As part of its #ILIOArtistCircle series, ILIO has released a short documentary following the busy and restless life of Juilliard professor and renowned composer Dr. Wayne Oquin. Oquin is by his own admission one of the least likely composers to be using technology to realize his compositions, and after searching for ways to be more efficient with his time, his path crossed with ILIO and Oquin started using Vienna Symphonic Library (VSL) to realize scores.
Using VSL together with Avid's notation software Sibelius, Oquin is able to hear and visualize a score before it gets into the hands of an orchestra. In his words, "Because of VSL's integration with most notation software it puts orchestration, color and timbre earlier in the compositional process. The vast majority of composers have to wait a long time before they can hear live musicians play back their work. Vienna changes all of that. It's an immediate high-quality representation of what I'm going after."
Oquin is among the most performed American composers working today. His music has been premiered on five continents, in twenty-one countries, and in forty-five states, by organizations such as The Danish National Symphony, The Munich Philharmonic, The Pacific Symphony, and The Philadelphia Orchestra, as well as by The King's Singers, pianist Marc-Andre Hamelin, and Grammy Award-winning organist Paul Jacobs. ILIO's Mark Hiskey comments, "Dr. Oquin is a true 21st century composer, and ILIO is proud to humbly serve and support such accomplished artists with their careers and passions."
On having a world-class musician using VSL instruments, VSL's Paul Kopf said, "What a wonderful statement! It's an honor to see that our instruments are used in the most prestigious universities all over the world. Learning and working with virtual instruments that deliver the most authentic results is a key element to a modern musical education, right next to joy, dedication and perseverance."
Watch the short-length documentary here: youtu.be/E6VphdEVLbI
Read the full story here: ilio.com/blog/the-21st-century-composer-wayne-oquin
