Band camp students interact with world renown composer Libby Larsen
Released: July 24, 2008
Libby Larsen High school students participating in the University of Wisconsin-Whitewater’s band camps got the rare chance not to only play music, but to actually talk with the internationally famous composer that wrote it.
Students got to interact with Libby Larsen, the world’s most performed living composer, during a conference call Wed., July 23. “It’s really exciting to get to talk to the composer that creates art,” camp attendee Jessica Pearce of Loves Park, Ill., said. “She puts her all her thoughts and emotions into her music.”
The campers will perform Larsen’s piece, “Introduction to the Moon,” along with other works at a concert at 6:30 p.m. Fri., July 25 at the Young Auditorium. The work is inspired by a series of poems about the moon. “This piece is different than most because I view it as a collaboration between the composer and performers,” Larsen said during the conference call. “You get to improvise a bit and that makes for a different performance every time and I think that’s what makes the piece a little more endearing.”
“When I was browsing through music for the camp I came across this piece,” Music Professor and Camp Director Glenn Hayes said. “I saw the title which interested me, then I saw the name Libby Larsen and immediately became intrigued.”
The camp attracts high school students predominantly from the upper Midwest states of Wisconsin, Illinois and Minnesota, but students are attending from as far as Washington. This was the first time in the camp’s history that campers had the opportunity to ask the composer of one the pieces they were performing questions and get advice.
“This is an opportunity for kids to learn not just about the music but about the meaning and person who composed the piece,” camp attendee Isaac Zwicker of Germantown said. “It puts a different outlook on the piece you’re playing.”
- Tom Applegarth,applegartg17@uww.edu
