Music Student Geoff Edwards Wins SURF Grant

Junior Geoff Edwards’ love of music started early. He began studying the piano when he was seven years old and took up the cello a year later. As he delved deeper into the art, he grew to love music technology and audio engineering, so he entered Keene State as a music technology major. However, he also has a talent for musical theory and analysis, so he decided to add music composition along with his technology studies. “I have looked forward to the idea of big projects that I could be writing or making within my musical career,” he said, and he’ll take a big step towards that goal this summer, since he’s been awarded a Summer Undergraduate Research Fellowship (SURF) grant to pursue his research. 

“I will be analyzing pieces written by famous classical composers such as Beethoven, and I will be learning a new way of chromatic harmonization through analyzing each piece,” he explained. “Afterwards, I will compose a piece using the technique of chromatic harmony that was used in each piece that I studied/analyzed, and then I’ll write a conclusion paper on how I composed the piece.”

SURF grants provide financial support to sophomores, juniors, and seniors interested in conducting in-depth research projects in their specific fields of study. “Doing this big project could be a great step for my musical theory practice and compositional understandings for my future of working with music. This opportunity is a great addition to graduate school applications, since this opportunity will give me graduate-level experience. My musicianship has grown so much here at Keene State.”