Interesting results of a collaboration between some of our doctoral students in the Fine Arts Doctoral Program. It's a pleasure to work with students who share a common goal and are exploring unique ways to achieve it:





Above are links to the first two (of four) movements of The Dragon King's Daughter by Jason Berg, who is a doctoral student in composition. Berg comes from a strong background and attempts to synthesize his jazz training with more traditional classical compositional techniques. The inspiration for the work comes from the Lotus Sutra. The video images are by Christian Conrad, who is working toward a Ph.D. in fine arts with an emphasis on visual art. The text for the second movement was adapted from the Lotus Sutra by Kathleen Blackburn, an alumni of the School of Music and an aspiring writer. The third movement features dance, choreographed by one of the students in the dance department, Rachel Spaugh.

The performance was recorded live on February 7th, 2010 in Lubbock, featuring an ensemble comprising TTU students. Jeannie Barrick (who teaches music theory for us!) is the soprano.

Cool stuff going on in these parts!