Wanderlust
Duration—06:31
Description
Julianna Voelker’s piece, Wanderlust, is one of eight works for saxophone duo that the SiP Duo commissioned during the summer of 2022. Their composition revolves around the idea of a plane taking flight, which can be heard in the beginning and end of the work as the saxophones slowly gear up to takeoff. The idea of “wanderlust” is defined by Julianna in the beginning of the score:
Wanderlust (n.) – strong longing for or impulse toward wandering; the wish to travel far away and to many different places
or
the need to escape one’s life for something bigger, better, brighter; to pack one’s bags and depart for somewhere wondrous
or
to take flight
Biographies
Natalia Warthen is a musician and saxophonist based in the East Lansing area. Originally a native of Newnan, Georgia, she moved to Michigan in the Fall of 2019 to pursue her Bachelors of Saxophone Performance with Professor Joe Lulloff at Michigan State University, and is currently in her senior year. Throughout her time at MSU she has been able to collaborate with musicians in both traditional and unexpected ways, and has treasured the myriad of formats in which music-making can occur.
A strong advocate of chamber music, Natalia was a founding member of the saxophone quartet Clap7 at MSU, and is in her fourth year of playing Bari sax with the ensemble. In their first few years as a group they were the youngest quartet to make the North American Saxophone Alliance’s (NASA’s) Quartet Competition Finals, were national finalists in the Music Teacher’s National Association Chamber Music competition, and received third place at the Barbara Wagner Chamber Music Competition. In the last two years, they have also been named Coltman Chamber Music Finalists and Fischoff National Chamber Music Competition Quarterfinalists. As they head into their last year together, they continue to hold friendship as the heart of their group, and can be found playing at various spaces in their community.
Aside from her collaborative work with chamber ensembles, Natalia also remains passionate in her solo classical saxophone playing and performing. Some of her latest accolades include winning the Michigan Music Teacher’s National Association solo competition, receiving an Honorable Mention award in the Elise Hall solo competition, and advancing into the finals of the North American Saxophone Alliance Solo competition. Most recently, Natalia traveled to Switzerland for the Arosa Saxophone Institute, and was selected as a winner of the Hans Schaeuble Award. She will be traveling back to Arosa in March 2023 to put on a chamber music concert, collaborating with accordion players and other saxophonists.
Jacob Nance is a saxophonist and musician based out of East Lansing, Michigan. He graduated from the University of Oklahoma with a Bachelor of Music and is currently at Michigan State University working on a Masters in Music. Through pursuing experience in many genres and avenues of music, Jacob has made a name for himself in many musical circles.
As a classical saxophonist, Jacob has achieved success through merging his own creative aesthetic with the aesthetic presented by composers. These achievements can be evidenced through numerous competition accolades including: winning second place in the Music Teacher’s National Association’s Young Artist Woodwind competition in the Spring of 2021, winning the University of Oklahoma’s Young Artist Competition in 2018, and performing the Glazunov Concerto as the featured soloist with the Conroe Symphony Orchestra in 2018.
As a chamber musician, Jacob performs as the alto saxophonist with the Sound Session, a saxophone quartet formed in August of 2021. Sound Session has been successful in numerous competition, including being chosen as First Prize for the 2021-2022 Music Teacher’s National Association Chamber Music competition, being chosen as First Prize in the 2021-2022 North American Saxophone Alliance’s biennial Quartet Competition, and winning First Prize at the 2022 Wagner Chamber Music competition. Previously Jacob was the baritone chair with the Codex Quartet. The Codex Quartet has been recognized by multiple national chamber music competitions. Notable instances include being named semifinalists in the 2019-2020 North American Saxophone Alliance’s biennial Quartet Competition, being selected as quarter finalist for the 47th Annual Fischoff Competition, and being chosen as a National Finalist for the 2019-2020 Music Teacher’s National Association Chamber Music competition.
As a proponent of jazz music, Jacob has released an album with his combo The Way Out. He is active in Michigan State Unviersity’s jazz program, being in Jazz Orchestra I Under the direction of Rodney Whitaker, as well as in the Jazz Octet and Combo program. He was frequently seen performing piano and saxophone around the Norman and Oklahoma City jazz scene with this group. He has performed solo jazz piano for the University of Oklahoma’s fine arts fundraiser, the Arts, Arts, Arts! event in the Spring of 2020. Jacob is an avid jazz composer as well, having composed and performed over a dozen original works with The Way Out.
