College of Arts & Communication at UW-Whitewater

When most people think of college they think of reading a text book, learning other people’s ideas and then applying that to a test.  But there are a few students that get to apply their own original ideas into the field they are studying.  A few of the UW-Whitewater music majors are among those students that are active composers that contribute to the music field.

Johnny Kermott; a Junior pursuing a B.A in Music with a minor in Sound Production for Film Instruments: Violin, Viola, Guitar, Piano, Accordion, Mandolin, Trumpet, Cello, and Trombone

Johnny Kermott has been composing for about 8 years; he started composing both piano pieces and for his rock band.in 8th grade.   Towards high school graduation he began to include more classical elements into his compositions.  After taking lessons this year, from the composition professor, Dr. Jeff Herriott, Kermott feels that he is, “emancipated from presupposed ideas in music and what music is supposed to sound like.”  This allows him take his music wherever his inspirations, such as nature, books, other music, and philosophy lead him to.

Kermott always keeps a small notebook with him so that he can write down an idea when an inspiration comes to him.  He tries to sit down every day at set times to compose claiming, “When you write every day you begin to know yourself as a musician and how you compose better as well as a person’s creative cycles.”

Triebold has only been composing for the last 8 months but his path to composing started while in high school; when he would arrange pieces of music for different instrumentation.  One of his most memorable arranging moments from high school is when he arranged the Mortal Kombat theme song for a cappella choir for his high school madrigal dinner.  During which, he was able to participate in the sword fight that was accompanied by his piece.  To arrange the pieces, he would dictate them by ear and then arrange the pieces in a software program for musical notation.  Starting last semester, Treibold took a composition class with Dr. Herriott and began to write compositions and continued taking private lessons this semester.

Even though Kermott and Triebold have a huge difference in how long they have been composing, 8 years to 8 months respectively, they both contribute to the music field.  In both composing and performing they have their pieces played right alongside each other and always show support of each other’s musical endeavors.

Both students will have will have compositions performed at the Sonict: Student Composers Concert on Tuesday, April 24^th at 7:30 pm at the Light Recital Hall.  As performers, both students are performing at Rock For Peace on Thursday April 26^th with Triebold at 8 pm and Kermott at 9 pm at Jitters Coffeehouse. http://www.facebook.com/#!/events/110774702388596/