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Please take the time to consider this program that encourages young musicians to explore composition as a route to becoming a more complete artist.
Instructor Clinton Ackerman is a wonderful teacher and a composer in his own right – the RSCP recently performed his string quartet in two different programs – who nurtures ideas in a fun and careful fashion. This is the second year of the program and works developed with Clinton are brought to life by Christian Robinson, Hyonsuk Kim, myself, and Chris Kayler. Last year was most enjoyable and produced some excellent work from the beginner composers.
You are strongly encouraged to participate.

Compose Yourself! Is a program designed for high school and university students curious about composing music, with the only requirement to join being some basic music literacy. It's all about learning to create music using your own voice - discovering, playing, and creating - and hear your music played by a group of superb musicians.
Composition is a way to both express yourself, that also develops your musicianship and understanding of music.
You do not need any theory background to do this - it can be helpful, but being open and using your ears is really what it's all about. The world of music is pretty vast.
We will have masterclasses from 3:00 - 4:00, Sunday afternoons. January 14 to June 2nd, with quite a few weekends off for school breaks and holidays. It's 17 classes all in all.
There will be a tutorial for direct feedback on compositions either before at 2:00, or after from 4:00-5:00.
Fees: Between $600 and $800 for the full program. The sliding scale will be dependent on the number of folks registered. The more the merrier! We have room to support around 10 participants.
Part 1 will run from January 14 to March 24th. This part focuses on learning about the individual instruments in the quartet (violin, clarinet, cello, and piano), and give folks an opportunity to learn about and write for each instrument. We'll also be practising some fundamentals of basic music composition - melody writing, harmony, building chord progressions, looking at form, that sort of thing.
Part 2 will run from April 7th to June 2nd. This part will be dedicated to composing pieces for the full quartet, with a mid-point reading session on May 5th, and a final reading session that participants can invite friends and family to on June 2nd. We'll look at some contemporary music practices in this part too.
Some expectations before anyone commits:
Participants will need to set aside some time throughout the week, outside of our scheduled time, to write music. The idea is that composition will become part of your practice as a musician. Developing technique and music literacy along with expressive playing (the focus of conservatory training or the band curriculum) is great. Really, the goal of music is to express something of the human experience through music. Composition is a way to both express yourself in an authentic way, that will also develop your musicianship and understanding of music.
That said - none of the tasks are particularly demanding. This isn't about length, it's about trying, discovering, and growing.
What we need from you: Just let Clinton know if you intend to register in the class and he'll send forms and a more detailed outline of the schedule your way.
We look forward to hearing back from you!
Feel free to email Clinton at [email protected], or give him a call with any questions at 306-580-7696.

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