Texas Border Business
The Valley Symphony Orchestra and Chorale have entitled their upcoming concert season: “Celebrate Symphony: New Site, New Sound,” indicating that this is an inaugural season. We have a new university, a new Performing Arts Center at the heart of its Edinburg campus, and in it, the orchestra and chorale will introduce Valley audiences to two original composed pieces: Crystal Horizons by Dr. Justin Writer, and later The Changing Face by the late conductor emeritus of the VSO, Dr. Carl Seal.
The first concert of the season will take place on Thursday September 24th, and will feature the piece “Crystal Horizon” by Dr. Justin Writer. Justin Writer is an associate professor of Music Theory and composition at the University of Texas Rio Grande Valley. He writes music for several media, including orchestral ensembles, band and wind ensembles, choirs, solo instruments, and incidental music for the theater. University and professional ensembles around the world have performed his original compositions and arrangements. His pieces have also been widely recognized with prestigious awards by academic and professional societies. Dr. Writer received his doctoral degree in composition from the University of Oklahoma, his Masters from Wichita State University, and his Bachelor from Pittsburg State University (Kansas).
The VSO will open its upcoming concert season with Writer’s Crystal Horizon. The title of the piece makes reference to the book by Reinhold Messner, published in 1989. The book chronicles the author’s first ascent of Mount Everest, the first achieved without supplemental oxygen.
The theme of ascent to new heights remains a leitmotif throughout this period of change in the Rio Grande Valley, whose cities continuously grow as well as the goals and aspirations of its peoples. Writer describes his piece in these words: “This work is a series of variations based on a four note motive heard in the opening measures (C, D, G, F#). The motive represents Messner’s determination and the variations represent the various stages of his unprecedented climb. I am using Messner’s achievements as the allegory for the VSO’s first concert in the new hall and the unprecedented creation of the University of Texas Rio Grande Valley. We, like Messner, are pioneers into the exciting unknown.”
Indeed, as Messner’s mountaineering efforts, the endeavor to build a brand new university out of two exiting ones, that not only continues their legacies but also adds a brand new medical school represents a monumental achievement that will transform the lives of many people in the Rio Grande Valley for many years to come.
At the center of the lives of many people in this community are also the arts, which help us find and express meaning in our hard work, achievements, and our goals and aspirations for the future. In the new and resonant Performing Arts Center at the Edinburg Campus of the University of Texas Rio Grande Valley, we may contemplate these these ideas as a sonic experience through the music of Dr. Writer.
