The Young Composers Festival marks the culmination of a year of hard work and dedication from the student participants of the Young Composers Project. This event is an opportunity for the student composers to have their original scores performed by the musicians of The Tucson Symphony Orchestra, receive comments from musicians, teachers and Maestro José Luis Gomez, and to present their works to the concert audience for the first time.
Students from the Advanced Classes will have their pieces performed by the full Tucson Symphony Orchestra. Following each initial reading, the student composer will make recommendations to the musicians on the performance of their work. Musicians will then perform the work again to be recorded for the students’ personal use.
Don’t miss the chamber ensemble sessions on April 29–30.
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Advanced Class Students
Carrick Montague
Hey! I’m Carrick Montague, an 18-year-old pianist with a passion for video games. This is my second year in the Young Composers Project, and last year in high school. My piece is called “The Nighthunter”, a trailer theme for the video game I’m making. (No, it will not come out for a very long time.) I decided to write a trailer theme because when the music in a game’s trailer is done right, it is both exciting and beautiful, combining the most important motifs and grandest pieces of music from the game’s content into a meaningful, dramatic climax. Hope you enjoy!
Krish Vedantham
My name is Krish Vedantham. I am a freshman at University High School. I have played piano for a decade, saxophone for four years, and have started bass trombone and percussion recently. This is my fourth year in the Young Composer’s Project. My piece is Sneezing. I came up with the title from the brief tense interjections during the beginning and end. The middle section is meant to signify the rush of needing a tissue after sneezing. I was inspired by our Bartok analysis during class, so I decided to open the piece with stacked fourths in the basses. I am also currently a keyboardist in a local Indian band Tucson Tarana. We perform at cultural events locally. I am also an avid cricket player. I hope you enjoy my piece, and I hope you sneeze along.
Oliver Ward
Oliver Ward is a 16-year-old junior at The Gregory School. He studies trumpet with Betsy Bright-Morgan of the Tucson Symphony Orchestra and has been a member of the Tucson Philharmonia Youth Orchestra for four years, serving as principal trumpet for the past three. In addition to playing the trumpet, Oliver plays the piano and is passionate about composition.
Oliver has been a participant in the Tucson Symphony Orchestra’s Young Composers Project for four years. His most recent piece, Adventure for Orchestra, is inspired by the wonders of the future, as he navigates his own personal goals and aspirations. Oliver hopes that the audience can reflect on their own lives with a feeling of nostalgia as the piece unfolds.
This summer, Oliver will study trumpet at Boston University’s Tanglewood Institute, where he looks forward to connecting with other musicians.
Ryoto Brumitt
Ryoto Brumitt is a homeschooled 16 year old. His main instrument is violin and has been studying it for 9 years.
This is Ryoto’s fifth year in YCP and his second year as an advanced student.
In 2024, while he was overwhelmed by the big leap from writing for quintet to orchestra (33 instruments), he discovered more opportunities and became even more driven to compose his first symphony, Accordionist’s Fantasy. That piece won first place in the inaugural Laszlo and Fran Veres Young Composers Competition held by the Foothills Philharmonic in Tucson.
Participating in both the Advanced 1 and Advanced 2 Classes, Ryoto composed two new works this season.
First Steps Among the Trees is about a new discovery in familiar woods. He was inspired by Suppe’s works and later received a new idea from listening to Steve Reich’s Mallet Quartet at the TSO concert Rhythmic Fusion. He hopes the percussionists will enjoy the unusually busy parts for the YCP.
From Sunset to Nightfall, the inspiration came from his personal experience. Ryoto describes, “At the time of sunset, there is the quietest moment and nothing seems to move. All I feel is the gentle wind and the warmth from the sunbeam. That makes me calm, but at the same time I feel something like sadness for the sun setting. At nightfall, I feel more energetic, maybe it’s from the energy the setting sun passed to me.”
