California Festival: YOLA Institute Concert: Mad Libs, Nina Shekhar

A YOLA Institute ensemble will premiere Mad Libs by
composer Nina Shekhar on Nov 18 open to an audience of
family and friends. As a co-commission with New Music USA
as part of Amplifying Voices, Nina’s piece was written for the
opening of the Los Angeles Philharmonic’s Beckmen YOLA
Center in the 2021-22 season. A graduate of the Los Angeles
Philharmonic’s Composer Fellowship Program, Nina explores
the intersection of identity, vulnerability, love, and laughter to
create bold and intensely personal works.

Mad Libs for youth ensemble draws off the popular word
game to allow students to create their own musical narratives.
The piece consists of short stories and musical settings that
contain “blanks.” The students fill in the story blanks with
words of their choosing, then come up with sounds that
represent those chosen words. The musical arrangements
include corresponding “blank” noteheads, in which the
students can fill them in by playing their designated sound
they chose. This framework serves as an identity metaphor in
which kids can insert themselves into these stories and
choose to center any kind of character, and it guides students
through the creative process to learn how to compose a
piece themselves.