Students in Professor Larry Starr's Fall Quarter Music Criticism class investigated many story angles in their quest to reveal fascinating aspects of the University Symphony's preparations for its Friday, Dec. 10 concert at Meany Theater. The result: seven student-authored articles now posted on a new section of the School of Music website titled Student Writings.
The articles include interviews with student musicians, conductor Jonathan Pasternack, and soloist Ron Patterson and offer insiders' views of the workings of a symphony orchestra, selection of repertoire, and the mindset of a soloist, among other aspects.
"The students worked very, very hard to do the background research and then produce their articles within a limited time frame," says Professor Starr. "All class members participated in a round-table group editing of all the articles. The students are not only fine writers, they are astute and demanding critics of one another's work."
The class, open to music major senior undergraduate students and music graduate students, requires participants to submit a writing sample before enrolling. Professor Starr then selects participants based on those samples. Participating students for Fall Quarter included Mitchell Drury, Paula Horner, Sarah Marroquin, Phillip Tschopp, Jeremiah Cawley, Susanna Valleau, Jonathan Bezdegian, and Lisa Beebe.
Readers may access the students' articles here.