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Student Composer Showcase - Eleanor Freebern

 Eleanor Freebern says their practice of composition really took off when they started studying the harp, their primary instrument.
Eleanor Freebern
/
Courtesy
Eleanor Freebern says their practice of composition really took off when they started studying the harp, their primary instrument.

For this installment of the Student Composer Showcase, we speak with Mount Mansfield Union High School senior Eleanor Freebern whose work "One Thousand Rays, No. 1" will be premiered by the VSO during their Farmer's Night Concert, February 12th at the Statehouse in Montpelier.

Eleanor Freebern:  Composition is about capturing a moment in time. It's about bringing your audience in and suspending them for a moment.

James Stewart: That’s the voice of Eleanor Freebern, a senior at Mount Mansfield Union High School. Eleanor is the featured composer for Music-COMP’s Student Composer Showcase. Music-COMP is Vermont’s premiere music composition mentoring program that pairs student composers with professional mentors to help them realize their musical ideas. Eleanor participated in Music-COMP’s Opus concerts for the first time last year, but says they've been composing for as long as they can remember.

Eleanor Freebern: Before I had instruments, I would sing songs that I wrote and dance to them. And then I started piano and I would write a little bit for piano, and then I started violin and I would write a little bit for violin. But it really started picking up just five, six years ago when I started harp, which is my primary instrument.

I like to have kind of a puzzle, something that I have to figure out. I can picture the vertical and horizontal motion of each musical line on my instrument very visually. And through that, I can see how the piece clicks together like a puzzle.

James Stewart: This year Eleanor was asked to compose a piece for the Vermont Symphony Orchestra.

Eleanor Freebern: I got to work with one of Music-COMP’s mentors, Sophia. A lot of the time, Sophia let me just sit with things and let things come to conclusion over time, but she also knew what I needed to keep moving forward.

James Stewart: You can hear the premiere of Eleanor’s piece at the VSO’s Farmer’s Night Concert, Wednesday, February 12th, 7:30pm at the Statehouse in Montpelier. The title of the work is “One Thousand Rays, No. 1.”

Eleanor Freebern: The inspiration for this piece comes from mobula rays, which are a species found worldwide in tropical and warm temperate seas. And I really wanted to capture the light and warmth of all of these moving creatures. In this piece each instrument kind of takes those lines and trades it off to different instruments.

James Stewart: Find out more about the VSO’s performance at their website, VSO.org. But right now, let’s hear Eleanor’s piece that premiered last year at Music-COMP’s Opus 38 concert. This is “Piece at Sarah’s House” performed by the ensemble TURNmusic.

"Piece at Sarah’s House” by Eleanor Freebern
TURN music
Violins: Brooke Quiggins, Jane Kittredge
Viola: Elizabeth Reid
Cello: John Dunlop
Flute: Laurel Maurer
Clarinet: Dan Liptak
Bassoon: Rachael Elliot

Performed at Music-COMP’s Opus 38 concert, April 30, 2024 at The Elley Long Music Center, Colchester, Vermont
Performance audio recorded by Tank Recording Studio.

James Stewart: You’ll have a chance to hear more music by Eleanor premiered by the VSO at their Farmer’s Night concert, February 12th at the Statehouse in Montpelier. Visit VSO.org for more information.

If you, or a student in your life, is interested in learning more about Music-COMP, Vermont’s music composition mentoring program, check out their website at music-comp.org.

Eleanor Freebern: I highly recommend Music-COMP. Every mentor I've worked with has been excellent at meeting me wherever I was in my composing journey and making my work more satisfying. Anyone can compose and the people at Music Comp are excellent at giving students the tools they need to do that.

The Student Composer Showcase is produced in collaboration with Music-COMP, the music composition mentoring program and Lake Champlain Access Television. The Music Composition Mentoring Program (Music-COMP) is a Vermont non-profit started in 1995 that teaches students in grades 3-12 how to compose original music. Students are paired with professional composers as mentors, and over 50 works are premiered each year with professional musicians.

Production support for the Student Composer Showcase is provided by Lake Champlain Access Television, a community media center serving eight towns in Chittenden, Franklin, and Grand Isle Counties, providing a free forum for expression, and a link to local government and training. More at lcatv.org.

James Stewart is Vermont Public Classical's afternoon host. As a composer, he is interested in many different genres of music; writing for rock bands, symphony orchestras and everything in between.