19552 GW Mag 26_Final_singles - Flipbook - Page 39
improvisation” at the District of Columbia War Memorial
took sweeping, choral synths through a metamorphosis into
jangling pizzicato, radio-tuning static, downtempo trip-hop
beats and beyond. Her album On Separation was extensively
workshopped through these live performances.
That ability to work with the present moment—to make
changes and see the work change in real time—is part of the
reason she gravitates toward sound as a medium, Stebbins said.
“Had I had any visual skills I might’ve become a visual
artist,” she laughed, “but sound has always been the material
that makes sense to me, I think largely because you work
with it in time. I can react in real time to whatever I’m doing
and keep it going in a way that wouldn’t be the same if you
were working with a visual medium.”
One Skillset, Many Languages
The ability to shift gears in real time was crucial when
Stebbins started teaching at GW in 2020, a year thrown into
confusion by the COVID-19 pandemic. But the virtual learning
period “changed the course of how [she] taught” in some
positive ways, Stebbins said.
“I had to rethink how students were going to engage with
technologies when we couldn’t be in the same space, when
we all had different types of computers, and when we
couldn’t access hardware like microphones or synthesizers
or any of the tools that we have in our studio here. I actually
think it led to some really nice changes in the curriculum.”
Stebbins’ teaching curriculum is generally focused on
hands-on composition classes. Her students gain proficiency
in the technical and musical tools they need to make their
own work, including audio processors and synthesizers like
the legendary Moog (pronounced, if you want to sound like
an electronic music insider, to rhyme with “vogue”). She
also teaches a course on the history of sound technology.
“I love that course because we talk through, basically,
since the Industrial Revolution, how we capture and create
sound,” Stebbins said. “Then we get to today, and we grapple
with issues of streaming platforms and digital distribution
and intellectual property, and what AI is going to do to music
consumption and creation. It’s really fascinating to see
students think about these tools that they engage with on a
daily basis in a new light when they start to peel back the
layers and see how they work.”
In their album SPIRALS,
Stebbins and Associate
Professor of Music Ning Yu
use piano, effects pedals and
digital processing techniques.
(Design: Mark Reigelman II)
Part of the joy of teaching, Stebbins said, is seeing the
variety of “musical languages” that interest her students,
and the plethora of structures they build with the same basic
set of tools. “I'm never going to make the same type of music
as my students, but we can sort of share a language of both
tools and skills to get them to a point where they’re making
what they want to make.”
She also loves the way GW students come to music from
many backgrounds and perspectives. “Because we’re in a
liberal arts environment, ‘I’m often working with students who
have never studied music traditionally, ever,” she said. “And
yet they can take these courses and get to a place where they
are making their own material. I find that really rewarding.”
Stebbins’ students often reward her with new perspectives
on her own sonic environment and compositional approach,
she said. In one assignment, students use a field recording
kit to capture a “non-musical sound” as the basis of a piece.
Stebbins still remembers a project by former journalism and
mass communication major Jess Makler, BA ’22, who went
to a nearby CVS pharmacy to record the checkout machines’
beeping, dinging and artificial voices: “If you have your
ExtraCare card, please scan it now.”
“Ever since I was a child, I really
have been moved by sound.”
— HEATHER STEBBINS, ASSOCIATE
PROFESSOR OF MUSIC
Makler “made the most incredible piece that was sort of
funny in the beginning—we all recognize these sounds—but
it also had a really powerful message and sonically was really
amazing,” Stebbins remembered. “It really made me think
about [how] the musical material I generally gravitate toward
is often from natural environments. Could I then expand
and think about how something as seemingly mundane as
a checkout machine can be used as musical material?”
Most importantly, learning how to listen to, alter and
structure sound can help students expand the ways they tell
their own stories and connect with others, Stebbins said.
The use of sound that is not language, in particular, can help
students take an abstract approach to a potentially more
profound truth.
“I have worked with countless students who tell their stories
through the medium of sound in a way that connects to
everything—from what it’s like to be a GW student and what a
day in their life is like to personal challenges from back home,”
Stebbins said. “I think that is a really important thing, especially
if your day is full of a lot of intense study . . . . It’s nice to have
that creative outlet, and I’m happy to be able to provide it.”
— Ruth Steinhardt
GW Arts & Sciences | RESEARCH & LEARNING | 39
