(upbeat music) (graphic pops) - Hello and welcome to "The Journal."

I'm Steve Kendall.

The Wood County District Public Library is celebrating 150 years, and part of that celebration includes a unique collaboration with student composers and performers at the Bowling Green College of Musical Arts at the university.

We wanna welcome, of course, Michele Raine and Marilyn Shrude to the show today.

You're kind of the organizers of this particular piece, and I know that, Michele, there's a lot more to the 150.

We're gonna talk in detail about this part of it, but kinda give us the overview of all the things that are gonna go on at the library as you celebrate 150 years.

- [Michele] Well, we're doing a yearlong celebration, and it involves celebrating everything that the library offers, from children's programs to adult programs to behind the scenes tours.

We did recently a what the library used to look like.

There were big posters all over the library.

So if you've been here long enough, you'll see the posters and you'll say, "Oh, I remember what used to be in this space."

We are celebrating with birthdays of various authors for children's books.

We are celebrating with some genealogy programs to help people discover their past.

And all of this is on our website on our calendar at wcdpl.org.

- [Steve] Yeah, now, and one of the things, too, with the library, obviously as you said, you've got images of what the library looked like through the years, both probably exteriors and interiors, but libraries have evolved in terms of, it used to be, oh, they offered books, they offered newspapers, but all the different media that became available through the '50s, '60s, '70s, up to this day, at one time or another, the libraries have been involved in that and you still are.

- [Michele] Oh, yes.

- You've transitioned from hard media now to file media, and yet still the anchor is books and illustrations and the ability to find information and entertainment when you want it.

- [Michele] Right, one thing that we are really proud of is the things that we keep evolving to do.

So, for example, you can check out a ukulele and a tuner from the library if you would like to learn that instrument.

- [Steve] And please take it home to do that.

Don't try it there.

No, I'm just kidding, just kidding.

- [Michele] We used to host a ukulele club at the library during the pandemic.

But we will check out a metal detector.

I have checked out the stud finders since I wanted to hang some bookshelves.

We have really expanded sort of the physical things that we offer, but also we want everyone to know about our presence in the digital world, where we offer free access to hundreds of thousands of eBooks or audiobooks and lots of material for children in the digital space as well, because we wanna make sure that what we're offering is a safe space for the kids to visit.

- [Steve] Well, and you raised an interesting point there too, because I can remember when, I didn't live in Bowling Green, I lived out in rural Wood County, a small town, and the bookmobile would show up.

And that saved, if you couldn't drive to Bowling Green on a regular basis, and most people didn't back then, the bookmobile would arrive and you'd check the books out and the next week they would come back and you'd turn the book back in.

So yeah, it's always been reaching out, getting to people, making sure they can get access to whatever.

And now it's the digital world.

- [Michele] And we're all, we just want to connect with people with whatever they need.

And one of the really important ways I feel like we connect is through music.

We have a nice music collection.

Our sheet music collection is growing really huge.

We've had several gifts made to the library in honor of various music teachers.

So our piano music collection is growing, and we have various other instruments as well.

- [Steve] Wow, so, yeah, and that's something I wouldn't have been aware of, besides the art part of that, the cultural part of music, and being able to use instruments and get them from the library, wow.

- [Michele] And you know we have a Steinway piano in our atrium that was a gift 25 years ago.

So we really want to make sure that we get use of that instrument and make sure that that community asset is available to everyone.

- [Steve] Yeah, so the musical part of this, Marilyn, really does just sort of dovetail together because the library, of course, has always offered music in forms of, you know, records, tapes, whatever, that sort of thing, but incorporating now these compositions and performances as part of the celebration just fits perfectly together.

- [Marilyn] It does.

And Michele and I are on the Friends Board for the Jerome Library, and she approached me at one of our meetings and she said, "What do you think of this idea?"

And I said, "I think it's a great idea."

She was very cautious about it because, you know, it was a little out there and she had to run it by her committee in the library.

But I know our students and I know that they are very enthusiastic about doing things like this.

And they're very community minded too.

So they were given two prompts, two questions, what a library has to offer or what a library meant to me.

And they could craft a short piece of music based on those two prompts, one or the other.

- [Steve] Yeah, and we're gonna have a number- - [Marilyn] And they're coming, yeah.

- Of the students on to talk about this, and we'll ask them to sort of describe why and how and, of course, the whole creative process they go through to say, "This is how I want it to sound."

It's always interesting.

And I think one of the things that is always about this too is that students incorporate, the university incorporates students from the College of Musical Arts in all different parts of the community, not just the library, but they're available to do these unique celebration things like this.

