Zachary Detrick

Ready for another composer feature from our upcoming THEY’RE ALIVE! concert? Read on to learn more about the amazing Zachary Detrick!

WSW: What do you love about composing?
ZD: Composing gives me the chance to create. I love the rush of translating my ideas into tangible forms. Composing also gives me a chance to respond to the world around me, and I think this constant process of taking in and giving back is a vital part of my life. I love when I can give my music to my musician friends and get a wide variety of feedback, which helps me see my music from different angles. Sometimes it’s just fun to compose really wacky stuff and see what kind of reaction it gets.

WSW: What do you do besides compose?
ZD: I am active in my teen ministry at church. I also am a keyboardist/percussionist in an ensemble called Face the Music, in which teens perform the works of living composers. I have a YouTube channel where I narrate video games while playing them. I also love reading, traveling, my cat, and playing ping-pong.

WSW: What is your favorite part about NYC?
ZD: My favorite part of NYC is the amazing musicians I get to meet every day. I also love sunsets over the Hudson River, the Lincoln Center Library, the Staten Island Ferry, the Cloisters, and the Museum of Natural History.

WSW: What do you want to audience to know about your commissioned piece?
ZD: Even though this piece was inspired by Hurricane Sandy, it ends up having a somewhat light-hearted mood. This piece is about the fact that miracles can still happen even in the wake of disaster.

In addition to our THEY’RE ALIVE! concert on May 7th, you can hear Zachary’s work at an upcoming concert with Face the Music’s Samurai Mama Big Band on June 8th at the Jazz Gallery (1160 Broadway) at 7pm.

Elizabeth Egan

We are thrilled to bring back Elizabeth Egan for our March Composer of the Month. You will remember her as the talented composer of “Demain” from our THEY’RE ALIVE 5.0 concert. This year, she was one of our three student composition contest winners and we will be premiering another piece of her’s at our THEY’RE ALIVE! recital this May.

Upcoming Concerts:
Elizabeth’s Senior Recital
Sun, 4/22 @ 3pm
Morse Hall at The Juilliard School
Works TBD but she will be performing at least one piece written by herself!

WSW: What do you love about composing?
EE: What I love about writing music is that I get to create and discover interesting combinations with instruments, texture, harmony, etc. I feel like with every piece I write I discover a new aspect about music that I love, whether it is how a certain chord functions, or a new instrument color. I also love that I feel myself grow and become more self-aware as I write.

WSW: What do you do besides compose?
EE: I’m currently a senior in high school, so when I am not composing I am busy with school! I’m also a bassoonist and contrabassoonist and I spend a lot of time making reeds, playing in a chamber group, and in orchestra at Juilliard Pre-College. I also enjoy cooking, kayaking, playing with dogs, and watching HGTV.

WSW: What is your favorite part about NYC?
EE: I love how many things there are to discover in NYC! Every neighborhood has a different feel and is very interesting to explore. I also love the freedom I’ve been able to gain from growing up in NYC – NYC’s grid system and public transportation has allowed me to explore the city on my own for a large part of my life.

WSW: What do you want the audience to know about your commissioned piece?
EE: Cityscape is influenced by my unique upbringing in New York City. I believe I had an interesting childhood, given that I was given the opportunity to grow up and explore Manhattan and all of New York for pretty much my entire life.
The piece is broken up into 4 miniatures, or short movements. Movement 1 is called Surroundings and was inspired by the surrounding architecture and city life I observe as I take frequent walks around the city. Being a New Yorker, I walk everywhere and it always interesting to see what you notice about your surroundings, especially when you look up to admire the buildings around you. Movement 2 is called Commute and is inspired by my friend/foe public transportation and the rush of the crowds in the street and subway during rush hour. This movement has more movement and is very rhythmic – the staccato notes seem to duel with one another while the sixteenth notes rush along, similar to how trains and commuters rush along. Movement 3 is called Summer Sunset and it is a short-chorale that is inspired by a circle line cruise around Manhattan I took with the National Youth Orchestra last summer. This evening cruise gave me a different perspective on the unique geography of NYC and the area.Movement 4 is called Reflections and this movement is a reflective movement about my childhood in NYC. I’ve been doing a lot of reflecting about my life as I near adulthood and I’ll be 18 during the premiere of this piece, so I found it fitting to write a movement to, albeit brief, reflect on my upbringing in NYC and childhood in general, especially since I most likely will be moving out of the city next year because I only applied to one college in NYC.

