Compose Like a Girl

Sherry Blevins joins Jocelyn for a conversation on today’s bonus episode! 

Sherry is an award-winning composer/lyricist, conductor/clinician, and an award-winning music educator. Her first piece was published in 2018. Since then, more than 17 of her pieces have been published, and she is now with four publishing houses including Hinshaw, Fred Bock, BriLee, and JH Music. Since then, she has enjoyed composing for and with a variety of singers and ensembles across North America. Sherry has a bachelor’s degree in music education from the University of North Carolina at Greensboro and a master’s degree in music education from Appalachian State University. Her hope is that whether through composing or teaching, that the music she shares will bring hope, life, and light to others. 

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Sherry Blevins

When I Become An Old Woman, available through Graphite Publishing

Looking for Light, available through Graphite Publishing 

If I Call To You, My Love, available through Graphite Publishing 

Jenny Joseph’s poem “When I Become an Old Woman”

Dr. Iris S. Levine, Vox Femina 

Ritika Bhattacharjee joins Jocelyn for a conversation on today’s bonus episode! 

Ritika is a composer, pianist, and vocalist who performs in jazz combos and big bands, plays for contemporary dance productions with Ventana Ballet, and underscores fully improvised musicals at Merlin Works, The Hideout, The Fallout, and ColdTowne Theatre. Her multi-media composition portfolio includes the scores for three short films, a video game, an iOS app, a string quartet, a musical, and a symphony commission from Austin Balcones Orchestra. She received her B.S. in Chemical Engineering from Texas A&M University in 2022, where she founded and served as the president and conductor of Ingeniare, the A&M Student Engineering Chorus, and served as the band leader and pianist for Binomial Rhapsody, an engineering instrumental ensemble that composed music from math equations. During her undergraduate study, she was the lead jazz vocalist for the Corps of Cadets Aggieland Orchestra, performing scores from the big-band era on tour. She currently works as a business consultant in Austin, TX, and will receive her graduate diploma in composition from the European Academy of Film Scoring in 2024.

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Ritika Bhattacharjee

The Infinity of Space available through Graphite Publishing

Texas A&M University

Shayla Rivera (Ritika’s Professor at Texas A&M University)

Binomial Rhapsody

Python 

Pivot

Gutenberg! The musical!

Film Scoring Academy of Europe

Conspirare

Morten Lauridsen - Lux Aeterna

Orange County Philharmonic

Pepsi R&D

Lewis Carroll’s, “Alice's Adventures in Wonderland”

SOUNDDRAW

String Theory

Wormhole Paradoxes

Dr. Michio Kaku

Patti Arntz joins Jocelyn for a conversation on today’s bonus episode! 

Patti has been a music educator and church musician in the Twin Cities area for over 40 years. She has degrees in music from Hamline University, St. Paul, MN and Drake University, Des Moines, IA and a Master’s Degree in Education from the University of St. Thomas, St. Paul, MN.

She recently retired from teaching elementary music with the Robbinsdale Area Schools in the Twin Cities area. During her 30 years of instructing young children to sing and make music, she also directed the Robbinsdale All-District Elementary Honors Choir for 15 years. Throughout her teaching career, she served as an organist and director of youth/adult choirs in local churches.

In 2003, Patti was contacted by St. Olaf College to see if she would take a student teacher. The answer was yes, of course. That student teacher was Jocelyn Hagen. The favor was returned when Jocelyn served as a mentor for Patti’s compositions and arrangements.

In 2010, Patti commissioned Jocelyn to compose a children’s choir piece in memory of Teresa Benjamin, Assistant Director of the Robbinsdale Elementary Honor Choir. Teresa passed away in the spring of 2003. This composition, “I Started Out Singing,” has become very popular in recent years.

Keeping in touch with her elementary music roots, she serves as an adjunct professor at Southwest Minnesota State University in Marshall, Minnesota, instructing elementary education majors on teaching and integrating music into their future classrooms.

Patti lives in the Twin Cities area with her husband, Rolland, where she enjoys outdoor activities, traveling and cooking. She sings with Singers in Accord and is a charter member of the choir. Her adult children, Kyle and Melani are both very involved in music in the Twin Cities area.

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Learn more: Compose Like a Girl

Transcript PDF

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Patti Arntz on social media: Instagram @pmarntz, Facebook @Patti Arntz.

A Quilt of Snow (available through Graphite Publishing for 2-part treble, SATB, or SSA choir and C instrument)

A Quilt of Snow Introduction

Performance of A Quilt of Snow by Vox Nova Chorale, Vicki Peters, Artistic Director

Robbinsdale All District Choir, MN

Odd Nordstoga 

Grace Becker joins Jocelyn for a conversation on today’s bonus episode! 

Grace is an amateur composer who is excited to share her passion for spreading joy and writing music with the world. Grace grew up singing in choirs in her hometown Bloomington, MN and began composing in her second year of college. She quickly found purpose in the vulnerable, honest nature of this process. She has since composed a handful of songs, with her debut appearing in the Compose Like A Girl series. She has always had a love for poetry and storytelling, often choosing to make settings of her own poems. Choral music has left a profound mark on her life, and she is honored to be able to share her words with the public, hoping they will find those who need to hear them the most. Grace graduated with a bachelor’s in music education from Wartburg College and is currently teaching K-4th general music in Iowa.

