Marchiando and Stojanovska to present “Soundscapes of Her,” music for trumpet and piano on KHFM, 95.5 FM “10 at 10” Series with Brent Stevens

UNM Associate Professor of Trumpet, Dr. John Marchiando, and pianist Dr. Natasha Stojanovska will perform and chat about music from the “Soundscapes of Her” concert presentation of music by women composers. Joined by Tanya Cole, Dr. Marchiando and Dr. Stojanovska will present beautiful music for trumpet and piano to be broadcast on March 8 at 10am over the radio airwaves of 95.5 FM!

Prof. Marchiando said listeners who tune in can expect to enjoy a shortened version of a concert that was performed in November 2024, with the same title. The performance of “Soundscapes of Her” was a program put together by Prof. Marchiando to feature all women composers for piano.

“In the last few years I have become more of an advocate for representing under-represented composers,” shared Prof. Marchiando. “I use my platform as a privileged white man, to play music by under-represented composer more frequently than many other people do.”

“I have also collaborated with pianist Dr. Natasha Stojanovska, who has done a couple of recordings by Eastern European women. So, we worked well together in terms of promoting the work of women composers. And, one of the things we had talked about, after we finished the first Soundscapes of Her performance, was that we wanted to apply for this 10 at 10 concert series on KHFM,” he stated.

Prof. Marchiando sited a past graduate student, Ashley Killam, who graduated in May of 2019 with a Master’s degree in Music, with a concentration in Trumpet Performance from UNM, as the source of inspiration for his advocacy work. “Ashley has become one of the leading proponents for under-represented composers in the country. She has formed a couple of companies around that concept, to support under-represented composers to write more music.”

According to Prof. Marchiando, Killam had approached him with concerns for her graduate recital, sharing that she was not interested in performing music in her recital by a bunch of dead white guys.

“I support that,” stated Prof. Marchiando.

In a statement, Ashley Killam shared “The UNM musicology course Female Voices in Composition, taught by Dr. Ana Alonso-Minutti, changed the trajectory of my life, opening my eyes to music beyond the “standard canon” and setting me on a path of connecting with living composers, commissioning new works, and delivering hundreds of presentations worldwide on inclusive programming and discovering new repertoire. I am deeply grateful to Dr. Alonso-Minutti for helping me to find my passion within research and advocacy, as well as to my mentor, Dr. John Marchiando, for his unwavering support in my vision and future. This journey from final course project to final degree recital culminated in a recital of incredible works by living women composers—including my first commission (working with NY-based composer, Whitney George) and my first arrangement of a piccolo trumpet duet.”

Killam had shared with Prof. Marchiando that she would instead prefer to perform music by all women composers, and she was interested in commissioning a new piece. Killam followed through with a world premier of “Incantations,” by Whitney George, which was the first piece Killam had commissioned and collaborated with a composer on. Since then, Killam has performed at many different universities with her presentation on this. She has also been added to the New Works Committee for the International Trumpet Guild and International Women’s Brass Conference.

“So, Killam’s recital really inspired me to advocate for the importance of not only performing music by under-represented composers, but also to explore the music of composers of our time. You know, there’s a lot of truly amazing music that has been written in the last 15 years that is not necessarily studied, because it is not necessarily part of our ‘canon,’” shared Prof. Marichiando.

Prof. Marchiando expanded that in his courses, he does not require students to perform the canon if they don’t want to. “We will learn it and discuss the canon, and study the pieces in practice sessions, but if they want to do a recital of all works created within the last four to five years, I am fine with that,” he shared.

ADDITIONAL RESOURCES
1. TO ATTEND THE LIVE PERFORMANCE of “Soundscapes of Her,” in the KHFM Lobby, on Saturday, March 8, 2025, at 10:00AM, please visit 8009 Marble Ave, Albuquerque, NM, 87110.

2. TUNE IN to the “10 at 10” Series with Brent Stevens on March 8, 2025 at 10am on your local radio station, 95.5FM Santa Fe/Albuquerque, 95.9FM in Ruidoso, 103.1FM in Roswell, and 106.3FM in Taos.

3. LISTEN ONLINE by visiting https://khfm.org/the-10-at-10/

4. LEARN MORE about Professor John Marchiando by visiting his faculty profile within The UNM Department of Music at https://music.unm.edu/faculty/john-marchiando/

5. YOU FIND ADDITIONAL RESOURCES supporting under-represented composers by checking out Diversify the Stand, which hosts a web page for programming resources, educational resources, and a page to connect to other great orgs as well at https://www.diversifythestand.org/