An emerging composer, Jacob has harnessed his propensity for the merging of popular music’s stylings within the realm of art music to create music to connect with a broad audience. His premiere work for saxophone and piano, No Way Home, was premiered at the 2021 North American Saxophone Alliance Region 4 Conference. The Codex Quartet premiered his work Reagan Spring in their Spring 2021 recital. Two new pieces are in the works, On the Reality of Letting Go, a composition for 2 alto saxophones and piano written for Lati2de, and After All this Time, a work for alto sax and piano written for the Simian Duo.
With an ear for music from all genres, Jacob can be heard creating music in a pop style as well. His work can be seen on his album From Then Until Here on Out, which released on Spotify in October of 2021. His sophomore album, The Messages I Never Sent, released on Spotify October 1, 2022.
Jacob’s primary teachers include Professor Joseph Lulloff, Dr. Jonathan Nichol, Professor Jay Wilkinson, and Dr. James Barger.
Julianna Voelker is a composer, performer, and audio engineer with a background in saxophone performance, astrophysics, and programming. They place an emphasis in their compositions on intersectionality, particularly between science and music and between queerness and music. Their compositions draw inspiration from their own life and from the world around them, and they aim to create music that tells a story to the listener. One of their primary professional goals is to bridge the gap between science and music, and they plan to do future work in electronic music composition in pursuit of this goal. Additionally, they are passionate about queer representation in media and in artistic circles, which motivates their compositional process as well.
Julianna’s compositional work has been performed by groups at the University of Oklahoma and the University of California, Los Angeles. Their piece Celestial Vibrations for saxophone quartet was premiered at the North American Saxophone Alliance 2021 Regional Conference and has been performed by a variety of different groups throughout the United States. Other works of theirs include Arcturus, for soprano saxophone duo, which is based on the lifecycle of near-solar-mass stars, and Green Carnations, for solo alto saxophone and electronics, which is based on the letters written between Oscar Wilde and Lord Alfred Douglas. Though they are primarily a composer of saxophone music, they plan to expand their repertoire into other instrumentations in the future.
Julianna holds a B.S. in astrophysics and a B.M. in saxophone performance from the University of Oklahoma, studying under Dr. Jonathan Nichol. They are currently pursuing an M.A. in Audio Technology at American University and plan on working closely with music technology and coding in the future. They are an accomplished solo and chamber performer, including having been a semifinalist in the 2020 North American Saxophone Alliance (NASA) National Chamber Music Competition and a winner of the 2019 University of Oklahoma Concerto Competition. They have done extensive recording work in the Oklahoma City area, including in conjunction with the University of Oklahoma School of Music and the Oklahoma City Virtuosi, with their primary emphasis being on classical music recording.
Julianna is originally from Pulaski, Wisconsin and is currently living and working in Washington, DC. In their spare time, they enjoy writing, bookbinding, listening to podcasts, and cooking.
Reflection
Taking on our commissioning project has financially been a substantial task, so receiving this Microgrant has helped me in many ways. Paying composers less, especially in a project like this, is never an option—so I truly appreciated being helped monetarily in order to get them the funds they deserved. With these funds, we were even able to allocate more room to bring in one additional composer than originally planned. Her name is Tess Gregorek, and she is a musician with cerebral palsy that seemed elated when we asked if she would join us on this project. Jacob and I were extremely thankful for this grant’s help in funding our project, which wouldn’t have been able to truly occur without financial support. Even more recently, we’ve received a grant from the city of East Lansing that will help us create an album of these commissioned works, with professional recordings for composers to have and share. We wouldn’t have gotten this far without the CREATE! Microgrant.
Since starting this project, I think I’ve simply learned that creating large scale projects doesn’t have to be out of reach or impossible—as long as I communicate and plan ahead. I never thought I would be capable of connecting with other artists in this grand of a scale, and Jacob’s persistence throughout the project taught me otherwise. I’ve realized that artists always want to make connections (especially students), and you just have to reach out and ask. The worst they can say is no! Covid mistakenly made me believe that distance makes projects like this either difficult or impossible to fully create, but the complete opposite is true. After the pandemic, people are constantly wanting to connect and make art. The technological resources are out there and ready for use.
I definitely believe other CAL students would benefit from this financial support. At least in my case, I was wary of creating art in more public settings because I am in my undergraduate degree, and already taking on so many things to simply fulfill the basic requirements of my profession. However, having access to this grant taught me that making music with various types of people is possible. The resources of university will only be here for a short period of time, so I might as well use them as much as I can while I’m still in school.