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Learn more: Compose Like a Girl

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Grace Becker:

Known, available through Graphite Publishing 

Performance of Known by Voces Solis, conducted by Ryan Keeling

Wartburg College, Dr. Lee Nelson

Rosephanye Powell joins Jocelyn to talk about Black music, storytelling, music-making as service, and much more. Hear the full conversation by becoming a Patreon subscriber. 

Companion playlists: Youtube, Spotify

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Learn more: Compose Like a Girl

Music by Cicely Parnas. Additional Music by Blue Dot Sessions.

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Rosephanye Powell

Living Legend Award

African Diaspora Sacred Music Festival 

HBCUs

Alabama State University 

Florida State University - Choirs

North Dakota State University - Choral Symposium

Fred Boch Music 

Gentry Publications

Undine Smith Moore

Dr. Lena McLin

Dr. André J. Thomas

Rodney Eichenberger

Hall Johnson

William L. Dawson

Harry Thacker Burleigh

John Wesley Work III

Martin Luther King Jr. 

Harriet Tubman 

I Wanna Be Ready

The Word Was God

Still I Rise 

The Cry of Jeremiah 

Quiet Revolutionary 

He Is Marvelous - ACDA Western Conference 2022 Gospel Honor Choir 

My Voice Soars - a Compose Like a Girl partnership with Tucson Girls Chorus 

B.E. Boykin joins Jocelyn to talk about curriculum, the collaborative energy between singers and pianists, and finding mentorship among friends. Hear the full conversation by becoming a Patreon subscriber. 

Companion playlists: Youtube, Spotify

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Learn more: Compose Like a Girl

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B.E. Boykin

Spelman College

Georgia Tech

Minnesota Opera New Works Initiative

Song Poet

John 3:16 

We Wear the Mask commissioned by the Mirror Visions Ensemble featuring Abi Levis and Grant Wenaus

Holding the Light commissioned by Jordan Shomper

Stuart Kestenbaum, poet

William Menefield, Fierce with the Cincinnati Opera 

Darin Atwater, Soulful Symphony

Richard Smallwood

Brandon Waddles

Marques L.A. Garrett

Rosephanye Powell (featured in our upcoming episode!)

Compose Like a Girl theme composed by Cicely Parnas. Additional music by Blue Dot Sessions.

Cecilia McDowall joins Jocelyn to talk about drawing inspiration from Leonardo da Vinci, leading with curiosity, and the truth that it’s never too late to find your compositional path. Hear the full conversation by becoming a Patreon subscriber. 

Companion playlists: Youtube, Spotify

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Learn more: Compose Like a Girl

Additional music by Blue Dot Sessions.

Transcript PDF

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Cecilia McDowall

Leonardo Da Vinci

Da Vinci Requiem (McDowall)

The Notebooks of Leonardo Da Vinci (Hagen)

Wimbledon Choral Society

Harriet Quimby 

Night Flight 

The Ivors Classical Awards 2014

Kantorei, Joel Rinsema director

BBC Singers

Photo 51

Seven Ages of Women 

Yehudi Menuhin School

Concordia Foundation 

Fibonacci Sequence chamber ensemble

Reena Esmail joins Jocelyn to talk about finding our truth. Hear the full conversation by becoming a Patreon subscriber. 

Companion playlists: Youtube, Spotify

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Learn more: Compose Like a Girl

Transcript PDF

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Reena Esmail 

Black Iris (formerly #metoo) performed by Chicago Sinfonietta

Tuttarrana (SATB)

Tuttarrana (Brass Quintet) - Serif Brass 

This Love Between Us

The Juilliard School 

Yale School of Music

Aaron Kernis, composer

Susan Botti, composer

Sam Adler, composer

Debt: The First 5000 Years 

Georgia O’Keefe, painter

Bartók Concerto for Orchestra

Angélica Negrón joins Jocelyn to talk about the value of play, collaboration, and how classicism shows up in education. Hear the full conversation by becoming a Patreon subscriber. 

Companion playlists: Youtube, Spotify

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Learn more: Compose Like a Girl

Transcript PDF

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Angélica Negrón

2022 Hermitage Greenfield Prize 

New York Philharmonic Education 

Chorus of the Forest Performance

The Blue Hour - (Rachel Grimes, Angélica Negrón, Caroline Shaw, Sarah Kirkland Snider, Shara Nova)

The Blue Hour: No. 3, A Black Map

A Far Cry

Carolyn Forché (Blue Hour)

The Blue Hour is available for hire at WiseMusicClassical.com.

Balún - Angélica Negrón, José A. Olivares, Raúl Reymundi, Noraliz Ruiz, with guest performers

Prisma Tropical - La Nueva Ciudad

Sarah Kirkland Snider’s Penelope (shared as an anecdote)