Senior Andrew Araki has been preparing for tonight since his freshman year.
He'll give his senior composition recital at 8 p.m. in Sursa Performance Hall. Other students will be performing his composed works vocally and instrumentally.
This music composition and theory major has put a lot of work into the pieces that the audience will hear.
"Each individual piece ranges [on the amount of time spent composing] from a couple weeks to the greater part of a year," he said.
Araki has been perfecting his compositions, making sure everything sounds just right. The performances, which will be of Araki's best works, will range from solos and duets to larger ensembles.
"The biggest challenge is scheduling times to meet with performers," he said. "When you get a group larger than two to three people, it can be quite a challenge."
Even with this difficultly, Araki said things are going well and he's excited to see how things turn out.
"I'm a little bit nervous and I hope it goes well and nothing unexpected happens," he said. "I'm really anticipating [the recital]."
Araki said his music doesn't follow the rules of conventional tonality. He describes it as a 20th-century, post-tonal style.
From the work that he'll present at the recital, he said it's hard to pick something he's most proud of. However, he said he's really looking forward to hearing his vocal piece and his string composition.
Araki said he likes to use music history as a basis for his work.
"One of the things that's helped a lot was music history," he said. "I see what was done before and I expand on it in my own way."
This is one of the reasons he likes composing so much. He said he likes to make things his own.
"I like music," he said. "That's a big thing. Another thing is creating something. It's working with materials, and seeing what you get is great."
All of this work and passion will be on display tonight.
"I think I've put together a pretty good concert and it will go over pretty well," he said.
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