as voice and spoken word. The course features biweekly performances of original compositions. Students also have the opportunity to hear their works performed in concert settings by professional and peer musicians with whom they have collaborated. Seminar trips to Boston and New York enable the class to gather musical and inspirational material, in addition to hearing some of the finest orchestral and vocal ensembles in concert. While actively engaged in composition and performance-all geared to an end-of-term production-students examine the worlds of earlier composers in order to provide context for their own lives and work. "