Young composers take center stage

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A glance at many a classical concert program might give the impression that a requirement for inclusion is being a long-dead white male composer. Cordancia Chamber Orchestra will prove otherwise this weekend when it features local composers Alyssa Rodriguez and Kevin Leysath II in two free children’s concerts called “We Write Classical Music!”

With the youthful creators participating in a discussion of their music, children and their families will see that classical composers are also alive and well—and may even live in their neighborhood. 

Kevin Leysath II

A graduate of Nazareth University and currently studying at New York University, Leysath II is the recipient of the 2024 American Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers’s Jimmy Van Heusen Award, recognizing a promising composer pursuing a career in television and film scoring. That has always been Leysath’s ambition; he remembers crying while watching a movie as a child “because of the music, and how it supported the emotions in the story.” 

“It was an epiphany moment for me,” he says.

Leysath’s “Red Tail Visions” is a short program piece depicting a young boy playing with a toy airplane and dreaming of an adventure as a Black pilot with the heroic Tuskegee airmen of World War II. It’s also a brief film score; while the music plays, images by local children’s book artist Rosemary Shojaie will be projected illustrating the story. 

Along with several film and TV scores, Leysath has also written several chamber and orchestral works. 

“Film scoring is my main interest,” he says, “but with concert music I get to make up my own stories.”

Rodriguez came to Rochester in 2014 as an AmeriCorps volunteer teacher. She studied violin, viola and music composition at Ithaca College, where she also immersed herself in “a ton of folk music—Irish and Nordic fiddle music and playing for contradances.” 

Alyssa Rodriguez

Nordic folk music became her favorite, and in 2021-22 she received a Fulbright Fellowship to study and research at the Sibelius Academy in Helsinki.

Rodriguez’s “Kalevala for Kids” is a retelling of a Finnish myth of how the world was created (briefly, a very large egg was involved). The story is found in the “Kalevala,” Finland’s national epic poem, a source of ancient stories that have been a continuing source of inspiration to classical composers, heavy metal bands and “Lord of the Rings.”

“Kalevala for Kids” will feature Rodriguez performing on the kantele, a zitherlike instrument with five strings played in the performer’s lap, the pleasingly twangy sound of which Rodriguez describes as “quiet and easy to hear.”  (She’s also one of the few American performers on the Swedish nyckelharpa, a similar instrument.) 

Both pieces were originally commissioned and performed by the Irondequoit Community Orchestra in chamber-orchestra versions. For this weekend’s concert, Rodriguez and Leysath reconceived their music for a string quintet—string quartet plus bass. For further spring performances (see below), the composers will add wind instruments and horn parts. 

“Each concert will offer a chance to hear Alyssa and Kevin’s music in different instrumental colors,” says Cordancia’s artistic director Evan Meccarello. The new pieces will be complemented by music by several Black and Latina composers from the 18th to the 20th and 21st centuries.

Eno Okung (Kelly Kester Photography)

Rochester director, improvisor, and actor Eno Okung will host “We Write Classical Music!,” narrating “Kalevala for Kids “and “Red Tail Visions.” Shojaie’s illustrations of Rodriguez and Leysath’s pieces will not only be projected during the performances; concert attendees will be able to take them home in a free, fully illustrated booklet. The concerts are made possible by the City of Rochester’s ArtsBloom initiative.

For Meccarello, this kind of informative, inclusive, hands-on program represents what Cordancia does best. 

“Our mission has always been to perform less-heard works and established classics, to create a vibrant musical experience for the entire community,” he says. “Even after a concert geared to children, I’ve had adults say to me, ‘I learned so much from that!’”

Cordancia Chamber Orchestra presents “We Write Classical Music!” with the Cordancia String Quintet on January 25 at 2 p.m. at the Rochester Central Library and January 26 at 2 p.m. at Stardust Ballroom, 41 Backus Street. Free admission. The full orchestra will perform Alyssa Rodriguez and Kevin Leysath II’s music on June 7 at 2 p.m. at the Rochester Central Library and on Sunday, June 8, at 2 p.m. at the Community Place, 57 Central Park.

David Raymond is a Rochester Beacon contributing writer.

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