The idea

Your loved one can be immortalized through music, thanks to a partnership between the Lewisville Lake Symphony and the internationally acclaimed College of Music at the University of North Texas.

The “Love and Immortality Project” allows anyone to commission a musical composition specially created by a UNT graduate student. The project makes gift-giving easy, providing the commissioner with a composer, performers and all of the information they need to navigate the sometimes complicated process of commissioning music.

Four UNT graduate students — Jay Alan Walls, Ben Johansen, Jiří Levíček, and Eli Fieldsteel were selected in a juried competition to serve as composers for the project. Samples of their music can be heard via links on this page. Each of the composers already has an accomplished body of work that has been performed in the US and in one case,  internationally.

Costs of the commissioned pieces will vary according to the length of the piece and the number of musicians required for performance. A work for four or fewer instruments lasting about five minutes could cost $5,000 — including the composer’s fee, a recorded copy of the composition and the performing musicians in a world premiere under the auspices of the Symphony. The time needed to create a new work varies according to the size of the piece. Small-scale works might take a few months to compose, whereas an elaborate work might require 18 to 24 months of work.
 

The Composers

Photo: Amanda Walker

The Symphony and UNT has selected a group of young, highly talented composers.  To find them, they established a juried competition.  The judges declared four of the entrants to be winners and worthy of the ambitions of the Project. Clockwise from the left:  Jiří Levíček, Jay Alan Walls, Eli Fieldsteel, and Ben Johansen,

Photo: Jonathan Walls

Immortality sometimes happens

Over the centuries, people have given music as a gift. The giver may not be remembered by history but the recipient has a shot at immortality. For example, a former Russian ambassador, Count Kaiserling, commissioned the Goldberg Variations from a local composer, Johann Sebastian Bach. The composer burnished his reputation and Johann Goldberg, in a way, became immortal. The outcome would probably satisfy the Count.
 

For most people, a gift of music involves a lot of unknowns.  What is a fair cost? How to find a really talented composer?  How to navigate the whole process?  Who has what rights to the composition?

 The Lewisville Lake Symphony's Love and Immortality Project provides a well structured path for giving the ultimate romantic gift or to honor someone remembered each day.

Responsibilities
Both the composer and the commissioner have responsibilities. The composer must produce a worthy composition. The commissioner must clearly define their wishes and then trust the composer.

The Love and Immortality Project offers four winning composers. Each has his own ‘voice.’ The commissioner should listen to the samples of their music and very carefully decide which resonates with their own musical tastes.

The commissioner must tell the composer in some detail what is important. Perhaps it is a portrait of the personality of the person to receive the gift, or be remembered. Perhaps the place or circumstances of their first meeting. Perhaps a day they always celebrate.

Once the composer has gathered the necessary insights, the commissioner must step back and trust the composer.
 

The commissioner should not request a piece ‘in the style of Chopin' - just as Chopin would not have been expected to write a piece in the style of Bach.  A piece using a theme of Chopin would work.  The result will be in the selected composer’s ‘voice’ and likely sound very different from Chopin.

Given the talent of the group of winning composers the commissioned work will likely be a wonderful gift. However, on a sobering note, sponsors of art have to live with the results of their generosity. Frank Lloyd Wright famously told a client to go plant ivy if he didn’t like the façade of the commissioned house. As some salve, the design remains much admired by architectural critics.

Costs
All things are possible – for a price. A work for four or fewer instruments lasting about five minutes costs $5,000. That includes the composer’s fee, a recorded copy of the composition and, with caveats noted below, the performing musicians.

Longer compositions and those for larger sets of musicians carry progressively higher price tags. The Symphony will be happy to provide prices after a discussion of the commissioner's intentions.

'Copying''

'Copying,' the process of creating individual versions of the score for each musician, is build into the basic price noted above.  If the commissioned piece is longer or involves a more complex group of instruments, 'copying' becomes more of an issue and has to be added into the cost structure.
 

Instrumentation

A commissioned piece to be performed in the International Chamber Series should be for four or fewer musicians, and the combination should preferably be one for which there is already an appealing repertoire.  The same musicians can thus be used for the full concert program and their performance fees will be part of the Symphony's regular expenses.

The same consideration applies to a larger piece to be played by orchestra in our Symphony Series.  Our Symphony musicians are all professionals and are paid fairly for rehearsal and performance time under a contract with the American Federation of Musicians.   

Musicians used for only the commissioned piece will run up costs for the commissioner because they must be paid as though they were performing for the full concert.

