Creative   •   October 30, 2019

Well, I’m finally back from my unintentional hiatus from the blog. 2019 has proven to be a pretty incredible year so far; in large part due to me becoming a mom for the first time:

Our little girl, who we named Avery Ann, was born on July 24th! In anticipation of her arrival, I had planned on taking a short break from composing after a solid two years of being under contract and commitments. But, after a few weeks postpartum I discovered that this was actually not the best idea – I realized I need my music as much as my music needs me! The creative outlet helps to keep me mentally and emotionally in balance, so I’m back to work creating a new piece for Wind Ensemble entitled Vessel, inspired by the pregnancy.

The adjustment to parenthood in a way has brought me in to a a sort of full circle with the composing side of my career. Six years ago in 2013, I made the decision to apply to go back to school to earn my Master’s in Composition. (This was a fairly big change for me, as I spent most of my late teens and 20’s primarily focused on jazz trumpet playing!) I’ve always felt a draw to compose and arrange – I spent seven years working at Cornerstone Baptist Church and did a lot of arranging there, plus I did a few charts for big band while I was in school at the University of Texas at Arlington. But at the time I still really didn’t have enough material to warrant admittance for graduate level study in the area of “classical” composition. So, I took lessons from my friend and the former Professor of Composition at UTA – Dr. George Chave, and he helped me write a few little pieces to comprise a portfolio for applications. The best of the works from that time period is a piece I originally wrote for woodwind and percussion ensemble. At its inception, Dr. Chave had me work on an exercise in which I analyzed the common tone progression in Chopin’s Prelude and E Minor and then applied the concept to a work of my own. For a little more in depth look of how the common tone progression in Chopin’s Prelude works, check out the analysis here:

I’ll never forget writing the initial melody and chord progression. I thought I was just doing an assignment, but Dr. Chave after hearing it said “no, Haley – this is your first real piece.” (thank goodness for our teachers!) I took his statement to heart and continued writing – creating the second section after digging into Holst’s First Suite in E-flat (because, why not? If John Williams can copy his work then so can I ;) The two sections are quite contrasting and as a result I entitled the work In Two Places. In fact, this concept of contrasts was the inspiration for a recent program by the Southwest Washington Wind Symphony, according to conductor Patrick Murphy:

Now I should say that for better or worse, often times my real life circumstances impact what I compose. In this case, I in 2013 was a in a season of contrasts – I mean, one thing you’d never expect to do after graduating from college, getting married and being a homeowner is to move back in with your parents. But, as it turned out, my husband and I found ourselves in this situation after we sold our house in Arlington and weren’t sure where to put down a new stake. (thank goodness for our parents!) As a result of my graduate school applications and portfolio, I did receive acceptance to Texas Christian University and with the background as a jazz trumpet player – I luckily landed an assistantship in the Jazz Department. As great as it was, when I began the semester studying with Dr. Blaise Ferrandino (who has helped me immensely as a composer!), and started putting finishing touches on the Symphonic Band version of In Two Places, I felt pulled in several directions, not having the typical schedule of a composer, but not having the life of a performance major either. Throughout this time I experienced conflicting feelings attached to my experiences with adulthood vs. adolescence, homogeneity vs. diversity and the jazz approach vs. the contemporary classical approach.

Much to my delight, now fast forward six years and In Two Places is currently my most popular work for band. This is undoubtedly due to the support of a few key conductors (thank goodness for conductors!), such as Brian Youngblood who premiered the work with the TCU Symphonic Band right before my graduation from TCU in 2016. Florida State University Director of Bands Patrick Dunnigan has been a wonderful recent advocate of my music and created a fantastic recording from a live concert with his Symphonic Band:

Both he and my friend, Abilene Christian University Assistant Director of Bands Brandon Houghtalen have given me a chance to work with honor bands throughout the country on In Two Places in Skype sessions:

The piece is also the 2019 winner of the Grade 3-4 category of Shannon Shaker’s Women’s Band Composition Competition. (So, have you heard what’s happening with the recent push for the diversity in programming effort on behalf of our concert band community? For programming ideas, check out Rob Deemer and the Fredonia State University of New York’s composer diversity database here https://www.composerdiversity.com/

As as result of the contest, I’ll be flying out to San Diego in the Spring of 2020 to hear conductor Jeffrey Malecki’s Wind Symphony at the University of San Diego perform the work. San Diego in April? Yes, thank you! (Jonathan my husband has never asked to accompany me on one of my trips before…but evidently my award money is going towards his plane ticket.)

And I think I’ll probably revisit an idea I had a couple of years ago, to create a series of composition workshops for 7-12 grade bands in conjunction with objectives in the Texas Essential Knowledge and Skills that I call my “Creating Composer Clinics”. (I call them this as a play on words – the students get to create during the clinic, and therefore we as educators are creating composers…get it?) I’ve done a couple of test runs of the clinic on In Two Places with conductor Chris Kanicki and his Summit High School Wind Ensemble, as well as conductor Angie Hutto and the Bethesda Christian School Band:

Both experiences were really fun with the two groups! For more information about what’s offered in the clinic, see my workshop proposal here, and/or visit the Education page of the website.

And so, here I am again – balancing a new dichotomy, this time between being a parent and an artist. It’s been an important year for In Two Places, which seems like no coincidence to me. I was admittedly terrified of what having a baby would do to my career. Now on the other side, I can say without hesitation I’ve never been so motivated to show another human what’s possible when we follow our callings in life. I hope Avery will see in my pursuit as a composer that being a woman does not limit who she is meant to be. To all the performers, teachers, diversity advocates and conductors who have helped me and my music on its journey thus far – thank you.