I’m Laurel Luke Christensen and I’m overjoyed/thrilled/pinching-myself to be Harmonium Choral Society’s next composer-in-residence.

I began writing music seriously at age 30 when I entered my first composition competition. Com-petitions offered 1. anonymity and 2. deadlines, both of which were necessary for me to move forward. Having grown up in rural Colorado, I had had some catching up to do in college, and had spent my early years of teaching studying theory and composition on the side. Now, oppor-tunities have flowed in an abundance that is staggering to me, with works of mine being per-formed by school, college, community, professional, and All-State choirs. So much of this is due to socially mindful conductors, and composers, who intentionally seek out new composers like me, and advocate for them.

Because I spent so many years stuck in a compositional cocoon, a certain amount of longing comes through in my music. I tend to write music that exists in a place of irresolution, conflicting feelings, and sometimes darkness, and I aspire to write music that functions, in part, as a means of advocacy. Aesthetically, I enjoy playing with extended harmonies, aleatory, mixed and asym-metric meters, quartal and quintal harmonies, and modes. I design each piece to have a moment that “pierces” and a moment that “thuds.” (I’m inspired by Jonathan Dove’s climactic golden sec-tions that “pierce,” and Dale Trumbore’s bare, colloquial moments that “thud.”) I love the musical crystallization of mixed emotions, the process of working out its mathematical puzzles, and the play inherent in its creation. Every hour that I spend in a “room of [my] own,’” culling my own brain for ideas, is a gift that I hope I never take for granted.

Dr. Matlack is among the type of supportive and forward thinking conductors that have helped me see a light ahead for my career. She has created a choral community that pursues excel-lence as a means to amplify diverse and new voices, strengthen communal bonds, and respond with empathy to the events around them. Harmonium Choral Society is skilled, warm, and for-ward thinking, and I hope I can aid in furthering their mission and writing music that will be satis-fying and inspiring for their singers and audiences. As a part of this role, I will also have the op-portunity to give feedback to young composers and I look forward to assessing their work with the supportive spirit of those whose generous assessments have built me up over the years. I can not express enough gratitude for this opportunity and I cannot wait to get started.

Emerging Composer in Residence