A broadly used combination of instruments also increases the prospect that the piece might be accepted into the general American repertoire. 

Taxes

Commissions are normally tax deductable if arranged through a  501(c)(3) non-profit corporation such as the Lewisville Lake Symphony. Check with your tax consultant.

Ownership
Composers retain the rights to their own work under the copyright laws, and thus the legal ownership of the piece remains with the composer. However, the commissioner is acknowledged in many ways  - on the first page of the musical score, on any official recording, in the performance program and often in other written materials.

It is customary for the commissioner to be given a presentation copy of the completed score, almost always specially inscribed by the composer. For compositions commissioned as part of the Love and Immortality Project, an archive recording will also be provided.

Most of all, the commissioner experiences a satisfying sense of participation in the creation of a new work of music.

Time

A smaller scale work, for example a set of songs for piano and voice, might be written in a few months. An elaborate work might need 18–24 months from the signing of an agreement until the work is ready for performance. Composition is a cumbersome process.  One much sought after composer noted that her recent 20 minute piece involved 156,000 notes that had to be chosen and put in the right sequence.  Another time factor to consider is how soon the selected composer is available to begin work on your project. 

Recordings
The Symphony will provide an ‘archival’ recording of the composition. It may be copied and given limited distribution to the recipient of the gift, friends and acquaintances.

Symphony Series
A recording of a performance by the Lewisville Lake Symphony can only be sold commercially or widely distributed under the terms of the contract between the Symphony and the American Federation of Musicians. This requires revenues but not expenses to be shared with the players. Usually, broad distribution incurs heavy costs and the Symphony has never found a circumstance where it could viably sell performance recordings. The same would probably be true of subsequent performances by other professional orchestras.

Chamber Series
Our Chamber Series is performed by graduate students or faculty of the College of Music at UNT. Commercial distribution is thus simpler although subject to the copyright laws noted above.

Recordings independent of the Symphony

Commercial recordings are a matter for the commissioner and the composer to establish.

Agreements

All three parties, the Symphony, as the 'marriage broker,' the commissioner and the composer, will sign a simple three-way Letter of Agreement (LOA). The commissioner and the composer then enter into a contract before work starts. Some parts are standard, some negotiable.


World Premiere
The Symphony wants to provide its audiences with exciting new 21st Century works that counterpoint the more traditional parts of its repertory. Also, pragmatically, while providing a tax free setting for the gift, part of the price includes a donation to the Symphony that helps its community outreach.

 Initial performances in a private setting are not traditionally considered a 'premiere.'

More information

For more information, you may contact the Symphony at project@lewisvillesymphony.org

Jay Alan Walls

Jay Alan Walls speaks a musical language that reflects his broad exposure to classical, jazz and popular idioms.  He received his earliest training in piano and voice in his native city, Columbus, Ohio. At the University of North Texas, where he received a master's and is completing a doctorate, Walls has studied composition with Joseph Klein, Martin Mailman, Andrew May, and Cindy McTee.  His teachers in electro-acoustic music have included Larry Austin, John Mallia, and Phillip Winsor.

A few highlights of Walls’ accomplishments at North Texas include Intimate Strangers, a soundscape for dancers and fixed media, composed in collaboration with dancers from Texas Woman’s University.  Three Sonnets by Dante Alighieri for tenor and piano was premiered at Horchow Auditorium of the Dallas Museum of Art in 2007.  Walls is currently composing L’Occhiale di Galileo, a work for full orchestra celebrating Galileo’s discoveries of the moons of Jupiter and the rings of Saturn in 1609 and 1610.  Walls’ chamber works include Fugal Waltz on a Row by Slonimsky for saxophone quartet, Three Rags for brass trio, Autographs 1928: Four Songs for Soprano and Chamber Ensemble, and Rosa: Tango, selected for performance by the Southern Methodist University String Quartet and presented on a master class with the New York-based string quartet ETHEL.

Walls’ awards in composition include the Outstanding Music Composition Studies Graduate Student Award, the Dean’s Camerata Scholarship, the Richard and Candace Faulk Scholarship, and the David M. Schimmel Memorial Scholarship.  He has taught courses in music and Italian language in Searcy, Arkansas,  in Florence, Italy, and in Houston, Dallas, and Denton, Texas.  Beyond his professional pursuits, Walls enjoys cooking Italian food and spending time with his wife, two children, family and friends, and his church.

More on Jay Alan Walls

Samples of Jay's music can be heard at www.jayalanwalls.com .