And it's great experience for them, great ways for them to stretch their abilities out and deal with questions.

They probably didn't think when they walked in this semester saying, "I'm gonna be writing a piece about the library."

It probably wasn't the top of their mind all summer.

But it's a unique challenge and obviously we're gonna see how they rose to that and put it together.

- [Michele] Well, and the other thing is, when I was thinking about our birthday, I was thinking what would be the most unique and special gift that we could give to the community?

And, you know, original music is something that came to my mind, and I'm so thankful for Marilyn and the students who wanted to participate in this program.

I'm just thrilled that we're going to have unique music written for our library by the students here at BGSU's College of Musical Arts.

And it's a really unique performance space because it's an atrium where the sound is really, I've been told, very bright.

And it's also a functioning library.

So there's this really interesting element of serendipity that happens because we're there being a library while a concert is going on in a fairly open space.

And one of my favorite things to see is young children will walk by on their way to the children's department and see people making music, which is something that I don't think children see a lot.

- [Steve] A live performance, sure, sure.

- [Michele] People actually making music.

And they will drag their parents in- - [Steve] And back to there, yeah.

- [Michele] And watch for a few minutes.

And then when they've had enough, they'll go.

So I love the serendipity of connecting with new people and making music accessible for free in our library.

And, you know, it's just a wonderful collaboration.

- [Steve] Yeah, and as you said, it's gonna be, and for the students too, they can always say, "Look, we composed and performed this unique piece," which people will be able to hear from now until perpetuity and into eternity, When the library celebrates another 25 years, that music will be available.

Here's what it sounded like on the 150th.

Unique pieces.

The names will be there, the performers, all of that.

So, yeah.

- [Michele] Right, we can reconvene for an anniversary performance.

- [Steve] Get everybody come back and do the 25th, yeah, great, great.

Well, yeah, in just a moment, we're gonna meet a number of the students.

We have eight of them here and we're gonna talk to them over the next couple of segments about what it was like to hear about this and then how they went about constructing these pieces and the performers that are involved in as well.

So we thank you so much for coming on and we'll hear from the composers and performers here in just a few moments.

And we'll have some of the clips of some of the music similar to the pieces that they're going to be performing at the event on, I wanna say, March 28th between 4 and 5:00 p.m. at the Wood County Public Library Atrium.

Make sure we get that in there.

- [Michele] Absolutely.

- So thank you so much.

Appreciate it.

Back in just a moment with the students from the Bowling Green College of Musical Arts here on "The Journal."

Thank you for staying with us on "The Journal."

Over the next couple of segments, we're gonna be talking to student composers who have put together musical pieces for the Bowling Green Library, the Wood County District Public Library's 150th birthday celebration.

And we're joined by two of those students right now.

We have Meredith Gulla and also Stock Cruz.

And we appreciate you guys coming on.

Cruz Stock, I'm sorry, Cruz Stock.

So Meredith, talk about, and I'll ask each of this, you've each got a couple of minutes to talk about this, what was it like when somebody said, "Hey, we'd like you to compose a piece about a library."

What was your first thought when that happened?

- [Meredith] So I got the page over winter break and I was like, "Oh, it just looks like a cool thing."

We don't really have too many things outside of campus.

So when I saw that it was gonna be off-campus, I was like, "Oh, that's pretty cool to get my music, like, out into the BG community."

So I kind of just started thinking about the idea, thinking about what I wanted to do with it.

And I came across a quote, "We write to taste life twice," by Anais Nin.

And I was like, "Oh, that's perfect."

So I kind of just crafted the piece based on that and what that means to me.

- [Steve] Yeah, and your composition is for piano?

- [Meredith] Yes, solo piano.

- [Steve] And it's called "Life Twice."

Okay, good, good.

- [Meredith] Yes.

- [Steve] And Cruz, talk about yours because yours is called, "That's My Library Card!"

So talk about the thought process.

They said, "Oh, you need to write a piece about a library."

And I know you probably said, "Well, what's a library like?

What do I wanna write about?"

So what made you think of that as a title and then what did that lead to?

Or was it the other way around?

- [Cruz] Right, so, well, when they were like, "Okay, write a piece for the library," I was like, "That's great.

I love libraries."

They're such a great community space.

And I don't know, I think from when I was first starting to write it, I had this vision of, like, these two people being like, "That's my library card."

Like, you know?

I don't know.

It's just like a silly story and I was like, "This would be a really good piece," yeah.

- [Steve] And yours is written for euphoniums?

- [Cruz] Yes, two euphoniums.

