Iron Composer Results
Sunny Knable, First Prize
Travis Jeffords, Second Prize
Andrew Jamieson, Third Prize
In the three years that ANALOG arts has been presenting Iron Composer, there has been a tiebreak each time, but the real drama yesterday was provided by the winner, Sunny Knable.
At 2:30 p.m., he wasn’t done writing, even though he knew that there is a 3-point penalty for not finishing on time. Each additional half hour past the deadline yields an additional 2-point penalty. Sunny ended up with a total penalty of 5 points, but his total score of 141 was high enough that he could have written for another hour and still won the competition. Travis Jeffords’ second place total was 131 points.
The competition for the third prize couldn’t have been closer. Andrew Jamieson and John Rot were tied with 119 points. (Devin Farney missed the tiebreak competition by only 1 point!) Andrew had an edge over John by 3 points in the Use of the Secret Ingredient and Originality.
When the challenge was revealed at 9 a.m. yesterday morning, the composers’ reactions made it evident that this was the hardest competition yet! The work of the composers in such a short time span continues to astound everyone who hears it, and what can you say about the consummate professionalism of the musicians last night? They had just 24 minutes to rehearse each piece, amidst a beehive of activity as BWTV and WCLV set up. In that barely contained chaos, they whipped together wonderful renditions of each composer’s score.
Mark Satola emceed brilliantly, with a particularly charming retelling of Little Red Riding Hood, and the judges were wonderful sports about commenting and scoring pieces that they’d only heard once (while they had to sit onstage in front of a full house). The crowd had a great time, too. It’s hard to think of another occasion where the world premieres of five new pieces would be met with such an engaged audience.
There are an abundance of people to thank for the success of the event, including Make Music for their continued institutional support and Aladdin’s for providing the contestants’ lunch. Look for audio and video in this space soon!
It is no accident that Sunny was ready to compose Oct. 2nd. He has been composing at the pace of one on fire, throughout undergrad years, while receiving three music degrees; BA’s in Theory/Composition, in Jazz and in Piano performance. Encouraging camaraderie, he composed for any combination of instruments his fellow music majors could throw at him. By his senior year, faculty had asked him to take on, as well as full-blown orchestra and concert band pieces, an evening of Soprano/Tuba for professors in performance. While being a state university (which guarantees an excess of general education requirements), CSUS’s music department is staffed by PhD’s from Julliard, New England Conservatory, USC, Indiana U., San Francisco Conservatory, and award winners of Fulbright-Hays and Royal Conservatory in the Hague, so Sunny was put through the paces.
After graduating, he decided to become a working musician in NYC for a couple years. While earning his living at piano, Sunny has continued composing, including his half-hour piano piece for Richard Cionco “American Variations” played at Schlern International Music Festival. Obviously, you are hearing his mother’s pride. But, what I can tell about Sunny best is his steady love, sense of humor and perspective which guide his life and help shape his music. He is the sunshine on our family.