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Music Student Geoff Edwards Wins SURF Grant

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Geoff Edwards
Geoff Edwards

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.”

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