From left: Student composers Malik Norwood, Christopher Ware, Gabriel Pell and Katherine Fair (photo courtesy of Jonathan McNair)
The University of Tennessee at Chattanooga Department of Performing Arts Division of Music will present the 2023 Campus Composers Concert at 7:30 p.m. on Monday, April 3, in the Fine Arts Center’s Roland Hayes Concert Hall.
The concert will also be available via livestream.
UTC students, faculty and guest artists will perform new and recent music by University music composition students and faculty members. Most of the program selections at the free concert, open to the public, are being performed publicly for the first time.
“This Campus Composers Concert will offer high-level performances by professional musicians on the UTC faculty and guest artists, along with some fine student performers,” said Dr. Jonathan McNair, Ruth S. Holmberg Professor of American Music at UTC.
The April 3 event marks a return of the Campus Composers Concert series, which McNair coordinated and presented annually before COVID-19.
“It is exciting to offer engaging new music created by talented student composers, one of whom is now a prize-winning composer, and the two faculty composers represented on the program have both had their works performed across the U.S. and internationally,” McNair said.
Student composers include a pair of composition majors, senior Katherine Fair (Maryville, Tennessee) and sophomore Malik Norwood (Chattanooga); senior music major Christopher Ware (Chattanooga); and senior Gabriel Pell (Nashville), a music composition minor and software engineering major.
Fair’s “Microduo,” which recently won second prize in the Southeastern Composers League’s Arnold Salop Memorial Competition for Undergraduate Students, will be performed by Duo Esplanade, comprised of UTC faculty members Ayça Çetin (flute) and Katsuya Yuasa (clarinet).
An art song composed by Fair, “Blessed Is the Match,” will be premiered featuring sophomore vocal music performance major Paige Bush (Arlington, Tennessee). Bush recently won the regional stage of a competition sponsored by the National Association of Teachers of Singing, advancing to the national final stage.
Tuba player Ember Evans, a junior music major from Maryville, will perform a world premiere of McNair’s new work, “Hard-Boiled Detective,” accompanied by adjunct instructor Ethan McDaniel on drums.
The program will also include McNair’s solo piano piece, “Rabun Gap,” which was recently performed in New York City on Feb. 5 as part of the North/South Consonance concert series, and Dr. Kenyon Wilson’s “Isle of Mann,” being presented with new instrumentation. Wilson is the interim department head of Performing Arts at UTC.
Other concert participants will include UTC music students performing in small ensembles; pianist McNair; UTC Musicianship adjunct instructor and pianist Emma Anderson; pianist Alan Nichols, the keyboardist for the Chattanooga Symphony Orchestra; and saxophonist Alex Singleton, a Conn-Selmer performing artist.
