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Learn More About Elysia's Experience:

composition (music) Creativity is one of the most important aspects of music to me. Composition has always been so intriguing to me because of that. Creating your own voice and music is truly important. I have been composing music for the last 5 years. Studying at the Oberlin Conservatory really helped me in this because I was learning both advanced classical and jazz theory. Plus all of the diverse music I listen on my own, I've been exposed to many different concepts that I use in my writing. Well known jazz musicians (such as Gary Bartz, Robin Eubanks and Paul Samuels) that taught at oberlin always praised my writing and encouraged me to keep it up. I now have many originals and write as much as I can. I am especially interested in odd arrangements of instrumentation. general music Music touched me a very early age. I remember hearing Oliver Nelson's big band arrangement of "stolen Moments" when I was 11 and I was absolutely in love. Ever since then music has been my life. I have studied the saxophone intensely for 11 years and have never lost my thirst for music knowledge. I can read music very well, and write my own compositions. I have studied classical theory and jazz theory and am particularly interested in jazz improvisation. I listen to many different genres and they all influence my playing and writing. music theory At Oberlin Conservatory I took many different theory and aural skills classes. Being a jazz musician actually helped me immensely in all of these classes because you put so many different concepts to work when you improvise, which is esssential to jazz. My classical theory classes taught me a lot about composition because you can analyze anything really regardless of genre. It showed me a lot about part writing which is used in more places than is obvious. The aural skills classes were important to improving the way you hear which really puts the theory to work when you're improvising. All the classes really tied together nicely whether it was big band arranging or analyzing Bach. The later classical theory classes went into more 12 tone row, atonal, ideas which really corresponds well to "out" and/or "free" playing in jazz. It was nice to be able to apply ideas to different kinds of music. saxophone I have been playing jazz saxophone for 11 years. I started in middle school and played throughout High School. In my Junior year of High School I decided that my music education was the most important thing to me. I went into Nova Independent Studay for my last two years of high and graduated from that program in 2004. Independent Study allowed me more time to practice as well as take full time advanced jazz classes at The Jazz School in Berkeley, Ca. I studied with two different teachers, played in three high school advanced Jazz Big Bands, three combos, three saxophone quartets, and taught saxophone lessons privately as well as through the Prominence Project in Marin City, CA. I got many scholarships to music camps such as the Stanford Jazz Workshop, the Bud Shank Workshop, California State Summer School of the Arts and Jazz goes to College jazz camp at San Jose State. With the help of teachers I was able to play several times with well known jazz musicians such as James Moody, Jimmy Heath and Steve Turre at the San Jose Jazz Festival. After high school I attended the Oberlin Conservatory and studied with Gary bartz, Robin Eubanks, and Paul Cohen. While attending Oberlin I taught private saxophone lessons at Avon Lake School of Music and have been a counselor at Stanford Jazz Workshop for the last two years. I am very passionate about music and play professionally. I also write my own compositions.