05/26/2021
May’s Adjunct of the Month – Professor Thomas Paster – Department of Music
1. You’re a composer, arranger and ensemble coach. What do you enjoy the most?
I enjoy all aspects of what I do, but I think the most rewarding has to be hearing a group, whether it’s a group I direct or not, just crushing one of my arrangements/compositions. There’s a great sense of satisfaction watching a group of students find joy and success in something I’ve created. The great thing about writing for any kind of musical ensemble is that, while you may write it alone, it takes a group of people to turn it into music. Having your solitary writing project be turned into a piece of music by a group of talented musicians is absolutely thrilling!
2. What advice would you provide to our students majoring in Music?
Music, be it performance or education (for most musicians it’s both), is a difficult field to enter because jobs are scarce and competition is fierce. I would tell students majoring in music to be as prepared as they possibly can. I often tell students that “you never know when an opportunity is going to come and when it does, it certainly won’t wait for anyone to get ready, it’ll just find someone who’s already prepared.” Make sure that someone is you! When one of my high school students tells me they want to major in music, I try to talk them out of it. If they can be talked out of it, then they weren’t passionate enough about it to begin with and they probably shouldn’t do it. If they can’t be talked out of it, then at least, they have the fire to make a go of it. As the old saying goes, “if you do what you love, you’ll never work a day in your life.”
3. Tell us about the projects that you’re working on?
With the current pandemic, performances have gone from in person to all virtual. If you have to be stuck at home, you might as well learn something, and I have learned a lot about audio production during this time. It has helped me engineer the many virtual performances I’ve had to put out in the last year and it’s been an incredibly rewarding experience. You can watch one of the WP Pop Vocal Ensembles virtual performances here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Bh1jcb-hmMg. When I started in music, I was learning from people twice my age. In the past year, I’ve learned a lot about audio production from people half my age and their energy and passion have revived me. While I make my living as a musician and music educator, I plan to continue to be a student for the rest of my life.
