"It was fantastic that all kind of thought about music was well–respected in this course. I really liked the atmosphere."
"It was awesome to hear professional musicians actually performing our compositions! And I thought Maria struck a very good balance between being very encouraging and acknowledging the merits of what we composed, while also being constructively critical."
"I like how Maria encouraged open discussion and all types of ideas and compositions."
"I was initially not thrilled that Maria's background is more in contemporary music composition, since I have a pretty negative impression of new music. My apprehension was soothed fairly rapidly though. Some of the works we ended up looking at (especially George Crumb) were truly enjoyable and remarkable. I think exposure to new music really expanded my ideas of what instruments can do and of their ability to produce unique sounds that enhance a composition, even if I don't intend to write compositions specifically using the techniques we learned."
"The creative assignments were awesome. So much fun and I feel like I learned a lot from the different constraints of each assignment."
"The discussions were always very easy going and allowed for other students to bring up points about listenings and readings that I had not considered. I also enjoyed the performance aspect of this class, because it gave us an opportunity to understand what was going well and what could have been improved in our pieces in a supportive environment."
"This class really expanded the way I thought of sound and music, somewhat in my composing but even more so in my listening. We got tons of practice with composing using a variety of styles and mediums."
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