Sigma Alpha Iota

Summer 2019 8 PAN PIPES At the end of last year, one of our sisters from the Alpha Lambda chapter at Michigan State University (MSU), Megan Anderson, won the Jere Hutcheson Composition Competition for Large Ensemble. She submitted an original piece in October of 2018 for this competition and as the winner, will write a piece for one of the university's student ensembles. She was very excited to hear the results: "I almost screamed in the middle of the library when I got the news, because I was so excited." Megan has always enjoyed composing pieces for classes and her own enjoyment, but she had never seriously considered going into music composition as a career until this competition. Megan is a senior music composition major with a minor in arts and cultural management at Michigan State University. Her main instrument is oboe, but she also enjoys playing the piano. She started to compose for fun in high school aer taking AP Music eory. She started off as an oboe performance major her freshman year and later switched to music composition sophomore year to continue doing what she enjoys. Megan has studied composition with Dr. Ricardo Lorenz, Dr. David Biedenbender, and Dr. Alexis Bacon. She will be taking a gap year aer graduation, but she will be applying to master's programs for music composition for the fall of 2020. She was initiated into Sigma Alpha Iota in the spring of 2016 and is currently Alpha Lambda Chapter's Vice President Ritual. In previous years, Megan also served as recording and corresponding secretaries, as well as fundraising and service chair. e piece Megan composed for this competition is titled Aer Your Dreams (2018) and is for English horn and string quartet. Her piece was reviewed by a few English horn and string players from the Detroit Symphony Orchestra in April 2018. She submitted her work to the MSU Composition Studio in October, and found out that she won the competition in November. Megan wrote Aer Your Dreams aer she wrote her first orchestra piece; it was always a dream of hers to write a piece for an orchestra. Her inspiration to compose Aer Your Dreams is based on the feeling of accomplishment and the next steps to take aer achieving one of your goals. "e piece resembles what you feel aer you accomplished a huge goal; it's almost nostalgic." She is currently writing a piece for one of the MSU student ensembles, which has approximately 150 members. Her composition was due to the College of Music in mid- February. One of her major inspirations is composer David Maslanka. During her freshman year, Maslanka visited Michigan State's campus and met all of the composition majors. at year, the MSU Wind Symphony performed his Symphony No. 4, which is Megan's all-time favorite piece. In her work for the student ensemble, Megan wants to create a big, grandiose, emotional and encapsulating feeling, somewhat like Maslanka's Symphony No. 4. e piece will be premiered on April 24th at the Michigan State Concert and Campus Bands concert. Music composition has largely been a male dominated field. Around the year 1870, a small handful of women made attempts in composing careers but were oen turned away. e composition world still faces these challenges even in modern times. In a survey completed by 22 of the largest American orchestras, women composers accounted for only 1.8% of the total pieces performed in the 2014-2015 concert season, and today it is still under 5%. Megan hopes to inspire other female students in composition that success in this field is very possible. She also hopes to inspire other women who are on the fence about going into music composition. "Females in composition studios are underrepresented in numbers, so I want to show them that it is possible to succeed." — Submitted by Courtney Wicklund, Alpha Lambda Chapter Editor SAIS IN THE NEWS SAI Wins Composition Prize Megan Anderson of the Alpha Lambda Chapter at Michigan State University.

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