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Noah Green recalls sitting in the living room, watching his sister paint, and becoming inspired by her art to create some of his own.
“Watching the pigments mix and swirl on the canvas was hypnotic,” said Green, a senior music composition major at Ohio Wesleyan University, “and it made me think, ‘What if I try to mix sound in the same ways she mixes paint?’
“The result was this piece, which I titled ‘Watercolors,’ ” said Green, a resident of Granville, Ohio. “It takes two main melodic lines, fragments them, and then combines them in different ways – sort of like how an artist might take two different pigments and combine them to make hundreds of different colors.”
Green’s five-minute composition, written for a reed quintet, recently earned an honorable mention award in the collegiate category of the 2020 National Association for Music Education (NAfME) Student Composers Competition.
Based in Reston, Virginia, NAfME is “the national voice for music education in the United States.” With more than 60,000 members, it also is one of the world’s largest arts education organizations. NAfME’s annual Composers Competition seeks to spotlight original music written by student-composers from kindergarten through college.
Though Green wrote “Watercolors” for reeds (per the requirements of the competition), he currently is working to arrange the piece for concert band. He also is working to prepare for his senior recital next month.
“My senior recital will consist of a wide variety of music and multi-medium pieces – dance, theater, shadow puppets, and a video game – because I want it to reflect the experiences I’ve had here,” he said.
Green also is preparing to graduate in May and planning to attend graduate school to study music composition specializing in screen scoring.
“I would really like to write for video games,” he said, “since they were what inspired me to start composing eight years ago.”
Green said he chose Ohio Wesleyan to learn and hone his craft “because it gave me the opportunity to explore my main interest, music, while also exploring other artistic endeavors such as theater and dance.”
“I’ve also been able to work on composition/sound design for plays, music for choreographers, arrangements for the marching band, and even a shadow puppet show,” he said.
Green’s senior recital won’t be open for the public to attend, but it will be posted online during the week of Nov. 9. For more virtual opportunities to hear OWU music students, visit owu.edu/concertcalendar.
Learn more about the National Association for Music Education (NAfME) and its Student Composers Competition at https://nafme.org. Learn more about Ohio Wesleyan’s Department of Music at owu.edu/music.
Founded in 1842, Ohio Wesleyan University is one of the nation’s premier liberal arts universities. Located in Delaware, Ohio, the private university offers more than 90 undergraduate majors and competes in 24 NCAA Division III varsity sports. Through Ohio Wesleyan’s signature OWU Connection program, students integrate knowledge across disciplines, build a diverse and global perspective, and apply their knowledge in real-world settings. Ohio Wesleyan is featured in the book “Colleges That Change Lives” and included in the U.S. News & World Report and Princeton Review “best colleges” lists. Learn more at owu.edu.