On April 19, 2025, students in Miami University’s Advanced Analysis (MUS 406) course collaborated with the MetroParks of Butler County to create a musical performance centered around the themes of Naturalism, Advocacy, and Conservation. This free, public concert took place at Meadow Ridge in Middletown, Ohio, on an overcast, windy afternoon with sun peaking through at the tail end of the performance.
The student-designed capstone project educated and promoted the MetroParks to audiences through a selection of pieces written after 1950 by underrepresented or minority composers, as well as through the performance of student-composed pieces in response to the chosen music. This program of music aimed to represent, recreate, or elevate the experience of being in nature in the hopes of connecting music with the nature found in local parks.
The program and the recording of the performance will soon be available on the project’s website. The website materials and concert program were all also designed by students.
After considering a few of the Metro Park locations, the students voted on the Meadow Ridge MetroPark in Middletown for a number of reasons. It was a beautiful park with a covered venue for the performance, was very accessible for both performers and audience members, and perfectly reflected the goals of this project. The park is located on the grounds of a former golf course, which was sold and transformed into a beautiful park. This reflects the conservation and naturalism ideals, as it is a wonderful example of conserving the natural beauty of the landscape, a true success story.
The pieces chosen for this performance were Evolution and Wing-bones by Ashlin Hunter, Umoja by Valerie Coleman, and Joy Boy by Julius Eastman. In response to the works chosen for that afternoon, Miami University composers were tasked with composing response works to also be performed during the event. The pieces, based on Hunter’s Evolution and Wing-bones, reflected the wide range of styles and topics addressed by the individual composers and were all associated with the core tenets of the performance.
Mitsi Dixon, a fourth-year Composition Major, regarding her work fixative, states: “It was once said that a squirrel could cross the continental United States without touching the ground. This is no longer true, as fields have overtaken forests and cities marshes; but interstitial highways of green still glue together our living places, even if that glue wears every day.” Her piece maintains an introspective ambiance by experimenting with various colors of the crotales, a percussion instrument constituted of small metallic discs, as well as utilizing extended techniques for alto saxophone.
Another fourth-year composition major, Ezra Simmons, reflects on noise pollution in his work As Quiet as Possible. Simmons utilizes gentle rhythmic crescendi in the snare drum—an intentionally misleading decision—to simulate the rustling of leaves, and sparse orchestration to encourage active listening to the environment as part of the musical space.
Much of the student body that was associated with this project shared the role of performing this collection of works; both the chosen and written works. These students were responsible for organizing themselves into “chamber groups” – smaller ensembles made up of anywhere from a few to several instruments – and scheduling rehearsals for their respective ensembles.
The rehearsal process was a multi-week undertaking, as most of the music was new or unfamiliar material to the student performers. Rehearsals had to be more than just playing music; the performers had to work together to develop understandings of the music, both in the background of the pieces (or the composers) and in the actual techniques required for performing them. The actual performances at Meadow Ridge were a formative experience for the student performers, as most of them do not often get the opportunity to perform concert work outdoors. Wind, distant thunder, bird songs, and the many other sounds of Meadow Ridge made for a uniquely gorgeous sonic environment for the performers to interact with; one that is hard to come by in our academic-centered world.
The students and faculty wish to thank Daniel Clepper and Suzanne Roth of the MetroParks of Butler County for their supportive partnership and expertise throughout the development of this project.
