Submitted Photo
While the thought of composing a song with indigenous birds may seem intriguing, doing so for two violins, which at first blush don’t quite seem to fit the mode of a tweet or cackle, and for seven minutes, sounds even more daunting a task.
Yet songwriter Jaclyn Breeze of Chili, who obtained her master’s in music composition this May from Syracuse University and bachelor’s in flute performance from Roberts Wesleyan College, described it as anything but.
“A teacher in Wisconsin at St. Norbert College was having a bird-themed recital this fall, and she was familiar with my work. And she said that she wanted to use the calls of the birds in her area kind of as a basis for the piece. And so from there, I was free to do what I wanted. Just with that idea in mind,” Breeze said during an interview with The Batavian. “It was fun. It’s going to be premiered in November.”
Breeze’s primary focus while pursuing her master’s degree was composing music, which she does on a commission basis for groups and individuals, but then she began to miss the performance aspect of her work, she said, and so she promoted her flute concerts to area churches and organizations.
“I loved going for my master's degree doing composition. But I found that I really missed performing, which, you know, I got to do a lot as a performance major in my undergrad,” she said. So after I graduated, I decided that was something that I was going to make a priority in my life, make sure that I was still getting my performance.”
She will be part of the Fall Concert Series at Batavia First Presbyterian Church, with a concert at 6 p.m. Wednesday at 300 E. Main St., Batavia.
As many kids do in elementary school, Breeze began her instrumental career. When asked why she picked the flute out of all the possible instruments, Breeze wasn’t entirely sure.
“I don't know, I just enjoy it. It's fun to work on. I'm not really sure why I chose that. I guess when I went to college, I kind of was deciding between doing flute and going for vocal performance. And I just started on flute,” she said. “And that was kind of that. I had taken lessons for both in high school. I don't really know when this decision was made, or why I made it.”
She also plays piano and saxophone, and comes from a musical family — her mom always sang with Breeze as a child, she said, and her great-grandpa played a lot of different instruments.
“He was always trying to get different instruments and getting new things. He usually had a harmonica with him. And I remember him playing just different string instruments. I'm not sure exactly. You know now I can't remember what they all were,” she said. “When it came time to pick an instrument in fourth grade, I was really excited about it. I think by the time I was in high school, I knew that music was what I wanted to do.”
Breeze has taught music at the Setnor School of Music at Syracuse University as a teaching assistant and was a guest lecturer at the University of Kentucky for Intro to Music and Jazz History.
She has collaborated on new music compositions with the Society for New Music in Syracuse the last two years and has also had several commissioned works with groups including the Rochester Philharmonic Orchestra and Rococo Quartet.
Self-described as a “composer, collaborator and creator” on her website, she’s a member of Pi Kappa Lambda, an age group winner of the 2022 Warren County Summer Music School’s Promising Young Composer Competition and received Honorable Mention in 2021 for the Hypotenuse Trio COVID Commission.
When asked about the difference between playing the flute and clarinet, two woodwind instruments usually found near each other in a band, she said that all of the air has to be blown into the clarinet, versus the flute, which gets about 70 percent of the air, meaning that 30 percent of the air is lost.
“So it definitely takes a good amount of air to get that going, get the sound going, and keep it,” she said, addressing prospective concertgoers. “I don’t want them to see a flute concert and think ‘Oh, this is going to be boring.’ The program that I have set up is music of pretty much the last 100 years. And some of that is really beautiful impressionist music, and some of that is rock music that was written six months ago. The program is varied and there is stuff that anyone who likes going to a strictly classical concert will enjoy. There’s also stuff that people who don’t typically enjoy classical music will enjoy.”
Her portion of the concert will be about 45 minutes, and local musician Melzie Case will lead a hymn sing for another 15 minutes. The concert is free and open to the public.
Breeze is also scheduled for a free concert at 11:30 a.m. on Oct. 22 at Le Roy Presbyterian Church, 7 Clay St., Le Roy.
To hear samples of her work, go to https://www.jaclynbreeze.com
