Composition Student Requirements: Pendulum Series
One of the most important parts of a composer’s work is making music happen—and this
means concerts! Professional composers spend a lot of time attending, participating in,
and putting on concerts. Pendulum is your opportunity to become great at the art of the
concert. It’s also a part of your composition grade!
Attendance at Pendulum concerts is mandatory for composition students! As members
of a community of composers, you need to support your colleagues. To make sure you
do, you’ll sign in on a list at each concert. Absences must be excused individually by a
member of the composition faculty. Keep those Wednesday evenings free!
Each composition student is required to present at least one piece of music on a
Pendulum concert each academic year! There’s no substitute for the experience of
hearing your music in the midst of a live audience. You’ll learn things you never knew
about what you wrote! It’s a necessary part of your studies; see below for details on
submitting works to Pendulum.
Composition students are required to give the audience a few words about their music!
You can do this either with written program notes or a spoken introduction on stage. As a
composer, you need to be able to “invite” audience members into your music. Engaging
the audience effectively with words is a challenging skill, and we’ll help you with it: you
will practice your presentation or review your program notes in your Composition
Seminar, before committing yourself to a final version.
Every composition student is required to assist in producing Pendulum concerts.
Pendulum is your concert series. It’s the result of an effort by the entire composition
community at CU! Each composition student will be assigned to a crew in charge of a
particular aspect of concert production. The crews will be overseen by student
representatives on the Pendulum committee: Production Manager Mark Nowakowski,
Undergraduate Representative Steven Snethkamp, and Graduate Representative Tim
Buckman. This term, there will be six crews and three students on each. We’ll probably
shift assignments around each term. Each composition student will also hang up at least
three posters for each concert—only one of which may be in the College of Music!
Program Crew
 obtain and verify notes, names, dates, spellings
 submit final program text to Elizabeth McNutt and Mark Nowakowski 3 weeks before show
Poster Crew
 create draft 3 weeks before show, submit to Michael Theodore and Mark Nowakowski (also
deliver hard copy to Michael Theodore’s mail box)
 create final version 2 weeks before show
 distribute posters 10 days before show (including miniature copies in faculty boxes)
Stage Crew
 organize dress rehearsal schedule, week before show
 set up instruments/tech/stands/etc., afternoon of show
 attend and help with dress rehearsals as needed
 track and implement stage changes or coordinate with stage manager, day of show
Reception Procurement and Set Up
 call in order 2-3 days before show
 pick up reception materials several hours before show
 set up reception right before show
Reception Clean Up (after show and reception are over)
 return reception room to its original state after show and reception are over
Audience Relations
 get press release from Elizabeth McNutt or Mark Nowakowski, email to Pendulum list 1 week
before show
 lay out audience response cards before show, collect them after reception
 lay out mailing list forms before show, collect them after reception
 maintain Pendulum email list based on mailing list forms
How do you put a piece on Pendulum? It’s easy! Submission forms are available from
any of the Pendulum committee or at the Pendulum bulletin board; you can also
download the form (http://spot.colorado.edu/~pendulum/pendform.doc). But that’s not all
there is to it: to make your inventions really come to life, you need to work closely with
performers on a reasonable schedule so that they can commit to perform your music at
the highest possible level. We’ll talk about this more in your composition seminars…
Feel free to come to any of the composition faculty or to Elizabeth McNutt for help!
And just when are the Pendulum concerts? Here’s the list:
Fall Term
• Wednesday, September 29, 7:30 pm, Grusin
The Sounds of Summer (in Fall!)
New Music from CU Composers and Performers
• Wednesday, October 6, 7:30 pm, Grusin
Special Guest Artists: the Williams-Bugallo Piano Duo
"Around the World on 176 Keys": music by Nancarrow, Kurtag, and Ligeti
• Wednesday, November 3, 7:30 pm, Grusin
Three Years Into the Millenium
New Music from CU Composers and Performers
• Thurday, November 11, 7:30 pm, Macky Auditorium
Philip Glass and the Bang on a Can All-Stars
(note: this show will be run by the CU Artist Series..no student duties!)
Spring Term
February 16, March 2, April 6, 7:30 pm; two in Grusin, one in the Boulder Public Library
Pendulum Committee:
Artistic Administrator
Composition Faculty
Production Manager
Student Representatives
Elizabeth McNutt <elizabeth.mcnutt@colorado.edu>
Michael Theodore <michael.theodore@colorado.edu>
Andrew May <a.may@colorado.edu>
Mark Nowakowski <mark.nowakowski@colorado.edu>
Steven Snethkamp <steven.snethkamp@colorado.edu>
Tim Buckman <timothy.buckman@colorado.edu>
Performer Liaison
Hermes Camacho <camachoh@colorado.edu>