WCU’s School of Music to welcome Pulitzer Prize, Grammy Award-winning composer Jennifer Higdon
Jennifer Higdon, photographed by Andrew Bogard
By Shane Ryden
The lights dim, the audience quiets and the quintet takes their place on stage. A moment later, the air in Coulter Recital Hall comes alive.
It is the magnificent roar of brass, the evening’s beginning, and quickly, it is much more: a wave of chamber music carving the April air, carrying its listeners to a grand conclusion. Tonight’s stage will see the world premiere of a renowned composer’s latest work.
Jennifer Higdon, a Pulitzer Prize and Grammy Award-winning composer, will be in residence with the Western Carolina University School of Music from April 1-3. An eastern Tennessee native, Higdon offers an inspiring perspective for students intrigued by the world of modern composition.
Thanks to the efforts of Margaret Underwood, associate professor and director of the School of Music, the Office of the Provost and the Artist-in-Residence Committee, interested parties will have several opportunities to engage with Higdon’s work and receive her professional insight on their performances.
On Tuesday, April 1 at 7:30 p.m., students and faculty from the School of Music will showcase a number of ensemble and solo pieces featuring woodwinds, brass, piano and string instruments in the Coulter Recital Hall. All are welcome to attend, and no ticket purchases will be necessary.
A trio of three saxophonists, students of Ian Jeffress, associate professor in the School of Music at WCU, will perform “Triple Song,” a new arrangement Higdon prepared specifically for WCU.
On Wednesday, April 2 at 1 p.m., students of Damon Sink, professor of composition and music theory, will have the opportunity to present their original compositions to Higdon for her review.
Later the same day, individual students, chamber and ensemble groups will perform selected works with Higdon’s guidance. All of Wednesday’s events will take place inside Coulter Recital Hall.
The final day of Higdon’s residency, Thursday, April 3, the composer and Cheryl Lawson, vice president of Lawdon Press, will participate in two question-and-answer sessions with students in Coulter Building CO 357, the classroom of Christina Reitz, professor of musicology and passionate scholar of Higdon’s works.
Reitz first encountered Higdon’s pieces while researching her dissertation at the University of Florida, and the two have retained an amiable professional relationship since. Reitz published “Jennifer Higdon: Composing in Color” in 2018.
“She doesn’t have a big classical music background,” said Reitz, “and I think that’s where most of our students are coming from. They don’t come from this advanced pedigree.”
“You just have to be really diligent and hardworking. And it’s possible. People feel like music is one of those mysterious things where ‘who knows how to make it?’ And she shows you it’s just hard work. She worked really, really hard.”
In demystifying some of the practical measures involved in supporting oneself as a professional musician, the School of Music hopes that its talented Catamounts will feel more confident and capable of marketing themselves and their work effectively.
The chance to attend the world debut of a Pulitzer Prize-winning artist’s latest composition doesn’t come along every day. The chance to participate in it, and personally engage with the artist responsible, is even rarer.
All are encouraged to attend, if not for their education, then as a reminder of the transformative quality of hard work.
