Sigma Alpha Iota

sai-national.org • Winter 2024 7 New Music cellist who dreamed of belonging in a symphony, only to wake up remembering small fragments of what that symphony actually sounded like. To close this concert, a few pieces were performed by Uncommon Practice, a mixed ensemble made of Truman students and faculty, including Lilac Tears (2022) by Jennifer Jolley, Adri/Entwined (2020) by Jamie L. Sampson, and the aforementioned Swallowtail Suite (2018) by Dr. Gilligan. On October 28th, we held an alumnae lunch where we invited members from our chapter who had graduated to celebrate with us. is event was organized by our lovely Corresponding Officer Samantha Pratt, and we greatly enjoyed being able to see members who had graduated in the years prior. at aernoon, we also held a student recital, which featured four performances from Truman students, including a performance of A Horse with Wings (1995) by Samantha Pratt. On the evening of October 28th, we held our closing concert with an introduction of our SAI chapter, where we proudly performed the SAI Chorale by Margaret Blackburn, Sigma Alpha Iota by Louis R. Rowland and arranged by our very own Kat Doering, and So Near, So Dear by Glad Robinson Youse. e closing concert also held a performance by Dr. Eric Dickson (trumpet), MaKenna Carnes (soprano), and Dr. Ruoyang Xiang (piano) of Garden Songs (2007) by Dr. Heather Gilligan. Another piece which premiered on this night was Prelude Reflection (2023) by Yunfei Li, a composer whose mission is to explore new sounds on instruments and music soware. Her piece was performed by Dr. Xin Gao on Alto Saxophone. Finally, Dr. Heather Gilligan's Movements in Motion (2023) was performed by the Truman State Symphony Orchestra, and with that, the North Star New Music Festival was completed. Following the concert, a reception was hosted by our dear Friends of the Arts Dr. Robert and Suzanne Martin. Once again, we would like to thank everyone who had a hand in making this year's North Star a huge success. is festival has become an important tradition for our chapter, and we hope to continue our mission of celebrating new music in the years to come. — Submitted by Karley Drabik Editor, Epsilon Pi Chapter at Truman State University A live recording of this piece, and all of the performances from this year's festival can be found on the Truman Music YouTube page at: https://www.youtube.com/@trumanmusicconcerts/streams Members Members of the Epsilon Pi of the Epsilon Pi Chapter enjoy their Chapter enjoy their alumnae lunch. alumnae lunch. to invite to write a piece for us. From there, the ball started rolling, and at the start of the new semester in August, our North Star Committee started finalizing details regarding the two-day festival. is included inviting other guest artists, organizing student and faculty performances, a lunch welcoming back alumni from our chapter, and more! From the lengthy program full of incredible music and people, to transportation for our guest composer and everything in between, the North Star committee did it all. Members included Epsilon Pi President McKenzie Frost, Committee Chair Lilliane Winston, Joint Committee Chair Samantha Pratt, our Chorale Director Kat Doering, and myself. Together, with the rest of our chapter and with the help of Truman State University faculty, we were able to safely and efficiently organize this wonderful festival. is year, North Star kicked off with an opening concert on Friday, October 27th, with the premiere of a piece written by Dr. Victor Márquez-Barrios, performed by Rodolfo Nieto (voice) and Lanjiabao Ge (piano), titled A Path Home/Camino a Casa (2023), the lyrics written by both the composer and the performer. is piece was written based off of the conversations held with a variety of Latino immigrants, which expressed complex feelings of abandoning one's home in the hopes of creating a new future. Following this, Fragments of a Symphony (2022) written by Robert J. Martin was performed by Dr. Brian Kubin on cello. is piece, as the title suggests, was about a

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