Chris Lastovika is a music composer. Lastovika’s compositions are minimalistic. Minimal music is a unique blend of ethnic, western and jazz music styles. The purpose of the genre is to provide complex counterpoint in a simplistic fashion.
At age 14, Lastovika became the youngest winner of Chicago’s Gruenstein Memorial National Organ Competition. At 15, she won the Otto B. Schoepfle National Organ Competition. Lastovicka studied composition as a teenager at the South Carolina Governor’s School for the Arts. Lastovika studied organ with Edmund Shay. During college Lastovika studied composition with Frederick Bianch, Joel Hoffman and Allen Sapp. After college, she studied orchestration with Dominick Argentto. Chris Lastovicka attended the Cincinnati College conservatory of Music on full scholarship and graduated summa cum laude.
Lastovicka is the recipient of a Presser Award, a Hatz Award, a CAP Award from New Music USA, and grants from the National Alliance for Youth Sports and New York’s Foundation for the Arts. Lastovika is currently composing a set of choral pieces for the Eastman School of Music Women’s chorus.
Kay Ryan is a writer. Her literature is poetry. Ryan's poems are logical teasers of everyday life events. Ryan's awards include a 1995 award from the, Ingram Miller Foundation the 2000 Union League Poetry Prize, the 2001 Maurince English Poetry Scholarship for her collection Say Uncle, a fellowship in 2001 from the National Endowment for the Arts, a 2004 Guggenheim Fellowship and the 2004 Ruth Lily Putler Prize. Her poems have been included in three Pushcart Prize anthologies, and have been selected four times The Best American Poetry; "Outsider Art" was selected by Harold The Best American Poetry Since 2006, Ryan has served as one of fourteen Chancellors of The Academy of American Poets. On January 22, 2011, Ryan was listed as a finalist for a 2011National Book Critics Award. On April 18, 2011, she won the annual Pulitzer Prize of Poetry. On September 20, 2011, Ryan was awarded a John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation Fellowship or "genius grant". Finally in 2013, she received a 2012 National Humanities Medal.
Kay Ryan states that her poem “Why Must We Struggle” was inspired upon the writings of author Italo Calvino. Italo Calvino is a novelist who is known to blend fantasy, comedy and tragedy to give an illuminated depiction of modern life. Calvino entered the University of Turin to study science but dropped out to join the Italian army during the German occupation of Italy. Latter Calvino did not continue studying science and entered the Faculty of Letters instead. Calvino began writing a collection of stories based on his experiences during the war.
In 1975, Calvino was given an honorary membership of the American Academy and Institute of Arts and Letters. In 1984, Mount Holyoke College awarded an honorary degree to Calvino.
“If we had not struggled
as hard as we can
at our strongest
how will we sense” (Ryan “Why We Must Struggle” 1- 4)
The poem “Why We Must Struggle” when analyzed through a superficial lens is about a speaker who is going through tough times and recites a mantra to himself in order to cope with whatever it is that is affecting him.
“saying how strange
it is that one sector
of the self can step in
for another in trouble,
how loss activates
a latent double” (Ryan “Why We Must Struggle” 9-14)
Knowing that the poem “Why We must Struggle” was inspired upon the poesy style of Italo Calvino allows me to deduce that the deep meaning of the poem is about a soldier saying that the pains that come with war both physical and physiological are worth going through because without pain there is no gain.
Composer Chris Lastovika has found a perfect way to marry two universal forms of communication- music and creative writing through her musical rendition of “Why We Must Struggle.”
At age 14, Lastovika became the youngest winner of Chicago’s Gruenstein Memorial National Organ Competition. At 15, she won the Otto B. Schoepfle National Organ Competition. Lastovicka studied composition as a teenager at the South Carolina Governor’s School for the Arts. Lastovika studied organ with Edmund Shay. During college Lastovika studied composition with Frederick Bianch, Joel Hoffman and Allen Sapp. After college, she studied orchestration with Dominick Argentto. Chris Lastovicka attended the Cincinnati College conservatory of Music on full scholarship and graduated summa cum laude.
Lastovicka is the recipient of a Presser Award, a Hatz Award, a CAP Award from New Music USA, and grants from the National Alliance for Youth Sports and New York’s Foundation for the Arts. Lastovika is currently composing a set of choral pieces for the Eastman School of Music Women’s chorus.
Kay Ryan is a writer. Her literature is poetry. Ryan's poems are logical teasers of everyday life events. Ryan's awards include a 1995 award from the, Ingram Miller Foundation the 2000 Union League Poetry Prize, the 2001 Maurince English Poetry Scholarship for her collection Say Uncle, a fellowship in 2001 from the National Endowment for the Arts, a 2004 Guggenheim Fellowship and the 2004 Ruth Lily Putler Prize. Her poems have been included in three Pushcart Prize anthologies, and have been selected four times The Best American Poetry; "Outsider Art" was selected by Harold The Best American Poetry Since 2006, Ryan has served as one of fourteen Chancellors of The Academy of American Poets. On January 22, 2011, Ryan was listed as a finalist for a 2011National Book Critics Award. On April 18, 2011, she won the annual Pulitzer Prize of Poetry. On September 20, 2011, Ryan was awarded a John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation Fellowship or "genius grant". Finally in 2013, she received a 2012 National Humanities Medal.
Kay Ryan states that her poem “Why Must We Struggle” was inspired upon the writings of author Italo Calvino. Italo Calvino is a novelist who is known to blend fantasy, comedy and tragedy to give an illuminated depiction of modern life. Calvino entered the University of Turin to study science but dropped out to join the Italian army during the German occupation of Italy. Latter Calvino did not continue studying science and entered the Faculty of Letters instead. Calvino began writing a collection of stories based on his experiences during the war.
In 1975, Calvino was given an honorary membership of the American Academy and Institute of Arts and Letters. In 1984, Mount Holyoke College awarded an honorary degree to Calvino.
“If we had not struggled
as hard as we can
at our strongest
how will we sense” (Ryan “Why We Must Struggle” 1- 4)
The poem “Why We Must Struggle” when analyzed through a superficial lens is about a speaker who is going through tough times and recites a mantra to himself in order to cope with whatever it is that is affecting him.
“saying how strange
it is that one sector
of the self can step in
for another in trouble,
how loss activates
a latent double” (Ryan “Why We Must Struggle” 9-14)
Knowing that the poem “Why We must Struggle” was inspired upon the poesy style of Italo Calvino allows me to deduce that the deep meaning of the poem is about a soldier saying that the pains that come with war both physical and physiological are worth going through because without pain there is no gain.
Composer Chris Lastovika has found a perfect way to marry two universal forms of communication- music and creative writing through her musical rendition of “Why We Must Struggle.”
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