MacDowell Club Showcases Young Composers

There’s long been acertain anxiety among Classical Music’s lovers and practitioners that somehowour music will one day fade into oblivion. Could modern pop culture with itsdisposable music and ever-shortening attention span spell Classical Music’sdoom? But all is truly not lost when we observe the young talent emerging fromour schools.

The MacDowell Club ofMilwaukee hosts an annual Young Composer Competition to showcase and rewardsuch talent, and in 2008 called upon Wisconsinyouth to compose a four- to six-minute piece for four-part chorus (soprano,alto, tenor and bass voices) with optional instrumental accompaniment.

Appleton’s Chelsea Komschlies was 17 and asenior at Fox Valley Lutheran High School when shesubmitted her entry, The Call of the Land, for chorus and fluteobbligato. Her text comes from The Stolen Child and Song of the HappyShepherd, two poems by William Butler Yeats (1865-1939). “My piece is aboutIrelandpleading with its people to return to their roots and heritage,” Komschliesexplains, having been awarded third place in the competition.

Mequon’s Emily Cooley was 18 when shecomposed her piece called Lullaby for chorus and cello solo. Cooley saysthat she found her inspiration in a poem by Louisa May Alcott (1832-1888)“because of its consistent tone and mood. I was looking for a text thatconveyed a sense of safety and restfulness.” Cooley took second place with herwork.

The winner of the YoungComposer Competition is, interestingly, also the youngest: Minh-Tam Trinh, 16,a senior at Whitefish Bay High School whose work, Gitanjali (SongOfferings) was written when he was 15. It’s derived from an Englishtranslation of poems by Asia’s first NobelLaureate in Literature, Rabindranath Tagore (1861-1941). “By my interpretationthe pilgrimage these poems describe is a metaphorical one, a journey taken bythe poet ending in union with eternity at the moment of death.” Trinh’s work isfor chorus and piano accompaniment.

In addition to prizemoney, these young composers also won something perhaps even more satisfying:the opportunity to have their works performed in public, and that is exactlywhat takes place in a free concert with vocalists and instrumentalists from theMacDowell Club as well as the Whitefish Bay High School Bel Canto Choir.Rounding out the program are several additional works by Chopin, Cimarosa,Donizetti, Kreisler, Ravel and others.

This concert takes placein the Joan Steele Stein Center of Cardinal Stritch University on Oct. 25.