- [Steve] Okay, which some people would say are tubas generically, but they're not really tubas.

They're euphoniums.

And is that typically, do each of you write for a specific instrument or do you write for a variety of things?

- [Meredith] I think we both write for a variety.

I play piano, so I always like- - [Steve] Kinda gravitate that way.

- [Meredith] Yeah, I definitely gravitate that way.

So it just seemed like the right fit for this project.

- [Steve] Now, do you usually write for brass or, again, a little bit of everything?

- [Cruz] Not typically.

I feel like I usually write for woodwinds and I wanted to challenge myself with writing for brass, and I've got some euphonium friends who were like, really want to play some music, so I was like, "This is great.

Everything's coming together."

- [Steve] Yeah, and I suppose, too, and as we talk to the other students too, when you approach the people who are gonna perform this, what was their first reaction?

Like, "What do you mean I'm gonna perform a library piece?

What's that mean?"

So was there any challenge there for them or not?

- [Meredith] I feel like it was kind of the same thing that I was saying earlier about how it's cool to not only hear your music outside of campus, but also get to play off-campus.

So I feel like that was probably appealing to them too, I would say.

- [Steve] Yeah, cool, cool, yeah.

- [Cruz] Yeah, definitely.

A similar story.

I kind of texted my friend and was like, "Hey, wrote this piece.

You're playing at the library."

And they were like, "Great.

So exciting."

- [Steve] Done.

No problem.

Good, yeah.

Well, you know, Meredith and Cruz, thank you so much for being on and we appreciate you doing this and your music will be there at the library for everybody here from now until eternity.

So thank you so much.

- [Meredith] Thank you for having us.

- [Cruz] Thank you, yeah.

(oboe & piano music) (gentle piano music) - Thank you for staying with us on "The Journal."

You just heard a couple of the compositions from two of the students from Bowling Green State University's College of Musical Arts in celebration of the Wood County District Public Library's 150th anniversary.

And we're joined by two other students who also have composed pieces for this great event, Dominic Gomez and Eleanor Margraf.

Dominic, talk about kind of the process you went through when you were approached for this and what your thoughts were about how to put this together and make it come to fruition.

- [Dominic] Yeah, so when I first was brought this idea, I initially thought of a memory I had when I was a little kid of my grandfather bringing me to the library.

And it was an Akron and so it's a very big library.

And I quoted in my music the Strauss's "Zarathustra" because it was just, like, huge and, like, whoa.

And then somewhere towards the middle, I have a very happy, fun theme because he just told us, "Be free."

- [Steve] "Go."

- [Dominic] And then just so it's just very, very fun.

I just remember the library being very fun as a kid.

- [Steve] Well, it's interesting too because you're trying to give that impression through the music of the immensity, your first reaction to this large library, this large, impressive thing, but then also convey how much you enjoyed being there.

Yeah, great, great.

And Eleanor, talk about sort of your process when this came to you, landed on your desk.

- [Eleanor] Well, for the most part, I had an idea of what I wanted to write.

It was actually from pieces of little sketches, I guess, of a piece for bassoon and electronics where I took a lot of the main material from.

But I also took inspiration from some poetry by Isaac Rosenberg, who was a poet who lived in the early part of the 20th century.

I mainly wanted to focus on not just like the, "Oh, I'm having a good time at the library," but more of the aspect of safety people have at the library of being calm and just being just content, I guess, for me especially.

And I chose this one poem where he wrote it during, like, the trenches of World War I and it's contrasting the safety I guess of this flower versus the poet himself who is literally almost dying in the trenches.

- Oh, wow.

Yeah, so a different, yeah, a different view of this.

A little, yeah, but, again, emotion, a lot of things that bring out the way people wanna feel about this.

We're gonna hear some of your compositions here in just a moment.

We wanna thank you for coming on and talking about this.

And again, this is really amazing.

I'm always impressed by the fact that you guys can sit down and create something just, you know, your own creativity.

Things start to flow and you can listen to it and people draw, you know, their emotions from it, their ideas of what you meant when you were writing it.

And people will be able to listen to your music now forever and ever here in Wood County at the library.

So thank you so much for being on.

We're gonna hear some compositions now from Dominic and Eleanor here on "The Journal."

Back in just a moment.

(discordant music) (bright cello music) You're with us on "The Journal," and our guests are students composers from the Bowling Green State University College of Musical Arts.

And we're joined by two more students who have composed music for the Wood County District Public Library's 150th birthday celebration.

We're joined by Szu-An Chen and also Alric Godfrey.

