Sophomore Claire Glickert attended the American Festival for the Arts for the first time the summer before she began seventh grade. Since then, she has been a part of AFA’s composition program and recently participated as a composer in the Houston Ballet Summer Intensive Program.
Over the course of two weeks, Glickert composed an instrumental piece focused on the emotional journey of 18th century Russian Empress Catherine the Great. For her efforts, Glickert received the Jefferson Todd Fraiser award, which recognizes the composer who best exemplifies AFA’s values. She was also selected to partner with Houston Ballet choreographers and dancers to bring the piece to life.
Glickert composed her piece, “The Journey of Catherine the Great,” for violin, horn, trombone and clarinet, but she has also composed for piano, bassoon, flute, cello and voice.
After composing the piece and explaining her vision to the choreographers, Glickert collaborated with them throughout the summer intensive program, working towards production. AFA also hosts reading sessions in which professional musicians sight-read submitted work to allow students to hear their compositions out loud, receive feedback and experiment with the different ways their music can be performed.
Though Glickert has met many supportive mentors and talented female composers, she was the only female composer in last year’s summer program and studied predominantly male composers. Still, Glickert takes pride in being a female composer and hopes the field continues to diversify.
“It is important to have diverse perspectives in the arts,” she said. “Music composition is one area where women are underrepresented.”
Although she composed her most recent piece in only two weeks, Glickert says self-doubt often presents an obstacle during the process, as she may begin overthinking or questioning if a piece is “good enough.” To combat this, she turns to improvisation.
“When I improvise at the piano, I am able to let the notes flow out of me,” Glickert said. “There’s no room for doubt or second guessing my music.”
Glickert also tries “sketching” songs before beginning them, allowing her to structure the journey or emotion of each piece and develop it as she composes.
“It can be a difficult, time-consuming and frustrating process,” Glickert said. “But I feel so proud every time I finish a score and hear my music come to life.”
Glickert also composes pieces that draw inspiration from her classes at school.
“My classes at St. John’s give me a lot of perspective,” she said. “I’ve even written a piece inspired by the scientific method that tries to capture the feelings of observation, experimentation and discovery.”
Glickert plans to continue her journey of composing next summer at both Boston University Tanglewood Institute, where she will draw more focus to electroacoustic production, and at USC’s Music and Brain summer program, where she will study the intersection between music and the brain.
“I would definitely recommend AFA to other students who are interested in composing,” Glickert said. “We’re so fortunate to have access to such a diverse and talented community of artists in Houston.”
