So You Want to Commission a Cello Etude

WRSS Cello Teacher Kellen Degnan and his students offer feedback and support for cellist and composer Daijana Wallace's 'Floating, Flying'

by Kellen Degnan, August 2024

This summer, the Western Reserve Suzuki School allotted each of its faculty members a summer stipend to pursue personal projects with the aim of enhancing our teaching. I chose to use my stipend to join a commissioning consortium for a new cello etude.

In the classical music field, commissions are one of the primary sources of income for a composer. The composer receives a fee from a performer or organization in exchange for writing a brand new piece, usually for a specific performer or ensemble to premiere. A consortium is a coalition that brings together multiple performers or groups to contribute to the commission fee. 

I have been lucky enough to be involved both directly and indirectly with several commissioning projects in the past. Most recently, the Toledo Symphony Orchestra commissioned a nine-movement suite based on the planets (and Pluto) of our solar system, with each movement written by a different composer. It was programmed alongside Gustav Holst’s The Planets suite for a program called The Orchestra’s Guide to the Galaxy. 

One of the composers commissioned for the project was a friend of mine, Daijana Wallace. Daijana is a cellist as well as a composer, and I had worked on a piece of hers called Shades for solo cello. working together, I have grown to love her writing for cello. So, I was very excited when I learned that Daijana was being commissioned by a group called the Cello Teaching Repertoire Consortium.

This particular consortium commissions pieces designed to supplement the standard student cello repertoire like the pieces in the Suzuki books. It also offers a couple different ways to join the consortium and support the chosen composer. 

With WRSS’s funds, I was able to join the consortium as a Lead Commissioner. One of the main benefits of joining the consortium at this level was that I received an early draft of the piece in July. I shared the draft with some of my students in their summer lessons, and we discussed the challenges of the piece and whether or not there were any changes in notation that would make the piece easier to understand. Then, I met with Daijana and passed my students’ feedback on to her. 

Many of the comments were directly incorporated into the final version of the piece, which was sent to all members of the consortium on August 1.

I have always been a proponent of learning and performing contemporary classical music, and I am glad that the Cello Teaching Repertoire Consortium is providing an opportunity for teachers like me to help their students dip a toe into the world of contemporary music. 

I am very grateful to my students Becca, Kaiden, and JT for the feedback they gave me to pass on to Daijana. And I am very excited to work on Daijana’s new piece, Floating, Flying, with my students this year!  

Kellen Degnan, Cello Faculty