Something Musically Meaningful

There are a couple of composer communities on Reddit that I look at regularly, and I happened on something of value there yesterday. It was a link to piece that Max Stwertka wrote in honor of his grandfather's uncle, the violinist Julius Stwertka, who died in Theresienstadt in 1942.

Max Stwertka is a 22-year-old senior physics and music major at Union College in Schenectady, New York. He wrote "Julius" for violin, cello, bass, and saxophone as a senior thesis project, and had the great good fortune of working for the past few years with the composer Hilary Tann, who heads the school's very small music department.

"Julius" is a work of substance, which makes it stand out amid the craft, imitation, and superficiality that I find in much of the new music I hear written by people in their twenties. It surprises me that my comments about the piece are the only comments on the Reddit post. Granted, I was interested in listening to it because I recognized Julius Stwertka as one of the violists who played in the Rosé Quartet.

I was impressed the quality of the performance, and I was impressed by the quality of the piece.

(It turns out that the violinist who played in that performance was an old friend of mine!)

At any rate, I'm posting a link to the piece here.

Not to put pressure on Max Stwertka, but I expect to hear more good music from him in the years to come.