Out! the Bassoon
Description
This is a music composition for solo bassoon with accompanying animation (the animation is still a work in progress, and hence is not featured in the video). The piece centers around the idea of various objects coming out the top of the bassoon, such as lasers, smoke, water, a helium balloon, and a stream of light. The piece in total is about 15 minutes long.
Biography
Eric Saroian
Originally from Indiana, composer and percussionist Eric Saroian (b. 2000) has written a variety of chamber pieces that draw inspiration from many sources, ranging from personal experiences to fantastical settings, but always with the intent of creating an emotional impression on the audience. A three-time winner of the Indiana University South Bend’s Ensemble Concept/21 call for scores, he has had performances of his music in South Bend, Chicago, and Lansing. As a percussionist, Saroian is a strong advocate for the creation of new solo and chamber works. Saroian currently performs with the MSU Percussion Ensemble and MSU Symphony Orchestra. He is an undergraduate student at Michigan State University who has studied with Gwendolyn Dease, Dr. Jon Weber, Dr. David Biedenbender, Dr. Alexis Bacon, Dr. Zhou Tian, Dr. Ricardo Lorenz, and Dr. Lyn Goeringer.
Kyle Sodman
A Cincinnati based bassoonist and contrabassoonist Kyle Sodman is on a mission to let the world know about the bassoon. He has loved bassoon ever since he started playing in his middle school band in 7th grade, where his long fingers and nimble thumbs made him a perfect candidate for the instrument. He currently studies at the college-conservatory of music with Martin Garcia and Christopher Sales. Kyle feels at home playing almost any style of music, from the classics like Mozart’s bassoon concerto to a 21st century tango written for contrabassoon and piano. He wants to follow in the footsteps of his many mentors and idols in the bassoon world. His current ongoing projects are his education in music performance and a commissioning project for new solo works for the contrabassoon.
Reflection
Through the microgrant, I was able to bring this project to life. I knew this could not be a project I could do all by myself. I am not an animator, and I am certainly not a bassoonist. I know, as a musical artist myself, that these developed artistic skills should be compensated, especially for a piece as long as this. The grant allowed me to fund Kyle for his hard work in learning such a difficult piece, and the future animator for this project, who will start working on the animation in the spring.
While not directly related to COVID-19, one of the biggest challenges for this project was that everyone was working long distance. I am in East Lansing, Kyle is in Cincinnati, and our first animator was in West Lafayette. This required a lot of digital communication, and surprisingly, a lot of trust. This was a new experience for me, as this was the first time I coordinated a project to this professional degree from start to finish. I set a lot of expectations up front about wanting frequent collaboration and communication, but that did not happen as much as I wanted to. I realize I need to be more proactive in initiating certain conversations, as there were certain things I would have liked to happen, but did not vocalize.
I’ve also learned a lot about picking collaborators. As I have alluded to, there was an animator I was originally planning to work with on the project, but deadlines were not being met and communication on the animator’s end was severely lacking. While I trust this person as a friend, it was unwise of me to bring this person on the project. The animator was a beginning student in animation, and I recognize in hindsight that asking for a 15 min animation from them is unreasonable. Fortunately, I have found a new animator that will start working on the project in the spring semester. In conclusion, I think what I have turned in is a very good in-progress reflection of the project’s current state, and in the future, I think it will come together nicely.
I think other CAL students would benefit from such funding like this. For how I used the grant, it encouraged collaboration between different creative areas that would not have been possible otherwise.