Crafting a Soundscape
Composer Meilina Tsui’s Masterclass at UT
As part of her visit to Knoxville for the Tennessee premiere of her new orchestral work, composer Meilina Tsui met with music composition students at the University of Tennessee’s Natalie L. Haslam College of Music for an engaging masterclass. The session was presented in collaboration with the KSO, whose partnership with the university continues to provide students meaningful access to working professionals and visiting guest artists.
Guest composer Meilina Tsui (center) with music composition students at the University of Tennessee.
Tsui’s talk centered on the creation of her newest orchestral piece, Floridian Symphony, an inventive soundscape commissioned through the Virginia B. Toulmin Foundation Orchestral Commissions Program, an initiative of the League of American Orchestras in partnership with the American Composers Orchestra. The KSO was chosen to join this consortium of orchestras across the country invited to help bring new, intentional, and inclusive works to audiences.
The piece is notable for how it mimics the natural sounds of the rural Florida environment entirely through acoustic means.
“There are no electronics in the piece,” she told students. “Every sound you hear is created by the orchestra using extended techniques. It’s meant to evoke cicadas, mourning doves, sandhill cranes, titmice, ospreys, bald eagles, even baby alligators and squirrel tree frogs.”
Tsui shared how the work evolved through site visits, field recordings, and experimentation, emphasizing how each performance of the piece requires creative collaboration between composer, conductor, and musicians.
Students at the masterclass included a mix of undergraduates and graduate students, most studying composition or related music fields. Their professor, Andrew Sigler, Associate Professor of Music Composition, noted the significance of the opportunity:
“We’re really happy to partner with the KSO to bring guest artists and composers to campus, to hear about new works, and to have our students meet people they may not see otherwise and to learn as much as they can.”
Tsui spoke from experience about tailoring her masterclass presentation to different audiences, having previously presented the piece in Naples, Fla. and Denver, Colo. For this UT class, she was able to delve into compositional techniques and ideas that resonated with the students’ own developing voices.
“Every time I share this piece, it’s a different kind of conversation,” Tsui said. “Here, I could speak in a more advanced musical language, because the students were already immersed in it. I love that I get to learn from them too.”
The KSO is proud to support the next generation of composers through programs like this, and grateful to Meilina Tsui, Andrew Sigler, and the UT School of Music for making this masterclass possible.