A sea of awards, accolades and acclaim surround the composition and theory faculty members whose musical programs will be heard tonight at the Faculty Composers Concert.
Throughout the faculty artist series, the composer faculty performs monthly concerts of their work, and within the last few years the composer faculty has had a larger concert every spring.
Each concert is performed with new material where students and the community can experience something original from the composer faculty.
“When we get together and decide we want to perform, we go ahead and do it,” said Carolyn Bremer, professor and director of music composition and theory.
Bremer’s program for the concert, “Channel Islands,” was written about the chain of eight islands off the coast of Southern California.
Bremer specializes as an orchestral bassist, and has performed recently at Carnegie Hall and in Germany, Norwary and Sweden. She also performed for the 150th anniversary concert at the United States Military Academy at West Point.
“I grew up in a musical family, listened to classical music my whole life and ended up being a musician,” Bremer said.
Bremer said music has been “kind of a singular path” her whole life.
Robin Cox, a 12-year composition and theory professor will also be showcased at the concert.
Cox said he believes his two programs cannot be defined.
“If someone finds something in it that they think it’s about or it sparks a narrative by somebody, then that’s fine,” Cox said.
Bremer stated there is no singular purpose to this concert because so many have an opportunity to participate as an audience member including, faculty, staff, students and community members.
“It [has] a multi-dimensional purpose because the meaning of music and one’s appreciation of music changes with each person in the audience,” Bremer said.
Cox said music students especially would benefit from attending the concert.
“This concert allows our students to have a greater understanding of their professors when we tell them something by having heard the music we produce ourselves,” Cox said.
He said he hopes that non-musicians and non-music students approach this concert “without putting it into a box.”
Rychard Cooper, an instructor in the composition and theory area and the sound technician, said this concert would be great for the students. “It’s great [because the students] get to see teachers and what they can do,” Cooper said.
Cox is a violinist and the director of the “Robin Cox Ensemble,” post-classical and mixed-media works of Robin Cox and other contemporary composers performed by a quintet of clarinet, cello, percussion and violin.
“When you’re so close to the work, it is hard to not have a single feeling about it,” Cox said. “I tend to write music that does not have a story behind it, but can spark a story for those who listen.”
According to Bremer, “this is the best the Bob Cole Conservatory has been in its entire history.”
Bremer praised CSULB music students for their overall appeal.
“The students here are smarter, better players, better people than I’ve ever been around in a university,” Bremer said.
The Faculty Composer Concert will also showcase the works of Alan Shockley, assistant professor of composition and theory, George Wheeler, composition and theory lecturer, and Martin Herman and Adriana Verdié de Vas-Romero, composition and theory faculty members.
The show begins at 8 p.m. in the Gerald R. Daniel Recital Hall. Tickets for students cost $7 and general admission is $10.