{"id":123624,"date":"2022-04-29T08:51:40","date_gmt":"2022-04-29T12:51:40","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/webapp2.wright.edu\/web1\/newsroom\/?p=123624"},"modified":"2022-09-28T11:00:17","modified_gmt":"2022-09-28T15:00:17","slug":"paul-laurence-dunbar-at-heart-of-inaugural-wright-state-music-festival","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/webapp2.wright.edu\/web1\/newsroom\/2022\/04\/29\/paul-laurence-dunbar-at-heart-of-inaugural-wright-state-music-festival\/","title":{"rendered":"Paul Laurence Dunbar at heart of inaugural Wright State music festival"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"\"<\/a>

Participating ensembles will meet with guest composer Katahj Copley for an interactive discussion about how performing works by underrepresented composers \u201cmake us better as musicians, artists, people.\u201d<\/p><\/div>\n

Wright State University will host a first-of-its-kind music festival that addresses two attributes important to its mission: inclusiveness and innovation.<\/p>\n

On Friday, May 6, the Wright State School of Music<\/a> will welcome concert bands, string orchestras and choir ensembles from 10 Ohio high schools and middle schools for the inaugural Silver Melted Into Sound, designed to promote the music compositions of underrepresented composers.<\/p>\n

The scholastic performances and accompanying music clinics will be held in the Creative Arts Center from 9 a.m. to about 3 p.m. The public is invited to hear the performances free of charge.<\/p>\n

More information is available at liberal-arts.wright.edu\/music\/silver-melted-into-sound<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\u201cI don\u2019t think anybody\u2019s doing a festival quite like this one,\u201d said Bill Jobert, lecturer in bassoon and coordinator of music education in the School of Music in the College of Liberal Arts.<\/p>\n

He said the idea for such a festival began about a year ago through his affiliation with the Ohio Music Educators Association (OMEA), which was looking into ways to be more inclusive in the compositions available to scholastic musicians.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe music list has not kept up with the times,\u201d Jobert said. \u201cThere is a whole new generation of composers who are from different backgrounds than traditional composers.\u201d<\/p>\n

As one of the few OMEA members in higher education, Jobert said he realized the resources to produce a concert of inclusivity were available at Wright State.<\/p>\n

\u201cAt Wright State, we\u2019re supposed to be innovators, and that includes the arts,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>Then there\u2019s the story behind the festival’s name, Silver Melted Into Sound.<\/p>\n

\u201cI started looking at the poetry of Paul Laurence Dunbar. The opening line of one of his poems is, \u2018Thy tones are silver melted into sound.\u2019 That\u2019s kind of what we do as musicians,” Jobert said. “He\u2019s a good connector not only because he\u2019s a writer of color, but one significant in Dayton and our campus.\u201d<\/p>\n

The festival\u2019s format is this: In addition to performing a piece by a traditional composer, each participating group will perform one or two pieces of music by an underrepresented composer, which is a person of color, a woman or marginalized gender identity.<\/p>\n

The performances will be adjudicated not for points, as done at OMEA events, but for comments. After performing Each group will have a 20-minute clinic with one of the festival’s adjudicators.<\/p>\n

Afterward, the groups will meet with guest composer Katahj Copley for an interactive discussion about how performing works by underrepresented composers \u201cmake us better as musicians, artists, people,\u201d Jobert said.<\/p>\n

The scholastic groups will also be offered walking tours of the Dayton Campus, with the event wrapping up around 3 p.m. so they can return to their home schools.<\/p>\n

There is a companion part of the festival: a composition contest in which judging is underway with seven entries from high school music groups.<\/p>\n

Each entry must be an original composition inspired by Dunbar\u2019s works. The results are expected to be announced during the festival. The winner\u2019s composition will be performed by Wright State musicians next academic year.<\/p>\n

Silver Melted Into Sound already is on the calendar for 2023, following the Spring Semester.<\/p>\n

\u201cMusic educators are looking for a different experience for their students,\u201d Jobert said. \u201cWe\u2019re glad to provide that.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Organized by the Wright State School of Music, Silver Melted Into Sound is designed to promote the music compositions of underrepresented composers. Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":66,"featured_media":123661,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[722,729,2037,4859,725,747,715],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-123624","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-academics","category-around-campus","category-arts-scene","category-fine-and-performing-arts","category-home-news-sidebar","category-liberal-arts","category-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/webapp2.wright.edu\/web1\/newsroom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/123624","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/webapp2.wright.edu\/web1\/newsroom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/webapp2.wright.edu\/web1\/newsroom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/webapp2.wright.edu\/web1\/newsroom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/66"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/webapp2.wright.edu\/web1\/newsroom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=123624"}],"version-history":[{"count":9,"href":"https:\/\/webapp2.wright.edu\/web1\/newsroom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/123624\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":123721,"href":"https:\/\/webapp2.wright.edu\/web1\/newsroom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/123624\/revisions\/123721"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/webapp2.wright.edu\/web1\/newsroom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/123661"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/webapp2.wright.edu\/web1\/newsroom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=123624"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/webapp2.wright.edu\/web1\/newsroom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=123624"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/webapp2.wright.edu\/web1\/newsroom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=123624"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}