Snow student wins prestigious composer competition
Robert Stevens
Staff writer
2-2-2017
EPHRAIM— When Snow College student Kyle Alm, of Sandy entered his composition into the Society of Composers, Inc., Region IV Student Conference, held at the University of North Carolina, Greensboro, he never dreamed he might win.
“I had a slim chance to none,” said Alm, who plans to graduate with a bachelor of commercial music degree in the spring.
Considering that Alm isn’t a member of the organization in its Region IV, and priority was given to members in the region, “ we were really taking a leap of faith by entering his piece,” said Professor Trent Hanna, Alm’s mentor at Snow.
Another strike against Alm was the fact that he was an undergrad competing against graduate students.
So Alm was thrilled when he learned his composition had been selected out of more than 200 entries.
Alm and Hanna traveled to North Carolina last week, where Alm performed the piece.
“It was one of the most rewarding moments of my career,” said Hanna. “His piece was performed Thursday night at the final concert of the conference. It was an honor to be there representing Snow College. Kyle has shown great effort this year. He is truly focused on honing in on an original voice of ‘high brow’ salon music,”
Hanna described Alm’s work as “a very interesting and stylish combination of the old and new. It is as if he is creating something new, but there is an old soul living inside him waiting to let loose. It has been fantastic watching his growth.”
The Society of Composers, Inc. is a professional society dedicated to the promotion, performance, understanding and dissemination of new and contemporary music. It was founded in 1965 as the American Society of University Composers.
The mission of the organization is to further the cause of contemporary American music by providing opportunities for performance, recording and publication of members’ works. Currently, the organization consists of almost 1,500 members.
