Watch Quinn Mason discuss how composing feels like building little worlds with music.
For years now, critics have called Quinn Mason a prolific and brilliant composer.
Mason graduated in 2015 from North Dallas High School. Since then, he's conducted national orchestras and written long and short works, pieces for solo instruments and for large ensembles. Many have won national awards for good reason, said William White.
“When I listened to those pieces and looked at those scores, I was blown away,” said White. He leads Seattle’s Harmonia Orchestra and chorus in Washington. He met Mason online and eventually commissioned a piece from him. "A Joyous Trilogy," which Mason dedicated to White, premiered in 2019.
“A composer becomes a great composer by writing a lot,” added White, “especially when they're young. And as he was doing that, his own voice emerged. By the time he was in his 20s, he was a fully developed composer.”
Mason disagreed.
“I'm still working towards a unique sound,” Mason said. “I tend to go for more warm orchestration in slower music. So sometimes I'll have the horns blended with the lower strings, and usually I like to use a lot of pentatonic chords and a lot of sixth chords, which give the orchestra a very warm texture. For that reason, most (listeners) of my music say that the music sounds nostalgic.”
Starting young
Mason was introduced to classical music on an elementary school field trip to hear the Dallas Symphony. That was 17 years ago, and he was hooked. Mason was still at Hernandez Elementary School when professional musician Rogene Russell visited his class.
"He showed an amazing ability to identify all the pieces I played on the oboe,” recalls Russell. “This young man knew the names of the composers and sometimes the dates of the composers, and it was astounding."
Mason started composing and hasn't stopped.
At first, he copied favorites like Tchaikovsky and Stravinsky. UT Dallas composition professor Robert X. Rodriguez, who’s worked with Mason, says that’s how young composers learn.
“Just the skills of musicianship - we call it chops - just the raw talent was obvious to see,” said Rodriguez, “and it was good to see him take on influences of other composers and to see his own personality emerge.”
Rodriguez learned composition from Nadia Boulanger – who also taught giants Aaron Copland, Leonard Bernstein, Astor Piazzola and Quincy Jones. Now Rodriguez is passing Boulanger's lessons onto Mason.
“As she mentioned in one of her last letters to me,” Rodriguez said, “the greatest gift a composer can have is a personality. And it's good to see Quinn develop his personality.
Audiences can hear Mason’s personality in his music. He fulfilled his first commission while attending Richland College in Dallas. More orchestras requested compositions as he took classes at TCU and SMU.
He never finished a degree - no orchestra has ever asked him if he had one, he said.
Honoring racial violence victims
And he kept getting commissions. "Reflection On a Memorial" was commissioned by the Dallas Symphony to honor victims of racial violence. Mason, who’s Black, brought his own experiences to the piece, and also wanted to reflect losses in the pandemic.
“I was able to write more personally, and I was able to connect to a lot more people that way. I scored it for string orchestra and because of that, it got played by at least nine or ten orchestras, and this was during the pandemic. So above all, a lot of people connected to it, just like I connected to it,” he said.
Mason also likes connecting to students. He wants to give back the way others gave to him growing up. So wherever he is able, he’ll spend time with students. Recently in Hartford, Connecticut, where he was artist-in-residence with the Hartford Symphony, he taught middle schoolers to write short compositions.
“A lot of them found being creative to be very stimulating and very fun,” Mason said. “It was different than what they were used to. We played the compositions for the class and they really took that quite well. It was really interesting hearing what they came up with and hearing them share it with their colleagues because that was really what it was about.”
That’s what Quinn Mason’s about these days - writing and conducting music, for all to hear.
The Plano Symphony Orchestra performs Mason's composition "Inspiration! - Festive Overture for orchestra" at itsPatriotic Pops concert at 3 p.m. on July 4 at the Eisemann Center.
