Assistant professor composes music for NSU’s new president

By Luqman Gbenro •

Bill Withem, assistant professor of music in the Department of Communication, Media, and the Arts, has composed an original piece for NSU President Dr. Harry K. Moon’s investiture. The ceremony takes place on Jan. 31 at 2 p.m. in the Rick Case Arena.

“Sometimes you sit down with a group of people and you’re like, ‘I think this is a dignified event,’ but then when the music plays, you’re like, ‘I know this is a dignified event now,’” Withem said.

Withem started working on the composition in October 2024 on his own because he thought it would be something good to have for the investiture.

“I gave it to some of my colleagues and the department chair to listen to just so they could hear what I had done, and from there, they sent it up,” Withem said.

The impromptu conception wasn’t the only unconventional thing about the composition. Withem found a clever way to add another layer of personalization to the music dedicated to Dr. Moon.

“His initials are secretly embedded into the music,” Withem said. “I thought, what if I took Harry K. Moon and converted all [the letters] into musical notes? I looked at them, and I was like, ‘there are some fourths and fifths here,’ and those sound really good on brass instruments, and I thought, ‘oh, this might work.’”

The piece isn’t completely unorthodox. It takes cues from classics like ‘Fanfare for the Common Man’ by Aaron Copland, to build something bespoke. Withem said the composition is a marriage of strong known motifs and fun unfamiliar ideas.

“This piece will be original in a way that I could never have written it for any other thing because I would have never selected these pitches just the way they were,” Withem said.

Withem is set to conduct the composition live with an ensemble hired for the event. The live performance is meant to provide an experience that is felt as well as heard.

“The piece itself works like a buildup. And, if things work out correctly sonically when [the ensemble] is done and we cut off, there’ll be a really beautiful ring of that sound that they’re left with,” Withem said.

This sentiment is echoed by Bill Adams, music and theatre program director and professor in DCMA, who is also set to conduct the NSU Bossa Nova Chorale’s performance of “For the Beauty of the Earth” at the investiture.

“You’ll get the double whammy. So you get electronic vibrations and human vibrations,” Adams said.

As a newer member of DCMA faculty, Withem hopes his composition will make a good first impression.

“I would like to be able to show people that I’m a composer and this is what I can do,” Withem said. “I think it’s important to support the arts and to remember that art supports our every day life.”

Bryce Johnson, editor-in-chief of The Current, contributed to this report.