Commissioning New Music to Cultivate Social Change
Invited annually, graduate schools of music present the Presser Graduate Music Award to an outstanding graduate music student whom they select. The program is designed to encourage and support in a special way the advanced education and career of truly exceptional graduate music students who have the potential to make a distinguished contribution to the field of music. The Award is a cash stipend of up to $10,000, which is made available to a graduate student designated by the institution.
Jack Thorpe received the Award in 2021-22 from the University of Illinois. For his project, he commissioned six composers, all of whom are BIPOC artists and/or members of the LGBTQIA+ community, to write solo and electroacoustic works for soprano and alto saxophone. He then performed the commissioned pieces on his saxophone and professionally recorded them to release his first album.
Background
For performers in today’s music industry, collaborating with composers to commission and perform new works is an important and fulfilling form of professional and artistic development. These collaborations not only cultivate the expansion of repertoire but can lead to career-long partnerships that foster creativity and innovation beyond the historically white, Eurocentric tradition within which most classical music still exists. As a performer of and advocate for contemporary music, one of my core values is to promote art created by those who belong to minoritized communities, and I have sought to commission pieces by underrepresented composers.
In addition to strengthening one’s professional development through these creative collaborations and commissions, it is also critical for artists to document and disseminate this work through professional recordings. These recordings serve as a digital business card for job applications, conference proposals, marketing, and networking purposes, opening the door for world class performance opportunities. Recording and promoting a professional album also exhibits the entrepreneurial skills needed for a successful career in music.
The Project and the Artists
For my project, I commissioned six composers, all of whom are BIPOC artists and/or members of the LGBTQIA+ community, to write solo and electroacoustic works for soprano and alto saxophone.
- Adeliia Faizullina (she/her) is a visually impaired Uzbekistan-born Tatar composer, vocalist, multi-instrumentalist, and Quray player. Faizullina is a PhD student in music and multi-media composition at Brown University whose works have been performed by the Seattle Symphony.
- Anthony R. Green (he/him) is a queer African American composer, performer, and social justice artist whose artistic endeavors are all lensed through the ideals of equality and freedom. He is the co-artistic director of Castle of Our Skins, a concert and education series organization dedicated to celebrating Black artistry through music, and is currently a fellow at the Berlin University of the Arts.
- Danial Derakhshan (he/him) is an Iranian composer and multidisciplinary musician based in London, Ontario whose work has been performed throughout Canada, Iran, and the United States. Since 2022, his compositional focus has revolved around exploring the intricacies of passing time, repetition, and temporal suspension, delving into the profound and evocative aspects of these concepts.
- Jung Hyun Lee (she/her) is a Korean composer and a DMA student in composition at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. Her musical interest lies in forming delicately structured sonic illusions that express the beauty emerging from the fragility of an object.
- LJ White (he/him) is a composer whose music serves ideals of direct, focused, and socially relevant expression. White currently serves as a Visiting Assistant Professor of Music at the New College of Florida. He is a proud member of the transgender community.
- Brittany J. Green (she/her) is an African American composer whose recent works engage sonification and black feminist theory as tools for sonic world-building and the exploration of the construction, displacement, and rupture of systems. Green is a PhD student in music composition at Duke University.
Workshopping, Performing, and Recording
After receiving the first drafts of each composition, I workshopped each piece with the composer by providing feedback and suggestions in the form of notational, technical, and edits. After the workshops, the composer of their respective work provided me with a final version of the score and accompanying electronics files. I have since publicly premiered each piece separately and have performed these works at conferences, universities, and performance venues throughout the United States.
In the summer of 2023, I professionally recorded the pieces, which made up my first album titled Illusory Dreams. The album was released on Bandcamp and all other major streaming platforms (including Spotify and Apple Music) on October 6, 2023.
Impact of the Presser Graduate Music Award
The funding from the Presser Graduate Music Award has provided me with invaluable experiences. The commissioning process of working with these six composers has been helped me learn how to more effectively communicate with collaborators and how to structure future commissioning agreements. The process of commissioning, following up with, and workshopping with composers as well as organizing performances and recording sessions outside of the university setting has been a wonderful and impactful learning experience that I know I will continue to learn from further into my career. By learning these six pieces and practicing them, I have honed my skills as an interpreter of contemporary music, especially being the first interpreter of the works. Having these six pieces written for me has also allowed me to perform throughout the United States and has given me a vehicle to move forward with my performing career post-graduation from my doctoral degree.
Atlanta-based saxophonist Jack Thorpe currently serves as an Artist Affiliate of saxophone at Georgia State University. As a concerto soloist, he has performed with the Georgia State University Symphonic Wind Ensemble, the Stephen F. Austin State University Symphonic Orchestra, and the University of Illinois Symphony Orchestra.
Through his work as the alto player in the Versa Quartet, Thorpe won first place in the 2020 North American Saxophone Alliance’s Quartet Competition and performed William Bolcom’s Concerto Grosso for saxophone quartet and wind band with the University of Illinois Wind Symphony.
Thorpe holds a D.M.A in saxophone performance and literature from the University of Illinois, an M.M. in saxophone performance from Stephen F. Austin State University, and a B.M. in saxophone performance from Georgia State University where he was the recipient of the Presser Undergraduate Scholar Award.
