Barlow’s piece wins Composition Prize

Carla Kay Barlow illustrates that hard work leads to success.

Barlow, a graduate student working toward a master’s degree in composition, is the winner of the 2001 UNM Composition Prize for her piece “Tease thru Twos, Threes,” which will be featured at the “New Music, New Mexico” concert in Keller Hall Monday night at 7:30 p.m. She said the prize is a symbol of the hard work she has done in her life and that her music is recognized by someone else as being unique and creative.

“I was, sincerely, pretty excited,” she said. “Say what you want about self-validation being most important; it’s still pretty cool to have someone else think your work is decent.”

Rather than using famous musicians as her key influence, Barlow sees music as a reciprocating theme in her life.

“There are different schools of why we (music composers) do this; to move people, or to be moved ourselves,” she said. “John Cage said, ‘I don’t want to change the music; I want the music to change me.’ I’ve felt this shift in myself over the last few years.”

When Barlow isn’t composing, she plays a variety of instruments, including the piano, guitar and drums. She also does sampling, a form where an artist takes a song from another artist and mixes it into a song they are composing, with an improvisational group called Out of Context, led by Santa Fe composer J.A. Deane. She also plays guitar and keyboards in a salsa band called the Pachanga Sisters.

Barlow is a student in the “New Music, New Mexico” class taught by concert coordinator Kevin Vigneau. This class was formed last fall to allow students to get an in-depth study of music composition. Vigneau said this class focuses on students polishing their composition skills and who have a chance at featuring their compositions at a concert.

Barlow said that although she has been composing and performing most of her life, she knows thousands of music students just like her are trying to get their work noticed.

“We’ve got a building brimming with performers and a handful of composers, yet the composition students had to really work at getting their pieces considered, much less performed,” she said. “Now we have the ‘New Music, New Mexico’ class, which is also a great educational vehicle.”

Students enrolled in the “New Music, New Mexico” class submitted compositions for the concert in February. The compositions that won will be featured at the concert and include Raven Chacon’s “Female Rain Approaching” and Chris Hodges’ “Suite.” UNM professor Rick Herman will also contribute a piece at the concert titled, “There is No Easy Way to Heaven,” which will be performed by Carrie Koffman on saxophone.

Albuquerque composer Nina Schoenfield-Carlson wrote a piece especially for the concert based on a Rudyard Kipling’s tale, “The Beginning of Armadillos.” Piazolla’s “History of the Tango” will also be performed at the concert.

The “New Music, New Mexico” concert will be held Monday in Keller Hall at 7:30 p.m. Admission is free.