{"id":29843,"date":"2024-09-30T18:54:55","date_gmt":"2024-09-30T18:54:55","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/stateaviationjournal.com\/?p=29843"},"modified":"2024-09-30T18:54:58","modified_gmt":"2024-09-30T18:54:58","slug":"siu-carbondale-grad-succeeds-in-creating-music-flying-planes","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/stateaviationjournal.com\/index.php\/state-news\/illinois\/siu-carbondale-grad-succeeds-in-creating-music-flying-planes\/%20","title":{"rendered":"SIU Carbondale Grad Succeeds in Creating Music, Flying Planes"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

by Pete Rosenbery<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Composing allows Thomas Edgar, a certified flight instructor in Southern Illinois University Carbondale\u2019s School of Aviation<\/a>, a bit more freedom and the opportunity to be more creative than when piloting a plane.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

And Edgar, who graduated from SIU in May with degrees in piano performance from the School of Music<\/a> and aviation flight, does both quite well.<\/p>\n\n\n

\n
\"\"
Finding his passion: Award-winning composer Thomas Edgar has a degree in piano performance from the SIU School of Music and is working toward a career in aviation as a pilot from the School of Aviation. (Photo by Russell Bailey)<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n

This summer, Edgar won a Diamond Prize in the original composition category at the Saint-Sa\u00ebns International Music Competition 2024 Season 2 for his work, \u201cInferno to Infinity.\u201d<\/a> Edgar also won the Saint-Sa\u00ebns Special Award for Creative Innovation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI was very, very grateful that it was successful,\u201d Edgar said. \u201cI was glad that my music was well-received. It felt good. Sometimes you write something, and you have no idea how people are going to take to it. You might think it\u2019s good, but others might not understand.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u2018Inferno to Infinity\u2019<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Edgar said he likes to blend romantic classical music with jazz music \u201cand make a fusion of those.\u201d The work is of an imaginary track that begins at the Earth\u2019s core and expands beyond the planet.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The 21-minute piece took about four months to write and comprises seven sections. In program notes, Edgar states the beginning \u201cdepicts the fiery unknown churning that is the center of the planet\u201d that proceeds through the ocean\u2019s bottoms into a \u201cpush for light.\u201d A Latin\/jazz influence section \u201csymbolizes the energy, excitement and commotion of emerging at the surface and seeing all of the nature\/civilization\u201d into a \u201cbrief respite to observe all the majesty of nature.\u201d The adventure continues toward outer space and a break from Earth\u2019s atmosphere. After reaching outer space, the final section \u201cevokes the mystic beauty of viewing the depths of space, while looking back toward Earth in reflection of the journey.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Started composing as a teenager<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Edgar, who is from West Chicago, Illinois, wrote his first composition when he was about 15 years old \u201ctrying to mess around in high school.\u201d He has between 25 and 30 compositions and said he has \u201calways been drawn to music.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Edgar started his own journey during his freshman and sophomore years in high school, trying to figure out how composers viewed as \u201cunreachable giants\u201d crafted their works.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIt was always in the back of my mind that I wanted figure out how they did it. At a certain point I was, \u2018All right, I\u2019m just going to start trying,\u2019\u201d he said. \u201cI also had some really great teachers who either recognized potential or really encouraged me and showed me why it was worth it. My middle school band teacher really kind of lit the fire and got me hooked on music.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Difficult balancing act<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

There are a few SIU aviation students who also are music majors, but several have aviation as a primary major and then play in ensembles in the School of Music, Edgar said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI knew that music was always something I felt I was supposed to do. It felt natural,\u201d he said. \u201cI always enjoyed it, but I was a bit hesitant to go all in and make a career of it.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It wasn\u2019t until Edgar visited SIU and talked with faculty from both programs that he began to believe he could succeed in both music and aviation. He is grateful to faculty in each discipline for their willingness to work with him, mentioning music faculty Yuko Kato and Christopher Walczak and aviation faculty, including Nathan J. Lincoln, who also coaches the SIU Flying Salukis. Edgar was a team member during his sophomore and junior years.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThat was the big fear I had coming down here \u2013 I didn\u2019t know how accepting people were going to be of doing dual degrees,\u201d Edgar said. \u201cI was very surprised they weren\u2019t like, \u2018just figure it out.\u2019 They were willing to work with me and understanding of the different time commitments needed in scheduling.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

While on campus, Edgar has performed in numerous ensembles and concerts. He said he has learned a lot about time management, and concedes it was a challenge to keep track of exactly what was needed when there were big projects for both programs, particularly with piano recitals.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIt was quite difficult. There is no way around it,\u201d Edgar said. \u201cIt was pretty hard, just balancing all the back-and-forth between the airport and on campus with music classes and then transitioning to flight instructing part-time the past year and a half. That was another challenge \u2013 finding a way to balance them both.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Plans a future with both passions<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Composing is his \u201ccreative release,\u201d Edgar said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIt\u2019s a way of decompressing, getting everything out that is up in my head. It feels very good to create, and it\u2019s like a big puzzle in your mind,\u201d he said. Edgar explained that while he constantly hears music in his head, except when he\u2019s flying, he might see something while going about his day and hear a musical association to that experience.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Edgar said he\u2019s focused on pursuing a job with a regional airline.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI feel like I have put so much work into that, and it\u2019s pretty close. I would like to see that through and see how I like it,\u201d Edgar said. \u201cComposing is my passion, so if one day, it overtakes aviation, so be it. But in an ideal world, I would do both in some way. I think composing is kind of a feasible way to continue with music because there is a lot of down time, and I can use that to work on my creative work.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

by Pete Rosenbery Composing allows Thomas Edgar, a certified flight instructor in Southern Illinois University Carbondale\u2019s School of Aviation, a bit more freedom and the opportunity to be more creative than when piloting a plane. And Edgar, who graduated from SIU in May with degrees in piano performance from the School of Music and aviation […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[98,23],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-29843","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-aviation-education","category-illinois"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/stateaviationjournal.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29843","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/stateaviationjournal.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/stateaviationjournal.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateaviationjournal.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateaviationjournal.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=29843"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/stateaviationjournal.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29843\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":29845,"href":"https:\/\/stateaviationjournal.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29843\/revisions\/29845"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/stateaviationjournal.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=29843"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateaviationjournal.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=29843"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateaviationjournal.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=29843"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}