Last weekend, four Jacobs composers left the frozen north to attend the Sixteenth Biennial Festival of New Music at Florida State University in Tallahassee. The festival adjudicators selected 33 pieces from over 400 submissions, including works by doctoral students Eric Lindsay (Town’s Gonna Talk, for mixed ensemble), Steven Snethkamp (Lullaby, for piano), and Ben Taylor (Leaving White, for orchestra), along with Red Plumes, for cello and electronics, by John Gibson, Assistant Professor (Composition and Electronic Music).
Also programmed were works by IU Composition alumni Martin Kennedy (Trivial Pursuits) and Justin Merritt (Standard Deviation), whose pieces were performed by another alumnus, Ben Sung, now Assistant Professor of violin at Florida State. The compositions were well received by the audience, and many noticed the pervasive presence of the Jacobs School.