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Las Positas College student Sydney Roberts won a statewide music composition contest last month, receiving a scholarship along with the honor.
Inspired “while listening to various marimba pieces” in class, Roberts received the award and $200 scholarship for her original song “Thief” during the annual Music Association of California Community Colleges Conference in November.
Roberts especially drew inspiration from Steve Reich’s “Nagoya Marimbas” when she composed her song, which is intended for three marimbas, she said.
“The minimalist idea of the piece was very attractive to me and I decided I wanted to try writing something that was both minimalist and not at the same time,” Roberts said. “I wrote a hocket that I could really jam to and after that, the piece just wrote itself.”
LPC music department co-coordinator Dan Marschak called Roberts “one of our top music students” and said he knew of “no one else who is more deserving of this honor.”
“In addition to being a stellar composer, pianist, and flutist, she is also our department student assistant and our tutor,” Marschak said. “I know she will be successful in whatever she decides to pursue.”
Once she receives her Associate in Arts degree in music along with several certificates of achievement, Roberts plans to pursue her goal of writing music for video games and movies by earning a bachelor degree in game scoring and a master’s in composition at San Francisco State University.
“Even though I’m moving on from LPC in fall 2021, I do hope that I can help give insight to the younger or newer composition students and help them succeed just as my colleagues, classmates, and educators do for me,” Roberts said. “I can attribute a lot of my personal growth as a musician, student, and person to my LPC professors and private instructors.”