I found a lot of ways to get involved musically when I arrived at Penn State. However, upon entering into my second semester of my freshman year of college, I decided I wanted to participate in even more music than I already was. Though I was in PSU jazz club, jam club, had the occasional jam with friends, and sang in a jazz group outside PSU, I wanted to fill my life to the brim with music and interesting sounds. My ears craved auditory wonder. I wanted to experience music -my life’s passion- in a way that I never had before. That’s what college is for after all. While I had planned on joining a jazz combo and vocal dimensions (the PSU vocal jazz ensemble), I hadn’t previously planned or even known about the new Penn State “Other Arts Ensemble” when I decided to join it. “Other Arts” is a Penn state experimental music ensemble created by percussionist, composer, and multi-instrumentalist Kevin Sims who also founded “Open Music” in 2014. Open Music is an experimental music ensemble that covers, creates, and improvises avant-garde art in central PA.

Avant-garde music rejects the status quo and takes unconventionality and artistic ideas to a new level. One known composer in this genre of music is Julius Eastman known for his piece Femenine. This piece combines peaceful sound with agitation, and blissful harmony with uneasiness. It’s a piece worth looking into. Another avant-garde musician is John Cage known for his famous piece 4’33, where he simple sits at a closed piano for 4 minutes and 33 seconds. And that’s the whole piece.

Being the wonder-eyed bloke I am, when my science of music teacher brought the existence of “The Other Art’s ensemble” to my attention, my curiosity burned. I didn’t think I would like it. I’ve never been one for music that was dissonant and half of the time mostly just sounds. I was proven wrong within the first week of practice. I didn’t know what to expect when I walked into the room where I’d meet the ensemble. I was nervous for my lack of music reading skills for saxophone (the instrument I planned to play). I would soon figure out however, that the music scores were far from ordinary notes on sheet music. In fact sometimes its just a line of writing. As I was given more music, I had never felt so free as I blew notes (and sometimes plain noise) into my saxophone. Sometimes all I would do was click the keys. Sometimes I played silence. I loved it.

We had our first performance last week and it was probably one of my favorite performances I’ve done.

Music, I have learned, is so much deeper than the classic harmonic notes and rhythmic beats. The Other Arts ensemble opened my mind up to new musical, artistic, and creative possibilities. To send you away, I’ll leave you with a an enthralling quote from John cage: “Everything we do is music”.