Calvin Isaac Wamser

Change of Seasons

Bio: Calvin Isaac Wamser (BHA ‘22, Carnegie Mellon University; MM ’24 New England Conservatory of Music) is a music educator, composer, and performer based in Boston. Working as Assistant Conductor with the Boston Children’s Chorus and the New England Conservatory Youth Chorale has been instrumental in building his teaching philosophies across various age groups. As a director, his goal is to lead a student-oriented learning environment, regardless of age or experience. Due to his background in liberal arts as a conductor, Calvin programs and conducts historically informed concerts, with diverse repertoire selections which highlight under-represented composers throughout time, and living composers as well. As a classical composer, Calvin utilizes concepts from Music History to compose music that melds Medieval/Renaissance ideas with modern harmony. His works have been performed around the world including countries such as South Africa and Russia.

Website: calvinwamser.com

Bandcamp: calviniwamser.bandcamp.com

Statement: In order to create the soundtrack for Change of Season, I first watched and studied the video, timing out where musical transitions might occur. The film is static, but there are definite transitions where the cityscape takes on various moods. Once I found those transitional moments, I sketched ideas in a few instrumentations: a cappella voices, guitar, and piano. Much like the setting of the film itself, I created this soundtrack alone in my room, looking out the window, since I was working while we were still in the height of the pandemic. A huge challenge for me was producing the music in this context, constrained by the instruments and technologies I had available to me in my tiny Greenfield apartment. I recorded all the vocal tracks in my closet, editing on my laptop only using Audacity. This was exciting though, experimenting to see what I could conjure up using these limited tools. And I'm really proud of the final product as it was inspired by Jim's beautiful film.