Creative Practice Showcases
University of San Jorge
Soliloquios - Colombian-American Composer Alba Potes View Digital Media
Creative Practice Showcase Shannon Wettstein Sadler
The music of Colombian-American Alba Potes is characterized by spaciousness and moments of silence to invite listeners into her introspective soundscape. The goals of this presentation are: 1. to introduce Potes’ Colombian private, yet universal, musical-emotional space through the intimate sound world of her piano music, with particular attention to her most recent piano collection, Soliloquios (2012-2018) 2. to discuss the Potes' music as a response to Colombian social and political issues. 3. to examine Potes’ work as a Latina who found her personal voice as a composer and received artistic recognition in her homeland only when she left it. 4. to allow attendees to hear Soliloquios and excerpts from her other piano works, and ask questions about the pieces Born in Cali, Colombia in 1954, Alba Potes studied at the Antonio M. Valencia Conservatory, and the University of Valle in Cali Colombia. In 1983, she moved to the United States. She began composing in 1990, graduating with degrees from Temple University. Her music has been performed throughout North and South America, Europe, and Asia. She teaches at the College Preparatory Division at Mannes School of Music-The New School. The study discusses and demonstrates how Potes’ work expresses her personal story, based on interviews with the composer. Examination of Potes’ keyboard esthetic and structure focuses on her use of registration and often spare, emotionally vulnerable piano textures as exemplified in Soliloquios. This presentation concludes with a complete performance of Soliloquios, (approximately eight minutes) demonstrating the work’s introspective, evocative immediacy.
HerClassical: Promoting the Keyboard Works of 18th-Century Women Composers through Online Resources
Creative Practice Showcase Alissa Freeman, Patricia Garcia Gil
The formation of the classical music “canon”—a collection of pieces that has been deemed to have higher value than others—has happened throughout a history that favored white, male composers of European descent. This has resulted in the exclusion of many composers of other identities from serious study, including the works of women. Through a close examination of historical trends and social behaviors within classical music, we have found that women were active and flourished as musicians in the 18th century, but that they are very rarely studied. We have developed a new online resource called ||:HerClassical:|| which highlights these women and their music through creative video recordings both on historical and modern instruments, new editions of their works (some of which had not been published since the 18th century), and historical insights into their lives. By creating these new, free resources, this music has become far more accessible to keyboardists and keyboard teachers, which has resulted in many students studying and engaging in works by women composers for the first time. In our Creative Practice Showcase, we will demonstrate our initiative and its success so far, with the hope that it will inspire the creation of similar models in other fields. Through the development of accessible online resources, we can create lasting social change in the arts.
