
Ways of Resonance: The Sound of Friendship through Indeterminacy in Large Ensemble Contexts
Christopher Ramos
Utah Valley University
Pecos II
Thursday, March 27th
8:50 am
Clinic Synopsis
Through work and research in Disability Studies, I have begun to wonder how principles of Universal Design for Learning (UDL) can be effectively applied within our large ensemble contexts, potentially increasing access to our programs for marginalized students. Compositional indeterminacy (aleatory, graphic notation, open works, etc.) offers one option toward increasing student agency in the large ensemble music making process, which is a fundamental goal in the UDL framework. In this presentation, I explain some ways directors/conductors/teachers can use indeterminate elements in our repertoire as one possible means of applying the principles of UDL. I first illustrate some key definitions and some of the philosophy related to both UDL and musical indeterminacy. I then relate the framework to the practice of open musical works. In the last part of the presentation, I demonstrate how to apply these ideas through the teaching and performance of “Sonic Pathways” by Lauren Coons, an open work in which simple motives are interpreted, shared, and modified in response to others by ensemble members as part of the work itself. Coons originally wrote the work for a health sciences center orchestra, which involved varying instrumentation and varying performer ability from week to week. There is no limitation on which or what kinds of instrumentalists can participate. So by design, every performance is different based on the collective decisions of the ensemble in the moment, and even the audience becomes privy to how different individual choices can both be celebrated and subsequently shape the form of the music. In such a performance we can make social connection and adaptation to each other audible for ourselves and our audiences, something Helen Phelan has called “sonic hospitality.” In 2024, the UVU Wind Symphony performed this work with Coons in residence, demonstrating how such a work is easily adaptable for the college band setting, as well as any educational band or orchestra setting.
Biography
Christopher Ramos is currently serving as Director of Bands at Utah Valley University in Orem, Utah. He conducts the UVU Wind Symphony and directs instrumental studies within the music education area. Prior to working in higher education, he served as a band director at Dalat International School in Penang, Malaysia where he taught Western classical and jazz music in performing and theory courses across grades 6-12. He is also an active scholar working at the intersection of wind band studies, musicology, and music education.
In 2022 he received the Goldstein Award from the University of Hartford, and in 2016 he received the Joanne Kealinohomoku Prize from the Society of Ethnomusicology Southwest for scholarship combining these interests. He holds degrees from The Hartt School where he studied with Glen Adsit and Edward Cumming, the University of New Mexico where he studied with Eric Rombach-Kendall, and from East Texas A&M University (formerly Texas A&M University-Commerce) where he studied with Phillip Clements, Luis Sanchez, and Mike Morrow.
An avid supporter of new music, he has been part of many commissioning projects and has recorded with the Naxos, Parma, and Summit record labels. He is an active member in the College Band Directors National Association, Utah Music Educators Association, American Musicological Society, and National Association for Music Education.