UNM graduate student premieres musical composition at New York festival

Thanks to the Student Enrichment Grant, Carlos Arellano, a student in Theory and Composition at The University of New Mexico, recently participated in the 2024 Orchestrating for the 21st Century Workshop. He premiered his own musical composition there.

The workshop was part of the festival Water Music New York: More Voices organized by the Albany Symphony from June 4 to 9. The festival included workshop sessions, master classes, reading sessions, and concerts. This workshop aimed to provide students with the tools to observe, analyze, and apply concepts in orchestration. The composer Christopher Theofanidis taught the course. Ten students were selected from some of the most prestigious universities in the United States. Within the framework of the festival, Carlos premiered his piece The Flight of the Phoenix.

Arellano, originally from Mexico, is a graduate student in Music focused on composition.

"I play guitar, but my major at UNM is composition. I like to write for any instrument," he said.

The Flight of the Phoenix is a five-minute piece for 11 orchestral instruments. The Albany Symphony played and recorded Arellano's composition as part of the workshop 2024 Orchestrating for the 21st Century, which was part of the festival. The Albany Symphony members were conducted by David Alan Miller.

In the masterclasses, each student presented an original piece to the group, followed by feedback from the professor and fellow students. There were three reading sessions with the Albany Symphony. Each student was encouraged to write a five-minute piece, which the orchestra then played. In each session, the musicians and conductor commented on the structure and technique of the pieces.

"It was a reading session to record the piece. The experience was exciting but implied a lot of reasonability because of the level of the musicians and students," Arellano said.

Arellano considers the style of the piece to be Contemporary Classical Music.

"The piece creates compound melodies in different dimensions based on impulses, attacks and their resulting echoes," he explained, adding, "My experience as a graduate music student at UNM is enriching. I have been learning a lot not only about music but also about other cultures and ways of thinking."

Listen to Arellano's composition Eco IV (2023) for wind ensemble.