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Issue date: 12/13/07 Section: News

Media Credit: Leah Levin Members of the jazz quartet from left: Robert Hernandez (guitar), Jesse Audelo (saxophone), Salomon gonzalez (drums), and Stephen Gentillalli (base) [Click to enlarge]

Sophomore Amin Ebrahimi recently started the Songwriters' Club at Mesa. His goal was to fill in the pieces missing in college music departments for students who wish to write and perform their own songs.

"The Songwriters' Club didn't exist at Mesa or any other college," Ebrahimi said. "I saw a lot of talents, and that inspired me to start my club."

Ebrahimi takes pride in helping students flourish in their musical talents and apply them in a positive way. A concert at the end of last spring marked the club's first campus event. This semester, the group has kicked into full swing with weekly meetings, scheduling of songwriting workshops, and a concert held last Thursday at the amphitheater near the cafeteria.

Music professor Igor Korneitchouk is the Songwriters' Club sponsor. He notes that many students on campus are part-time musicians and play in outside bands or other groups. But on campus, they usually have no connection with the music department's offerings--except for taking the introductory Music 100 class, according to Korneitchouk.

Ebrahimi saw this as an opportunity to connect student musicians with a campus group to promote their growth and networking, and at the same time, possibly attract students to the many classes in the music department for developing musicianship skills. One such class is the Projects in Composition class that Korneitchouk teaches.

The composition class is already unique to the community college environment because such studies are not normally part of a two-year music program. But many students taking the composition class since Korneitchouk initiated it in 1999, have benefited immensely from personalized workshops offered in almost every class meeting, and the opportunity of taking the class more than once for credit. The workshops, with follow-up and classmates' input, enable students to transform their works from rudimentary efforts at the beginning of the semester into polished, final works-recorded onto CD's at the end of the term and ready for placement into each individual's music portfolio.

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