Janie Boschma

When assistant professor of music Ethan Wickman taught at Indiana University-South Bend, he met and performed with other colleagues in the Avalon String Quartet.

Now, as one of UW-Eau Claire’s newest composition professors, Wickman has composed a piece for the group, thanks to a grant from the Barlow Endowment for Music Composition at Brigham Young University.

“It is a nice incentive” Wickman said with a laugh, referring to the $6,000 commission he will receive. He also considers it reimbursement for his time spent composing the piece, he said.

“It’s thrilling to write for that group,” Wickman said about the Avalon String Quartet.

Wickman was one of about 135 composers to apply for the grant and only twelve made the cut, according to a university press release.

Junior Megan J. Peterson, who has Wickman for Advanced Written Music Theory, said she values Wickman’s contribution to the music department.

“You can really tell he loves what he does and teaches the class in a way the students can relate,” Peterson said.

After several months spent refining the piece, Wickman said he needed a “new innovative way to approach the group.”

The artistic expressions of Eastern religion, primarily Hinduism, and yoga practice sparked Wickman’s creativity, he said. Also taking inspiration from the Hindu greeting Namaste – roughly translated “the light (or divine) within me salutes the light within you.” In which the “color of one instrument anticipates and salutes the color of the next”.

In a sense, the instruments will be “playing against one another” while acting as a “pair” Wickman said. The piece will also have to do with the Devi, the Hindu female aspect of the divine.

Still in a rough draft state, there is much to work to be done on the piece, Wickman said, explaining he will spend a portion of his winter break at Northern Illinois University working with the Avalon String Quartet and the early form of the piece.

He said he hopes to have the final piece by March – just in time for an April 2008 premiere at NIU and Chicago’s Symphony Center, with the Avalon String Quartet coming to Eau Claire to perform the piece next spring.

The grant encourages creativity, Wickman said, allowing him to “bring the professional world to (his) students,” because musicians and composers “depend on resources to keep art going.”