Hello! My name is Chase and I am a '25 from South Carolina. I'm currently considering studying more film scoring and video game composition to learn about writing music for movies and games! But when I'm not hanging out with friends or doing classwork, you can find me composing music. I'm involved in the Dartmouth College Wind Ensemble (DCWE), Dartmouth Chamber Orchestra (DCO), and the fraternity Zeta Psi.
As someone who did not know the ins and outs of marine policy, I loved learning about aspects of the blue economy. This class encourages us to be aware of the human aspect of marine problems regarding coastal erosion, pollution, and climate change. Professor Webster is the coolest!
I could not recommend this class enough to anyone who goes to this school! Professor Beaudoin has truly influenced me as both a musician and a student. We learn the music from the 1800's to present day including famous composers like Tchaikovsky, but also music by Beyonce and even the music of Dartmouth's professors. This is much more than a music history class. It is a class about music, our lives, and exploring the concept of sonder through musical lens.
If you're scared of coding or have a love for music, this is the class for you. This computer science class is cross-listed with music to teach students how to code using a language called processing to learn the basic principles of design through coding. We created several projects throughout the term, but Professor Casey really taught me that there is more to music than I think. For my final, I created an interactive keyboard which created a visual effect for each key that created music which made it a musical instrument! Genuinely such an amazing and fun class that I think people should consider.
Although this class is only offered during the F.I.R.E. study abroad program, it was such an amazing class. I absolutely adored having Professor Canepa teach us about Italy from its politics, music, food, and much much more. This class taught me hands on what Italian culture is through visits to famous landmarks, food tastings, or tours of Italian regions. If you don't want to study abroad, I suggest taking a class with Professor Canepa because she truly is one of my favorite professors I have had yet.
FallHanover, New Hampshire
I was on an off term, but decided to live on campus to join a fraternity and work in town. I took the time to write music for one of my friend's short films and learned a lot about the film music industry.
Dr. Moseley has been one of my most favorite professors by far. I have loved taking this class to divulge into my musical passion through creating music and learning about ways to create music. If you are interested in taking a music class, I highly recommend Dr. Moseley if you find a class with him that interests you!
I took this class with composer Miguel Kertsman who was incredibly knowledgeable in every type of compositional technique that I wanted. I studied electronic music composition with him to understand music digital signal processing better.
Although I'm not a fan of reading literature for the classroom, this class completely changed the way I perceive literature. I adored this class with Prof. Hollister as it engaged with the dissections of film, novels, and short stories regarding how humanity views the end of the world.
I took an off-term this Fall, but I decided to sit in on a class on how to arrange music for strings and woodwinds! After many hours of long work, I had a piece performed and recorded by professional musicians that I worked on in the class!
This has to be arguably one of my favorite classes I have taken at Dartmouth with one of the most qualified and talented professors! Throughout the term, I mixed eight different songs of all different genres and learned the ins and outs of sound engineering. This means figuring out the best ways to create and produce music in the industry. Now, I feel confident publishing my own music and have started helping others publish theirs too by working on their projects!
Jodie Mack's "History of Visual Music" truly changed my Dartmouth career. In their class, students learn about the ways artists has dealt with the intersection of sound and sight through film, sculpture, and live performance. Throughout the term, students present two films or performances of their own creative works. Now, Professor Mack is one of my advisors for my thesis which is a long-form piece of visual music!
SummerGreer, SC
During this Summer, I spent time at home with my parents while teaching at a high school marching band. I took a lot of time to write music to prepare my composition portfolio for grad school applications and took time to visit friends before we graduate!
Throughout this year, I am working on a film entitled "Queer Idyll." You can read more about the senior fellowship and my project on the blog, or at the link on above. My favorite part of my research and project this term has been visiting farms owned or cared for by queer individuals. I have witness so many amazing stories, beautiful locations, and friendly people!
I had an amazing time this term being a part of the Dartmouth College Wind Ensemble (DCWE for short)! Although I loved joining the ensemble last term, I felt that the DCWE really solidified as an ensemble this term. In this post, I'll talk about what it is like to be a part of the DCWE. Also, I'm going to talk about most of the instrumental performance ensembles that people can participate in on campus.
I have to start with the DCWE first, since I am heavily involved! This ensemble is a group of 50 people who play wind and percussion instruments. We rehearse two times a week which is normal with an ensemble at the Hopkins Center. Currently, the DCWE is beginning to perform the world premieres from the composition competition from 2020. It was an awesome experience to perform those pieces and meet one of the composers. Since I am now responsible for the DCWE's social media, I got time to talk with Quinn Mason, the composer, and did an Instagram takeover with him. It was an amazing opportunity to just talk a little about him and how the music came to be.
Elizabeth Borowsky (our recording producer), Quinn Mason (our guest composer) and Brian Messier (our conductor!) standing in front of the DCWE concert poster for this term!
However, there are several other big ensembles on campus that people can join. Earlier this term, I played a percussion ensemble with the Jazz Coast's percussion. This group is a smaller ensemble of amazing musicians who play hits from the jazz classics to the latest works of talented composers. It is an absolute blast to listen to their concerts, and I highly recommend going to one if you ever can when in Hanover. Another group that is a part of the Hopkins Center is the Dartmouth Symphony Orchestra (DSO). The symphony orchestra typically chooses one symphony to focus on in their concert with a few pieces alongside it. This term they will be performing Mahler's Fourth Symphony and I am very excited to listen to it. I potentially may join this ensemble next term.
A picture I took with some of my friends supporting one of my performances!
Although those are the main Hopkins Center groups, there are still several other ways to get involved in instrumental performance on campus. There is a student-run ensemble called the Dartmouth Chamber Orchestra (DCO) that anyone can join. At the moment, I play string bass in the ensemble which is a nice challenge. Another way to play instrumental music is through the classes Dartmouth offers itself. I am also in the contemporary music lab where we explore improvisation and the world of experimental music. This is my absolute favorite rehearsal of the week, since I love the instructor so much. There are also classes to play in smaller ensembles or even take music lessons. Eventually, I will hopefully have done as much as I can, and I highly recommend you listen to some of these ensembles some day! Plenty of videos online exist of these groups performing too!
As a senior, one of the most exciting things for me is my thesis project. In this blog, I describe how to approach making a senior honors thesis. As Dartmouth focuses on their undergraduate research, many students complete a thesis, so let's dive in!
I recently visited the Harold Edward Cable Makerspace, a workspace designed for students to create personal projects. Read about some of the different tools available and what I made!
Coming back to Dartmouth for my senior year, I have been loving pursuing my major. However, what I love about the liberal arts education is that you can take classes for interest far beyond any classes in your major.
