“Creation is the most human thing we can do,” says Sarah Hengenderfer, 20, an undergraduate music composition student at the University of Akron.
That’s just what this prolific young composer has been doing for years, from her self-taught days in high school in Alliance to her current, undergraduate studies.
Now, one of her compositions, “Clearing of Snow,” will receive its world premiere in a concert by the Akron Symphony Orchestra (ASO) Jan. 17 at E.J. Thomas Hall.
James Wilding, Hegenderfer’s composition professor at UA, said the premiere is a “momentous” occasion: It’s the first time that a UA composition student has collaborated with the ASO during his tenure, since 2002, or orchestra Music Director Christopher Wilkins’ tenure, since 2006.
How did this all come about?
It started with a “cold call” email last year by Hergenderfer, who knew that it was important for a composer’s work to be shared outside the academic setting. She emailed ASO Executive Director Paul Jarrett to ask if the orchestra would consider performing her first symphony, which she attached in her email with some other pieces.
Jarrett, who receives many such requests, was struck by the beauty and craft of Hegenderfer’s music. He forwarded it to Wilkins and introduced him to Hegenderfer at an orchestra rehearsal.
“When I told him my name, he jumped up, shook my hand and kept asking me questions like how did I learn how to orchestrate like that, to which I didn’t know how to respond,” she said of Wilkins. “I’ve never had a conductor, a maestro, talk to me like a colleague.”
At this point, Wilding’s student hadn’t taken an orchestration class yet at UA but she has since.
Wilkins emailed Hegenderfer about a month after meeting her to ask her to send him more of her compositions. Next, he called her in late 2024 to set an ASO performance for “Clearing Snow’s” debut the following season.
She worked with Wilding last spring semester to finetune “Clearing Snow” for its premiere Jan. 17. This week is the first time Hegenderfer will hear live musicians play her new work.
Speaking by phone Jan. 11, she said she was excited to attend rehearsals starting Jan. 14 and shadow Wilkins throughout the rehearsal process.
The orchestra describes Hegenderfer’s piece, which is nearly six minutes long, as “elegant musical poetry.” Hegenderfer said her compositions draw on images from nature, literature and personal reflection.
In “Clearing Snow,” she worked to create the feeling of winter beginning to release its hold. The piece opens with a “hushed, fragile atmosphere” that’s “still veiled in frost” with “spring hidden beneath winter’s cover,” the composer’s concert notes say.
“I think of the orchestra almost like a landscape, where different sections represent light, movement, stillness,” she said by phone. “Most of the piece lives in quieter dynamics, so when something does rise, it feels natural rather than dramatic.”
Growing up with many interests
Hegenderfer grew up interested in science, film, art and acting as well as music.
“I loved creating little worlds with music and stories” as a child, she said.
Hegenderfer, who began as a self-taught composer, started composing concertos as a high school junior by studying scores by Tchaikovsky and Dvorak, whose musical shapes, colors and emotions fascinated her.
“I would pick up some scores … and just stare at it and listen along and try to teach myself what was going on,” she said.
Hegenderfer, who plays classical guitar, trumpet and piano, originally planned to study music education in college and minor in composition. Once Wilding started working with her, he gave her a big nudge toward becoming a composition major, which she did.
Wilding, Hegenderfer’s first composition teacher, said she’s the kind of composer who soaks up everything around her and whose compositions pour out of her.
“She’s always prolific but this past semester I started counting them. She brought in 32 different compositions in one semester,” he said. “I’ve never done that and I don’t know anyone who has.”
This student composer uses the software Musescore as she composes on keyboard.
“I mostly compose by ear,” said Hegenderfer, who describes her music in terms of its emotions, visuals, harmonies and textures.
Starting in high school, she taught herself a bit about each orchestral instrument and learned a lot about orchestrating from books.
She is also an active performer who performs in Brass Choir, Brass Quintet and Symphony Band and sings in Chamber Choir at UA.
“My whole thing is being present. That’s really the only way you can start creating,” said Hegenderfer, who goes into a corner and sings into her phone when ideas strike her when she’s out and about. “I try to stay curious because there’s always somebody who knows something else.”
Future plans for composer
Hegenderfer, also a writer, has recently had her debut poetry collection, “The Weather of Being,” published.
She just returned from a weeklong master course at Ludwig Hahn Music School in Kaufbeuren, Germany. Wilding, one of its professors, invited her to attend to compose works for student ensembles and dig into professional development opportunities.
“It was an intense week but it was fun,” she said.
Hegenderfer said her compositions draw on images from nature, literature and personal reflection.
A second-year student at UA, she will graduate a year early next spring. Next, Hegenderfer plans to study film and video composition in graduate school and continue to travel.
This week, she’s excited for her orchestral premiere with “Clearing Snow.”
“It’s really surreal and exciting, definitely. I’m very honored to have my work on a stage. Especially this personal connection of my local orchestra,” Hegenderfer said.
What else is on the program
Hegenderfer’s new work will open an eclectic concert Jan. 17. Other works will be Beethoven’s Seventh Symphony, Duke Ellington’s “Martin Luther King” from “Three Black Kings” featuring UA jazz professor Chris Cole on saxophone and Leonard Bernstein’s “The Symphonic Dances from ‘West Side Story.’ “
Details
Concert: Beethoven’s Seventh, the Akron Symphony Orchestra
When: 7:30 p.m. Jan. 17
Where: E.J. Thomas Hall, 198 Hill St., Akron
Cost: $7-$65
Information: akronsymphony.org/event/beethoven7 or 330-535-8131
This article originally appeared on Akron Beacon Journal: Poetic ‘Clearing of Snow’ premiere big moment for UA composition student
Reporting by Kerry Clawson, Akron Beacon Journal / Akron Beacon Journal
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