Lipscomb student composer named national finalist
Janel Shoun |
Rickelton, the first student to receive Lipscomb’s newly designated bachelor of music degree, has been named a national finalist in the Music Teachers National Association (MTNA) Young Artist Composition Competition.
He has been declared the Southern Division Winner in the MTNA competition for the third movement of his string quartet, Arroyo for String Quartet, which was recently performed at Rickelton’s recital on Jan. 26. The national winner of the competition will be announced in mid-February, and the winning composition will be performed in Toronto, Canada in March.
“I have always been taken with the medium of the string quartet,” said Rickelton, who had previously written several award-winning choral compositions. “All the possibilities with the instruments are phenomenal. It intrigues me.”
Arroyo is a progression of emotion from somber and dissonant to rhythmic and majestic. The final movement, the piece entered in the competition, is very driving and fun for the players, said the composer.
Rickelton’s primary instrument is his voice, he said, but he plays a little violin and piano. He graduated as a vocal music education major, but he hopes to compose music as a career. In fact, he intended most of his study of musical instruments to help him become a better composer, he said.
Rickelton already boasts a first place win in the Southeastern Composers League Arnold Salop Memorial Composition Contest, a second place in the Bluffton College Choral Composition Contest and finalist honors for the Ithaca College Choral Composition Contest and the Meister Singers Choral Composition Contest. All won since 2004.
Last summer he was accepted as a scholarship student to the European American Musical Alliance in Paris, France, where he was able to study with professors from Julliard and the Paris Conservatory.
The Music Teachers National Association is a nonprofit organization comprised of 24,000 independent and collegiate music teachers committee to advancing the value of music study and music making. The MTNA composition competition encourages creativity and self-expression in student musicians and recognizes their achievements.
Lipscomb University’s Jonathan Saunders previously won the MTNA competition at the state level four times and one year he came in second place nationally during his time at Lipscomb. In addition, Lipscomb alumni Lincoln Hanks was the national winner of the competition while in graduate school in Indiana.