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Two Students Participate in Princeton's Listen Up Program


Princeton's Listen Up Program began in the fall, when Grace Nivera and Rowan Johnson (and their parents) met Ms. Pauline Swiatocha at the symphony in Princeton.  Students took notes as they listened and were then mentored as they wrote over a few months. Their work was displayed outside the symphony hall on Princeton's campus and in a booklet. Their thoughts are below, along with links to their poems:
 
“I wrote this poem to capture all that I thought and visualized while listening to Schuloff’s Concerto for String Quartet and Winds,” said Grace. “While listening to the concerto, I felt that its mood was overwhelmingly dark and dismal. This is the reason why the poem I wrote to represent its character was not about the more positive aspects of life. I also wanted to symbolize the contrasting tones of the music in my poem as well, hence the stanzas on either side of the page. This was truly an eye-opening process for me. I found that it was very interesting to try and interpret what I hear and later express the music’s essence on something tangible like paper. I have never experienced something like this before, and I am truly honored to have taken a part in this program.”
 
"I based my Listen Up! poem on what I felt were two entirely different aspects of the piece working in harmony to create beauty," said Rowan. "One aspect is very dark and menacing, while one is lighthearted and sweet. My goal was to represent the beauty in both the darkness and the sweet, and then to build a connection between them saying that one cannot be without the other. I emphasized how that without one, the other is meaningless because of its bleak uniformity. I do not want to give away the full meaning of my piece (in my mind) to the reader, because I want them to figure it out for themselves. I enjoyed Schulhoff's piece very much because it was intricate and with many accidentals, and its constantly changing melody really made me think hard about what the big picture was. Overall, I believe my interpretation involved all aspects of the piece, from the underlying baritone in the cellos to the ever-changing melody of the violins. It is a beautiful piece, and I am very excited to hear others' interpretations of it and compare and contrast them to my own. 


"Death of Us" by Grace Nivera
"Anguish in Heaven" by Rowan K.A. Johnson

Princeton Listen Up 2018 Program
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