Wykoff’s music compositions to be played during 58th presidential inauguration
Photo by Kimberly Sebring
Dr. John Wykoff teaches a Form and Analysis class in the School of Music building on October 27, 2016.
This year’s presidential inauguration on Friday, Jan. 20 will feature music composed by Lee’s very own Dr. John Wykoff, assistant professor of music theory and composition.
In the fall of 2016, Wykoff was commissioned to compose two music pieces for the inauguration by Cameron LaBarr, the director of choral studies at Missouri State University and a former Lee professor.
Wykoff said he was “thrilled” and “grateful” to have been asked to contribute to such an important national event and that he kept the American people in mind as he was composing.
“For the arrangement of the folk song, hymn arrangement, I’m hoping that that will help people have a sense of hope,” Wykoff said. “People are going to hear this hymn and they’re gonna take it in different ways, but for me it definitely speaks toward a future kingdom and a future world. It will help us see past some of our current troubles I think."
The opportunity also allowed Wykoff to collaborate with a living poet for the first time in his career. Michael Dennis Browne, a professor emeritus of English at the University of Minnesota, worked with Wykoff to compose one of the two music pieces.
Both of Wykoff's compositions will be performed by the Missouri State Chorale. One of the pieces, titled "Now We Belong", will be sung during the inauguration ceremony, and both works will be performed during a concert on Saturday, Jan. 21 at National Presbyterian Church in Washington, D.C.
Dr. William Green, the dean of the school of music, has a high regard for Wykoff’s work and has seen him develop as a composer over the years.
“He’s published some really great pieces lately, and I think the idea of being able to [compose] something for this type of audience is really great,” Green said. “He’s a great writer himself but he’s also inspiring students to write at a level that professionals are kinda picking up on.”
Senior music major David Walrod was in Wykoff’s Introduction to Composition class and expressed his support for the professor who he says “thinks outside the box compositionally.”
“I would say I’m just so happy for him because he is the most humble professor I know,” Walrod said. “He’s just an incredible thinker, huge into philosophy and music theory and also just devotion to God.”
Before joining the Lee faculty in fall 2011, Wykoff received his doctorate in music composition from the Graduate Center of the City University of New York, his master’s degree in music composition from the Aaron Copland School of Music, and a bachelor’s degree in music and philosophy from Covenant College.
He taught at the Aaron Copland School of Music and Queens College and composed works for solo piano, small ensemble, voice, choir, orchestra and more. He was also awarded the George Perle Award from Queens College for music composition, according to a press release.
Wykoff said that he views music composition as an art, but also as a service.
“Most composers in the history of the world I think wrote music for particular people who wanted music. I like that idea because it means your music has some value outside of your own mind,” Wykoff said. “You know when somebody says ‘I would like you to write a piece of music,’ well then you know you’re actually serving.”