So talk about, you've heard us talk with some of the other students about their compositions, but talk about when you first sat down, did you have more than one version, Szu-An, when you first sat down to write or was the first thing you came up with what we ended up with?

- [Szu-An] Yeah, I first came up with something like reading.

And, yeah, so, and I think for me, the library is a quiet space and people usually read there and sometimes I also compose there and, yeah, but because it's a quieter space, so sometimes when I read, I feel a little sleepy (chuckles) or I started to think about other things or start composing.

And, yeah, so I think this is interesting for me, so I want to turn that into a piece.

And so I use flute for my instrument and flute can be very quiet and very loud and it can make many, many different sound.

So I think I would like to compose a piece for library and using flute as my instrument.

- [Steve] And give people that feel of, you said, relaxation, quiet, peacefulness.

And yet at the same time, some dynamic range in there because, yeah, you can move things along faster, slower, louder, that kind of thing.

So, great.

Yeah, and Alric, talk about your experience doing this.

- [Alric] Mm-hm, similar to how Szu-An mentioned, I've always noticed how quiet library spaces are, and I've always noticed that when you are in a quiet space, your inner voice and your thoughts sort of like get amplified.

So it's sort of louder than everything else.

And so my piece is called "Loud Thoughts and Quiet Spaces."

So it sort of explores this idea of your thoughts becoming louder and being amplified in this quiet space, being a library.

- [Steve] So kind of pushing against the feeling that you have, like, everything's peaceful, quiet, relaxed.

And then, yeah, and here now here comes music kind of looping through the library, which is interesting because, you know, we talked about that in the first segment.

People walk by and hear the music and then they're attracted to that and then they go about doing what they came to the library for.

So, great.

Well, we're gonna hear a couple of your compositions now.

We appreciate you guys for coming on and thank you so much for being on and doing this for the library and the community.

- [Szu-An] Thank you.

- [Alric] Thank you.

(gentle music) (discordant music) - We're joined by two more composers from the Bowling Green College of Musical Arts, who are putting together pieces for the Wood County Library's 150th anniversary.

And we're joined by Jonathan Kroeger and also Lukas Bass.

Jonathan, you've heard us talk with a lot of the other students too, but when you sit down to write something like this or any composition, do you know from the very start what the instruments are gonna be?

Or does that sort of evolve as you're writing sometimes?

How does that process work?

- [Jonathan] For this project in particular, I had been thinking about doing something for clarinet and piano for a while.

So for this one, it was kind of like, "All right, I wanna do a project for these instruments.

Here's an opportunity.

Let's pursue that one."

However, the rest of the time, it's, "Can I add more here?

Do I need to remove things?

What am I gonna be able to get away with in the time that I have?"

- [Steve] Yeah, so, because you can, yeah, obviously you've got the whole range of instrumentation you can draw from, but in this case, you sort of, things kind of came together, two pieces.

I'm looking for these instruments to write something for.

Oh, here's something to write something for those two instruments.

Yeah, not bad.

And what about you, Lukas?

- [Lukas] So I usually decide my instrumentation based on, I guess, just which performers I can get for a given performance.

And then I kind of try to, if I know the performers, I'll usually kind of take either their personality and usually their skillsets on their instruments and kind of base it around that to get ideas.

- [Steve] Yeah.

Now, do each of you have, I mean, do you gravitate toward anything specifically?

Like, is that your go-to, as you said, particular performers, but do you have specific instruments that you tend to gravitate to anyway?

Or you're just kind of open?

- [Jonathan] Well, I'm actually a singer.

- [Steve] Oh, okay.

- [Jonathan] So I tend to write for the voice a lot.

Voice and piano.

However, I've been trying to write for other things as well recently.

- [Steve] Stretch out a little bit.

Okay, yeah.

Yeah, and what about you, Lukas?

- [Lukas] I tend to gravitate towards woodwinds.

I'm a saxophone performance major and I play oboe, so I'm a little bit more experienced and I kind of know, I guess, how those operate.

But I tend to write for everything too.

- [Steve] Yeah, yeah, nice.

Yeah, well, thank you so much for doing this, and, again, I'll just mention what I think a great idea it is for you guys to do this and the community, the collaboration with the university and the library, and the fact that people are gonna be able to hear your music every time they walk into the library from now until forever.

So it's a good thing.

We'll hear a couple of pieces here from Jonathan and Lukas.

Remember, you can check us out at wbgu.org and you can watch us every Thursday at 8:00 p.m. on WBGU-PBS.

We'll see you again next time.

Goodnight and good luck.

(percussion music) (piano music) (upbeat theme music)