Not Your Typical Classical Music

Penn State produces many talented students, from football stars to CEOs of major companies. Not as well known are the school’s talented musicians and music writers.

Until tonight.

At 8 p.m. in Esber Recital Hall, experience Musica Nova.

Musica Nova is a concert of new music performed by the Penn State School of Music. Music composition students have written all the music that is going to be performed in the concert.

“The music is by the composition students here and was chosen after discussion between the composers and Professor Paul Barsom, the composition professor [at Penn State],” said Josh Laughner, a sophomore studying music composition and chemistry. “Together, we decide which pieces are ready to be performed and which can be rehearsed to our performance standard in time for the concert.’

Two pieces are being performed that have been written by students. Laughner wrote “Tesseract Dances,” which takes an intellectual look into dance music.

The other piece is named “Tuseey Ridge” and was written by Matthew Leschinski and will be performed by the Penn State Saxophone Quartet. It is an exploration of contrasts within music.

Both composers have been working for months on their pieces, they are excited to sit back and watch their music be performed by other students.

‘Musica Nova isn’t your usual ‘classical music’ concert,” said Matthew Leschinski, Penn State graduate student studying music composition. “People should come with open minds, ready to be challenged by new musical ideas and approaches. This isn’t Bach, Beethoven, or Mozart.’

The concert has free admission and is going to be on tonight and Thursday at 8 p.m. at Esber Recital Hall.