Ben Johansen
"I  am curious. Dismantling and constructing interesting mechanisms is something I grew up doing, and continue to do, because I enjoy the journey of discovering how things work and how they are made. My intense drive to understand, experience, and absorb all that I can greatly shows in my work. I love to learn, I love to teach, and I love to create.

I completed my Bachelor’s in Music Education (with a saxophone emphasis) and Master’s in Music Composition at Baylor University. I am currently at the University of North Texas (UNT) working on a Doctorate in Musical Arts in Composition Specializing in Computer Media and minoring in Installation Art.

This semester at UNT, I am a staff member of the Center for Experimental Music and Intermedia (CEMI) and a Teaching Assistant for Intermedia Performance Art class.  Additionally, I am teaching Electronic Studio at Baylor University as an adjunct professor. I have also been asked to mentor a student in the Frisco Independent Study and Mentorship (ISM) program, a new and rewarding experience for me. Teaching and inspiring others about music, electronics, and art are among my most significant ambitions.

In my music, I approach a medium very methodically in order to discover how it is made and how it works. Then, I approach writing for that medium passionately in order to fill the medium with life and communicate through it. Interactive electronic music and music for acoustic instruments are of equal curiosity to me, and visual aesthetics are very important to me. My interests lie mostly in theatrical and spatial issues, improvisation, and installation art. Giving a listener an enjoyable journey of discovering new sounds and experiencing new things are integral parts of my life as a composer.

More on Ben Johansen

Samples of Ben's work can be heard at http://www.benjohansen.com

Jiří Levíček

Jiří Levíček was born in 1984 in Brno, Czech Republic. He began studies at the Janáček Academy of Music and Performing Arts in 1999 at the secondary school, and continued at the college level receiving his Bachelor´s degree in 2006.

During the course of his academic career at the Janacek Academy, he attended summer piano courses in Prague, Český Krumlov and Kaunas (Lithuania), and participaded in jazz workshops in Prague and Brno. Jiří went to the University of North Texas College of Music in 2006 as an exchange student and has remained there to pursue the prestigious Artist Certificate and Master´s Degree. He has studied with Adam Wodnicki (classical piano), Stefan Karlsson (jazz piano) and Cindy McTee (composition), and has served as pianist for the famous One O´Clock Lab Band. His activities continue to enhance both the classical and jazz realms as a performer and composer.

Jiří has participated in a number of international piano competitions, and has performed widely both in Europe and the United States. He played his first concerto with orchestra at the age of 11; when he was fifteen he was invited to play Mozart Piano Concerto No.23 with Lithuanian Philharmonics under the baton of Paul Bermann; his first performance in USA took place at Czech Embassy in Washington D.C.; in 2009, he played for American Ambassador at The United States Embassy in Lima, Peru. In 2008, he was extensively playing with flutist James Scott both in US and Europe.

More on Jiří Levíček

Hear  two of Jiří's compositions at:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oRSM2FiZFFM

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7xT6aGYfYaI

Eli Fieldsteel

Eli Fieldsteel (b. 1986) is an American composer, conductor, arranger, and percussionist with a particular interest in music for large ensemble. His works have been performed in a number of venues across the country.

Eli became seriously interested in composition in 2002, when he joined the Wesleyan Wind Ensemble as a percussionist. Over the next three years, the group performed and recorded six of his compositions for wind band. Eli received his Bachelor’s degree in music from Brown University in 2008. During his time there, he studied composition, orchestration, and counterpoint with Gerald Shapiro. In 2005, he became the student conductor of the Brown Wind Symphony and conducted several of his new works.

Eli has studied with David Bithell, Cindy McTee, and Jon C. Nelson at the University of North Texas, where he received his Master's degree in 2010. He is currently a doctoral composition student at the University of Texas at Austin.

Eli’s recent work reflects an emerging interest in technology and electroacoustic music as well as a continuous desire to refine and personalize his rhythmic and tonal vocabulary. In 2009, Fantasy for Wind Symphony was selected as a finalist in the second Frank Ticheli Competition. In the same year, his orchestral work, Cordillera, was selected for performance by the UNT Symphony Orchestra in the school’s annual Concerto Competition. In 2010, Fantasy for Wind Symphony was selected as the winner of the first annual Bandmasters’ Academic Society of Japan competition and performed in Tokyo by the Kawagoe Sohwa Wind Ensemble.

More on Eli Fieldsteel

Samples of Eli's work can be heard at http://www.elifieldsteel.com/compositions

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