Grad Student Presents Research

Juan Saavedra, a graduate student in the Department of Music pursuing the Master of Music degree with a concentration in Conducting, has been selected to deliver a presentation at the 2019 Southern Graduate Music Research Symposium, hosted by the Student Society for Musicology at the University of Florida. Saavedra's talk, titled "Mechanisms of Variation in Sammartini's Recapitulations," draws on research and analyses he conducted in MUH 7340 (Studies in Classical Music) during the Winter 2019 semester to argue for the value and ingenuity of early symphony composer Giovanni Sammartini.

"Juan's work in the classical music seminar, for which this paper was the final project, was always originally conceived and well-executed," says Mary Wischusen, Associate Professor of Music (emerita), who was the instructor for the course. "While Sammartini has long been acknowledged as an early voice in the development of the classical symphony, his music is often dismissed as harmonically and formally simple. Juan has brought to light experimental aspects of Sammartini's formal plans that were truly innovative for his time."

Saavedra comes to the WSU Department of Music from the Universidad de la Plata, in Bueno Aires, Argentina. He was recently awarded a Thomas C. Rumble Fellowship by the WSU Graduate School and serves as conductor of the student-run Old Main Chamber Orchestra.