Steven Cuevas
May 27, 2009
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A group of young composers takes the stage in a few hours for a one-night only performance of new music at UC Riverside. KPCC's Steven Cuevas says all the composers are current or former students.

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[Music: "Tikal"]

Steven Cuevas: Members of the Composers Collective dabble in genres ranging from conventional chamber pieces to edgy soundscapes. Jason Heath does a little of both. He composes pieces for chamber groups that often include experimental instruments.

[Music: "Tikal"]

Cuevas: Heath is a doctoral candidate in composition at UC Riverside. Most of the students in the Composers Collective are working towards advanced degrees in composition. William Bueche is classically trained guitarist who specializes in moody solo pieces.

[Music: "Diabolique"]

Cuevas: Bueche co-founded the Collective last year to try and expose a wider audience to composers from across the Southland.

William Bueche: We're trying to help them get it played and we just ask them to try and contribute what they can to help with it to, but yes, we certainly have quite an eclectic mix of things.

Cuevas: Tonight Bueche debuts a piece called "Dysphoria." It's inspired by a disturbing experience with the drug Donnatal. Beuche took the medication for a stomach ailment; he didn't realize that an active ingredient is a hallucinogenic herb called Atropa Belladonna.

Bueche: Yeah, what do I say, it's kind of a chaotic piece that has lots of moods in it and it comes to a huge head and basically explodes, tears itself apart at the end.

Cuevas: Experience "Dystopia" tonight, along with a dozen other new musical works at "UCR is Composing." The performance starts at 8 o'clock in UC Riverside's Arts Performance Lab.