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Student compositions performed by Bradley faculty

Music, when performed, is more than just notes on a page. A few black lines and scribbles on some paper may appear to be a score, but it is only under the direction of a composer and musicians that this art can evolve into a story.

Just about every day, this translation of music occurs at Dingeldine Music Center, a fraction of campus behind Greek housing on Barker Avenue. While lesser known amongst much of Bradley, musicians from all over campus make their way to Dingeldine to rehearse and perform music by classical and contemporary composers alike.

Last Monday, however, Dingeldine saw a new side of music. The students of Assistant Professor John Orfe’s applied composition lessons have been composing original pieces throughout all of second semester and finally got to see their hard work pay off.

These student composers were able to hear their pieces performed live by the Peoria Lunaire, otherwise known as the Bradley Faculty Chamber Ensemble, during the Bradley New Music Concert.

Typically, Orfe holds a New Music Concert every semester, and undergraduates perform various pieces written by student composers. This semester, however, was the first time students were able to hear professionals at Bradley perform their pieces.

“One of the ideas behind forming Peoria Lunaire as a faculty ensemble was to play currently written music by students as well as established composers,” Orfe said. “[This concert] was the first large-scale realization of this part of the Peoria Lunaire’s mission.”

Among the student composers was Cole Faulstich, a freshman music business major who has been taking composition lessons with Orfe since last fall. Faulstich said it was surreal to hear his works come to life in the concert.

“I feel like there is a difference when you hear your piece played by underclassmen … versus when you’re hearing it from professional musicians,” Faulstich said. “It’s gratifying overall, and I feel that with some of the emotional connections I had with the piece in particular, they came to life.”

Faulstich said he got the inspiration for his piece when he was stressed out, looking for some solace in his music.

“It was after a particularly difficult week … I was just playing piano trying to relax, and I came up with a few rhythms and melodies that I thought sounded really cool,” Faulstich said.

Soon enough, he carried that same emotion and thought into his entire composition.

“In the [concert] program, I talked about not looking back after you’ve made a huge mistake,” Faulstich said. “The piece is kind of trying to express the idea of taking what you did and moving on from it, which is why it’s so dark at the beginning and why it gets a lot nicer towards the end.”

Faulstich is just one amongst seven student composers who wrote an original piece for this portion of the concert. Freshman music composition major Conner Wittman also said he enjoyed the experimentation process of creating a new piece.

“When I was trying to come up with an idea for a piece, I was just messing around with the piano, and I really wanted to experiment with more contemporary ideas,” Wittman said. “I came up with the idea to base my song around the musical interval of the perfect fourth, and from there, I just … developed ideas based on the interval.”

By the end of the performance, Orfe said he was highly impressed by his students’ work.

“I was tremendously proud of my seven students. Their friends and family were, too,” Orfe said. “The energy in Dingeldine at the end of the concert was hugely positive.”

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