Ivan Salas, music composition sophomore, won the 2019 Great Britain/Great Plains Composition Contest.
Salas and eight other music composition students entered the contest. Salas composed a clarinet trio piece and submitted it to Liverpool Hope University in Liverpool, England. The faculty at Liverpool Hope University judged each piece and chose a winner.
Salas was chosen and traveled to Liverpool to see the world premiere of his piece, Unlovable on March 21.
“For a couple years now, we’ve been having an exchange with a school in Liverpool. What we do is have a competition to see which piece from each school is the best,” Salas said. “Then the students that won from each school get to have their own pieces performed in the respective place.”
Salas said Unlovable is about the emotions he was experiencing at the time.
“It was in December, and everything that could’ve gone wrong, pretty much went wrong. I sort of channeled that energy into a piece where I could express that without having to say words,” Salas said. “That’s why it’s called Unlovable, because that’s how I felt.”
Salas said the piece took him a couple weeks to create.
“It took me about two weeks to really start writing, so basically what I would do is go to work every day after school, and then, whenever I would get home, I would force myself to write for hours, and I’d go to sleep around 3 a.m. and wake up and do it again,” Salas said. “I worked on it a lot within those two weeks.”
The piece was performed by three members of the Royal Philharmonic at LHU.
“It was a clarinet trio, so they were playing the clarinet, viola and piano,” Salas said. “I personally think it’s very beautiful the way they played it. The structure of the piece forms the five stages of grief, and I think that symbolizes overcoming this emotion of feeling unlovable.”
Salas said he enjoyed his time in England.
“It was my first time being overseas, and we were there for about five days,” Salas said. “It was really nice to get immersed into such a rich culture, especially with the Beatles being there. I ate a lot of fish and chips. It was great.”
Salas said he was anxious to see his piece performed.
“It was a little nerve-racking. Because I’ve traveled 5,000 miles and I’m with these Italian composers, and I’m having to present this work that was kind of out of context,” Salas said. “My piece was very romantically inspired. I worried about the audience reception on that as well.”
Dr. Edward Knight, professor of music and composer in residence, said the opportunity was made possible by Mary Benner, director of global engagement. The trip to England was paid for by the study abroad program, except for some meals, Knight said.
“An important aspect is to come up with funding, and the music school quite frankly can’t afford it. It’s good that we have money on campus for international travel and study abroad,” Knight said. “Mary has been extremely supportive of this program and is on the lookout for these kinds of things for students.”
Knight said Salas’s talent cannot be overstated.
“It’s a remarkable piece, especially for a sophomore. It’s quite an honor he got this because he was going up against master’s students and upperclassmen,” Knight said. “He’s a very talented musician, and I can’t say enough about his work ethic and his curiosity to write music that challenges you. He breaks outside the boundaries and is continually trying to advance his technique and find ways to express himself through music.”
Leave a Reply