ETHAN FIELDS: COMPOSER, MUSICIAN, SOUND ENGINEER

Ethan Fields (b. 1997) is an American composer, musician, and sound engineer. Originally from Islip, NY, Ethan holds a B.S. in Sound Recording Technology and a B.A. in Music Composition from the State University of New York at Fredonia; his teachers include Dr. Daniel Deutsch, Dr. Rob Deemer, Dr. Andrew Martin Smith, Jamie Leigh Sampson, and Paul Coleman. Fields has written works for several ensembles, including symphony orchestra, brass quintet, saxophone duet, wind ensemble, and jazz ensemble. His works have been performed by the Metropolitan Youth Orchestra of New York, the faculty of the New York Summer Music Festival, and the SUNY Fredonia Wind Ensemble. Ethan is also an active musician, performing in several groups including the New York All-State Symphonic Band and Vocal Jazz groups, the Nassau-Suffolk Wind Symphony, Fredonia Wind Ensemble, the Fredonia College Symphony Orchestra, and in musical theater ensembles on and off Broadway. A graduate of SUNY Fredonia, Ethan completed an Mus. B. in Music Composition and a B.S. in Sound Recording Technology in 2019. He is currently pursuing an M.A. in Audio Arts at Syracuse University.

Compositions

Aquatic Pastorale

Growing up on an island meant that the sea was never far away, and it figured heavily into my early life. Aquatic Pastorale combines my personal memories with the sights, sounds, and colors of the ocean to create a musical impression of the ocean. The piece is divided into four sections, starting with Introduction – The Depths, contrasting the darkness of the deep ocean with the crashing of giant waves. Bayberry, named for a plant native to my home’s shores, presents the shoreline as I remember it: a place of roaring waves, crying gulls, bracing winds, warm sand, and idyllic days spent there. The third section, Whale and Calf, offers a pastoral scene of a mother whale and her calf swimming and playing in the ocean, much like a terrestrial pastorale may present other mother-and-child scenes. The final section, titled Lights Above and Below, connects the deep sea and the night sky through the common element of light: the light of bioluminescent organisms in the depths, and the shimmering lights of stars reflected on the surface of the ocean. These elements combine to create a portrait of the ocean as I remember it – deep, mysterious, powerful, and wonderful all at once.