Hilary Purrington

This year, our THEY’RE ALIVE! recital will be featuring the 3 student composition contest winners. We are thrilled to present our first winner, Hilary Purrington!

WSW: What do you love about composing?
HP: I love collaborating with performers! I want musicians to enjoy playing my music, and I’m always happy to learn and receive feedback.

WSW: What do you do besides compose?
HP: I’m also a singer. Currently, I sing with Schola Cantorum, Yale’s professional choir. We sing a wide variety of repertoire – exciting highlights from this year include Bach’s Magnificat, Brahms’ Requiem, and a new piece by Reena Esmail.

WSW: What is your favorite part about NYC?
HP: My wonderful friends and family! Favorite places/things include: The Met Opera, MoMA, the Cloisters, the MELA Foundation Dream House, Two Little Red Hens, the Ramble in Central Park, Guastavino ceilings, Macaron Day, and too many other wonderful things…

WSW: What do you want to audience to know about your commissioned piece?
HP: Stress and Sunshine addresses some of the negative aspects of living in New York as a student and musician. It took me a long time to adjust and find a pace that worked for me, and I eventually loved my life in the city. I don’t view this piece as negative, though – the very fact that I’ve used difficult experiences to create music is a beautiful, positive thing!

Want to know more about Hilary? Check out her website here.

Nicholas Hall

Check out our FIRST “Composer of the Month” of 2017!
Website: www.nicholasvhall.com / www.cisumpercussion.com
Upcoming Performances:
February 20th and 21st – Pulsing & Shaking festival at NYU Steinhardt, Frederick Loewe Theater – My piece “Just Like That” will be performed by Cisum Percussion.

WSW: Tell us a little about the piece you wrote for us:
NH: The piece, “Hurry Up; Wait,” was written during the main bulk of my graduate studies from 2014 – 2016. During this time I spent much of it commuting to and from NYC, as well as all over NYC. The title of the piece is a comedic play on words representing the commute for me. All the time NYC is associated with a fast paced lifestyle, often referred to as a “New York Minute,” but ironically much of our time as New Yorkers is spent endlessly waiting for things in various forms. Although the music does not tell a direct story, each movement is meant to reflect different moods and emotions that I’ve related to this feeling of my own personal “New York Minute.”

WSW: How did you begin composing?
NH: Composition has only within the past few years become a leading factor of my musical career. If you would have asked me just 5 years ago if I thought I would be writing music for various ensembles, I would have thought it was a joke. In my senior year of high school I had written a short 16 measure melody for my music theory final project but for much time after that I had never written again. I studied percussion performance in my undergraduate studies and my first real compositions were written just as fun pieces to perform by myself and with my percussion duet. I thought nothing of it for a while until I had begun to expand, out of my own curiosity, into other instrumentations. I was very lucky to have a few pieces premiered by my undergraduate ensembles, including a piece for string ensemble and a piece for symphonic band that would truly push me into further pursuing my passion of composition.

WSW: What are your career goals?
NH: I have several main goals as a composer/performer that I am continuously working on every day within my studies, practicing, performing and writing. As a performer I’m obsessed with current trends in chamber music. I’ve recently had some changes in personnel within my percussion group and we have some great long term goals that we are in the process of finalizing. As a composer I can’t ask for much more than the continuous collaboration with musicians on the creation of new music. With that being said I am also in the process of pursuing faculty positions within music programs in the future.

WSW: What do you do in your free time?
NH: Free time seems like a funny statement at the moment since I’m continuously trying to find new opportunities. Outside of writing and performing I very much enjoy supporting the arts in any way that I can. My Fiancée and I are season subscribers for the New York Philharmonic and we continuously find concerts and events in various locations to further expand the ensembles and composers we are listening to. Outside of music I enjoy traveling, taking trips to wineries, going to the movies and spending time relaxing with friends.

Enrico Arcaro

This month, we will be featuring the 5th composer of our THEY’RE ALIVE! 5.0 recital, Enrico Arcaro. We will be premiering his new piece that we commissioned ourselves and are thrilled to be performing it WITH Enrico! Click below to watch his interview and then be sure to attend our show on Sun, May 15th @ 3pm!