Emmy-nominated composer joins NSU

By Danna Bertel •

Passionate about music at a young age, Christina Chatelier, freshman political science major, is taking Commercial Music Theory with Assistant Prof. Bill Withem. With an interest in songwriting and composing, Chatelier decided to take the course to dissect music and understand what makes pop music great. She enjoys being able to apply the material she learned.

“It’s about the real music behind it and how people use the things that we’re learning in class to create something that we never even think about,” Chatelier said. “I can be more logical about my music. So it’s not just about me working to push out that emotion. It’s about creating something logical and making a plan to completely construct what I have in my mind, so I think it’s very important to take these types of classes.”

Before starting his first semester at Nova Southeastern University, Withem worked for 13 years at Mott Community College. Feeling ready to embark on a new adventure, Withem searched for a school that was not too steeped in tradition, and NSU caught his interest.

“If a school program says we’re going to recognize the music that students might be more familiar with but also teach them the basics, the fundamentals of how music works, how to study music, perform and become better as a musician then that’s really cool and NSU seemed to get that and a lot of other schools don’t do that,” Withem said.

Withem’s journey in music started at a young age when he noticed that the music in movies felt dramatic and visual. Later, he expanded his knowledge by playing the trumpet at 13 and becoming part of an orchestra and jazz band in high school. But, it wasn’t until college that Withem decided to pursue a career in music.

“While you’re in rehearsal, you can just listen to all the sounds around you. It’s very inspiring and gives you these ideas. It took a while to have those desires with music,” Withem said. “It came along later, but definitely by college, I had much more sense I really wanted to pursue this because this is cool and so much so that I changed my degree.”

Throughout his career, Withem delved into different projects following the footsteps of his favorite composers, Aaron Copland and Sergei Prokofiev. Music pieces he has composed range from orchestral pieces to composing music for choreographers as well as creating music for documentaries and films.

“Like my favorite composers, it kind of meant you’re doing a little bit of all these different things, you’re not just doing one thing over and over,” Withem said.

Some of Withem’s notable works are his orchestral work “Supernova” which was conducted by José Luís Maúrtua in Peru and composing music for choreographer Lina Puodziukaite’s “Egle” which premiered at the Lincoln Center in New York. He also composed a score for the documentary “Imported from China,” which was nominated for an Emmy for best musical score in 2014.

Teaching at NSU, Withem strives to give his students the knowledge and skill sets necessary to build on their personal music careers in the outside world.

“We’re going to have an assignment every week, so they’re constantly working on stuff that means they’re going to be comfortable and familiar. When they graduate, if they can purchase the equipment, then they can start building their own studio, start networking and get clients. Hit the ground running is what I want to go for,” he said.

Zolani Henry, junior music major, who wants to produce music in the future, finds the courses with Withem inspiring and helpful as he shares his experience.

“He also tells you about his experience in the work area. Knowing what your client wants, how to connect with people through music and finding jobs through music, which is really important as a music major because we want to know how we can make money off of music as well as get to do what we love,” Henry said.