Music Teacher Gifts and Violettes by Becky announce Youth Music Composition Tie Winners 2019
We are proud to present our Youth Music Composition Competition students. Remember to get your spring Music Teacher Gifts from www.MusicTeacherGifts.com
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Presenting 1st Place Tie Winners: Richard Ren, 15, with Piano entry from New York
Richard loves to compose music because it allows him to express himself and be creative. He has been composing since he was nine years old, and since then, he has composed multiple solo, chamber, and orchestra pieces and has won the Music Teachers National Association award, a New York State School Music Association honorable mention, and 3rd place in the 2019 Golden Key International Piano Composition Competition. His pieces have been played by his school’s orchestra, in local music festivals, in a Long Island Composer’s Alliance concert, and will also be played at the Ehrbar Hall of Vienna during the summer of 2019. He loves to play piano and guitar in his free time and also has an interest in science, technology, politics, and animation. About his work, he writes, "Usually, my composition process begins when I sit at the piano and start having fun improvising various ideas, melodies, and harmonies. I was able to combine a lot of the ideas that I improvised into one beautiful, flowing piece. The various ideas and motifs in the song seemed to tell stories of various adventures and experiences. These adventures, connected together with legato phrases in a smooth, romantic, soft style, seemed to tell a long, winding story about a river’s journey, so I called it “The River’s Memoir. "The River's Memoir" by Richard Wren
"4 Urban Miniatures" by Emily Singleton
Presenting 1st Place Winner: Emily Singleton, 16, String Quartet from Florida
Emily Singleton is a composer and violist from Gainseville, Florida. In 2016 she made her debut as a composer with the premiere of a trio for violin, viola, and piano, at University of Florida. Since then she has had her work featured by Interlochen Center for the Arts’ World Youth Wind Symphony and Advanced String Quartet Program, Gainesville Civic Chorus, Alachua County Youth Orchestra (ACYO), MATA, and Face the Music. She is currently principal violist in the ACYO and was selected as a member of the 2018 National Association for Music Educators All-National Honors Ensemble. Singleton has been awarded titles from National Federation of Music Clubs, Florida Federation of Music Clubs, Florida State Music Teachers Association (FSMTA), Sacred Music Florida, Technology In Music Education Foundation, Music Teachers National Association, and MATA. Among these titles includes winner of the FSMTA's 2018 Intermediate Strings Concerto Competition. Her primary instructors include Paul Richards, Stephen Fine, Jorge Peña, and Benjamin Reiter. Singleton is actively involved within her community presenting at local events, health care facilities, retirement homes, hotels, and schools. These efforts have been awarded by organizations such as the FSMTA, which presented their community service award for 9th graders to her in spring of 2018. She aspires to make a career in teaching, performing, and composing, and hopes to encourage audiences to appreciate and support living artists. Her program notes for her composition:
Program Notes
This work as a whole focuses on specific colors as seen in an urban environment, with natural and artificial embodiment of color around every corner. Commissioned by MATA, premiered by Face The Music at MATA Jr. Festival 2018. I. Prussian Blue Prussian Blue incorporates tremolo shimmers, sappy glissandi, and somewhat blues-style chromaticism to portray the imagery of blue within the context of everyday encounters: puddles on sidewalks, ice hanging off roofs, paint on buildings, the collage of fabric on busy streets, and the sky above. 1'30" II. Carmine Red Carmine Red is a fast, lively miniature that captures the character of the color red through syncopation, agitated melodies, and breathless textures. Red has been historically associated with sacrifice, anger, love, danger, and courage, coming together to form a symbol of passion. This reflects the dedication of city-dwellers to their work, the busy flow of traffic, and urban night-life. 1' III. Icterine Yellow The color yellow may represent optimism and amusement, betrayal, duplicity, and jealousy, or joy, virtue, and nobility. Due to the many interpretations of this color's character, Icterine Yellow takes on a wandering nature, drifting through the city's many alleyways, dabbling in moments of laughter, pranks, and confusion, lost in the city, as it seeks to find its place of rest in a role of honor. 1'10" IV. Ochre Orange Orange is a color of oddity, celebration, and folly. This final movement, Ochre Orange, is a playful miniature that reflects the variety of cultures and holidays celebrated in a large urban environment and peculiar characteristics that may be imagined in the color orange. The mischievous and careless nature captures the joy found in this combining of traditions, celebrating the acceptance of diversity and providing an exciting close to the work.