Mission Statement
The HSPVA composition club was founded to promote musical composition by its members and the performance of those compositions for the public. The club is focused on learning about composing, and improving the skill by practice. Its members learn new pieces by other composers, and also work together as a classical group improvisation ensemble. In this way, the members intend to become both better composers and better performers of classical music.
About the Club
The composition club at the High School for the Performing and Visual Arts (HSPVA) is the brainchild of a small group of musicians/composers who wanted to further their arts by the formation of a group of likeminded individuals capable of helping each other in their creative endeavors. Originally a completely disorganized mess of potential, the club gained order, productivity and legitimacy by the work of its members, the sponsorship of Rodolfo Morales and the generous help of our teacher, friend and mentor Robert Avalon(1955 – April 30, 2004), a professional pianist and composer (among other things). The composition club is now an active club recognized by the school's administration, with regular meetings on Fridays from approximately 3:30pm to 4:45pm in the Alessandro Recital hall at HSPVA during the school year.
Our first concerts were of our improvisation ensemble of both classical and homemade instruments, and took place at the HSPVA Recycle Fest 2004 and at the Orange Show Monument with the Space City Gamelan Orchestra. The first performance of our collected composed works, in which the club members, Rodolfo Morales, Robert Avalon and several volunteer students performed, took place at the Spring HSPVA Composers’ Concert on April 29, 2004 in the Allesandro Recital Hall of the high school. The performance was received to great acclaim, and the recording has had its own success as well; several of the songs from that performance where posted at www.cornerband.com under the label of the classical/ avant-garde band Uncertain Outcome, and made the Houston Press “Top Ten Songs of the Day” list on the Houston Press website. Our current projects include an all improvisation ‘album’ for Uncertain Outcome, a fall memorial concert and a memorial quartet being composed by the club in honour of Robert Avalon.
Have any questions? Direct them to the “questions” section on the forum and we will post a reply within a few days at the most.
The Foundation for Modern Music
