School of Music undergraduate students Eric Knechtges and Sean Spicer will premiere their compositions at 7:30 tonight in Wharton Center’s Great Hall.
The MSU Symphony Band will perform both works. Spartan Marching Band Director John Madden and Wesley Broadnax, assistant director of bands and assistant professor of music, will conduct.
Knechtges, an instrumental music education senior, was inspired to put together a 16-minute piece for two reasons.
“It is dedicated to the stories of the victims of hate crime against lesbians, gays, bisexuals and transgendered people,” he said. “Second, it is sort of a 30-year commemoration of the Stonewall Riots, which are sort of hailed by historians as the beginning of the LGBT movements.”
Knechtges plans on devoting his professional life to teaching music instead of performing.
“(Performing) just isn’t where my interest lies,” he said. “I’m more interested in teaching and composition.”
Spicer said his piece, “Four Symphonic Movements,” took about five months to complete including writing it and putting it into parts.
“It’s going to come out great,” the music sophomore said. “(The band) is really putting emotions and everything into it. The nice thing is that after hearing it on computer for three, four and five months, when real people play it, they bring out the emotion.”
The event highlights student talent.
“I think we have an awful lot of talent within the School of Music and often that is not sought after,” Broadnax said. “It’s great not only for the student composers to have their works performed, but also for their band colleagues who showcase it.”
Broadnax said it has been a while since the School of Music has premiered an undergraduate’s work. He said he hopes this performance will encourage future performances by student composers within the School of Music.
“These students have composed and arranged while they were in high school, so I knew of their works early on and as they integrated themselves with the School of Music, they continued to write and arrange sometimes even for the marching band,” he said. “I was aware of the quality of their works and wanted to encourage them to write something for the symphony band.”
The event features the concert and symphony bands. The show costs $6 for adults and $4 for senior citizens. It is free for children and students.
