10 University music students had their original compositions performed in Old Cabell Hall for the first time Saturday. With faculty performers Ayn Baliya, Jiyeon Choi, John Mayhood and David Sariti, as well as a brass quintet composed of University students and a student choir, these students’ compositions were given the chance to be performed. From pre-recorded scores to arrangements for live instruments to a choir performance, there was an abundance of unique music on display.
The event was curated by
Asst. Prof. of Composition Leah Reid and was co-sponsored by the music department and The Jefferson Trust. This gave students in the MUSI 4581, “Composition I” and MUSI 4582, “Composition II” courses, as well as those completing Distinguished Major Projects, the budget to realize their pieces to their full potential.
Students worked directly with Reid in her advanced composition classes to refine their compositions throughout the semester. She provided detailed feedback throughout the process and helped bring out their ideas to their fullest potential. Fourth-year College student Hunter Colson praised her work with him and his classmates.
“She was incredible in terms of giving us very in-depth feedback and helping us with our revisions of the pieces,” Colson said. “My music and my skill in composition I feel has completely evolved and expanded ever since I’ve been working with her.”
For some, including second-year College student Ava Ghods, Saturday was the first time having their compositions performed in such a setting. Ghods described this as a surreal experience.
“One of those rare moments in life when something you dreamed quietly about for years actually happens, and somehow, it’s even more powerful than you imagined,” Ghods said. “I never thought I’d have that kind of opportunity, to hear something I wrote brought to life by real, talented musicians in front of an audience.”
The night began with a short introduction from Reid, where she introduced the event’s theme — contrast. The ways in which students approached this theme was entirely up to them, which resulted in a night of music spanning many genres, mediums and sources of inspiration.
According to Reid, cultivating a diverse collection of music was one of the main goals of the Undergraduate Composers Concert. Reid said that fostering an environment where students can create with complete freedom is what the composition classes and concert are all about.
“There’re so many beautiful, diverse voices and styles,” Reid said. “You show up with the type of background that you have and the type of music that you’re interested in writing for, and everyone is exposed to all these different styles, and that’s very exciting … There’s no stylistic restriction on any of this.”
Some students took a harmonic approach to the concert’s theme. Ghods’ piece titled “Delusion,” shifted harmonies between violin and piano, resulting in an unsettling and uneasy soundscape. The instruments glided between dissonance and consonance in their harmony and rhythm, providing fleeting moments of calm between long stretches of uncertainty.
Colson’s piano solo, “Horizons,” used a minor and major key to contrast one another. Serene, bittersweet chords were interrupted by moments of tension, growing louder and more frequent as the piece progressed. Colson talked about how this whiplash stemmed from letting his emotions guide his composition, along with gaining inspiration from his favorite composers.
“My favorite composers are a lot of classical composers, and also composers of video game soundtracks,” Colson said. “But in terms of the emotional journey my music tends to take, it's inspired by how I’m feeling in the moment.”
Other students brought contrasting elements from their sources of inspiration into their pieces. For instance, fourth-year College student Hannah Martin’s “Wadden Sea,” her Distinguished Major Project, took inspiration from her Spring 2025 exchange semester in Copenhagen, Denmark. The piece sonified the migrational patterns of five species of birds over the course of a year with motifs and harmonies used to draw the audience into the yearly cycle these birds go through. Martin described how one moment in particular inspired the emotional foundation for the piece.
“The day that we were there it was raining, so there weren’t many birds, and so the only birds we saw were dead common murres on the beach,” Martin said. “It was really sobering and very deeply affected me. I kind of never stopped thinking about it.”
Split into four movements, each representing one of the four seasons, the piece ranges from somber moments of uncertainty and fear to fast-moving sections representing the migration of these birds. Martin arranged the brass quintet used to perform this piece so that motifs are attributed to each species.
Another Distinguished Major Project on display showcased the months of hard work and deep thought that factors into these compositions. For fourth-year College student Elle Woodard, that materialized in the form of a choir arrangement composed in honor of her friend Ian Rembert who passed away recently. It was a heartfelt, emotional piece of music that carried the weight of memories and connection and left the audience stunned with its beautiful lyrics and arrangement.
Woodard said that working with the talented student choir as well as pianist John Mayhood brought the best out of her composition.
“When you have performers of that high caliber, you don’t really have to focus on the notes and little details, and you can just start bringing them to life,” Mayhood said. “The moment the music leaves the page and enters the air, that’s when it becomes real.”
Some pre-recorded pieces diverged further from the typical orchestral or choral sounds. “Caribou,” by third-year College student Jeremy Chase, was a rescore of a scene from Netflix’s docuseries “Our Planet.” The piece was played over speakers with a screen depicting caribou traveling across the Arctic. With instruments such as a suspended cymbal, a bowed classical guitar and a marimba, Chase crafted a cinematic score that perfectly matched the icy landscapes of the Arctic.
The most distinct song of the night was fourth-year College student Eduardo Hinkley’s “Hydrogen’s Song.” Inspired by classic Disney musicals, this song was a pre-recorded musical number that described the life of a hydrogen atom. It was one of the few pieces of the night to include lyrics and had a variety of digital instruments and sound effects that accented the lighthearted and educational tone perfectly.
Baliya commented on the diversity of personal experiences that inspired these pieces.
“When you’re dealing in 21st century music in this case, I don’t think it really matters the age of the person as much as the experiences that they’ve had, and that comes through in their music,” Baliya said.
Second-year Engineering student Edward Norton, who attended the event, said that the variety of pieces on display stood out to him in particular.
“My favorite part of the concert was hearing all the different composition pieces and how they all had different styles,” Norton said.
This was the first Undergraduate Composers Concert, but the University Music Department is planning to make it an annual event, allowing future undergraduate composers to bring their compositions to audiences.
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