Duet of note: Husband and wife to play his compositions at free concerts in Arkansas

Phillip Schroeder, who teaches music theory and composition at Henderson State University, and Margaret Jones, who plays violin regularly with the Arkansas Symphony Orchestra, will perform four free concerts of Schroeder’s music in central Arkansas.
Phillip Schroeder, who teaches music theory and composition at Henderson State University, and Margaret Jones, who plays violin regularly with the Arkansas Symphony Orchestra, will perform four free concerts of Schroeder’s music in central Arkansas.

Some 34 years ago, composer/pianist Phillip Schroeder pushed a musical score across a table in the student lounge to Margaret Jones, an undergraduate student and violinist at Butler University in Indianapolis.

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Phillip Schroeder, who has released a number of albums nationally, has composed several new works which will be performed at four concerts in central Arkansas.

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Regular Arkansas Symphony Orchestra violinist Margaret Jones will join pianist/composer Phillip Schroeder in concert at four central Arkansas venues. Their Sept. 1 concert will be part of Trinity Episcopal Cathedral’s Chamber Music at the Cathedral Series.

The memory brings a big smile to Jones' face. "He said, 'This is a string quartet and I've written it for you.'"

The couple were dating at the time; Schroeder, who teaches music theory and composition at Henderson State University in Arkadelphia, was also a student at Butler, working on his master's degree.

"It's a challenging piece of music, absolutely fantastic," Jones says of String Quartet No. 1, which won the prestigious New Music for Young Ensembles award in 1983. "We played it at Butler, then I played it in a professional quartet I was in. It's a different style from what we are playing now."

The couple, who reconnected and married in 2014, will play a series of four free concerts in central Arkansas, starting with Friday's performance at Harwood Recital Hall at HSU (see sidebar for details).

Schroeder's early works were influenced by early 20th-century Austrian composer Anton Berg and composer/conductor Gustav Mahler. From that beginning, his music has evolved into a transparent, spiritually inspired music infused with a gentle, sometimes meditative beauty.

"My intent is for the music to be inclusive," Schroeder, 59, says. "I can identify where there is Bach, Beethoven, Brahms; Schoenberg, the Beatles, some jazz techniques. But I don't want any of those things to be overt; I want it to be integrated, subsumed into my language so it comes out as the work it is, rather than a style.

"Some music is intellectual, very cognitive, structural. There is music that is strictly visceral. I'm interested in music that is both. I hope [my] music is music most people will be able to hear and enjoy, and the more they listen to it, if they cared to study it, they would find a great deal of interest in structures, subtleties. Bach and Debussy are that kind of model -- beautiful sounds and you can find all kinds of structural and technical things in it."

Among Schroeder's new works is the premiere of a choral piece, Giving Thanks, which was written for

the HSU Chamber Chorale.

"It uses the text of 19 different words for 'thank you' in their original languages," Schroeder says. "It's an expression of my long-term interest in the cultivation of the virtue of gratitude in my own life; this perspective is very significant and important to me."

The piece will be performed only in Hot Springs and will feature HSU's Chamber Chorale and the choir of St. Luke's Episcopal Church. It will open and close the Sept. 11 tribute concert.

"Lynn Payette, who directs the Hot Springs Music Festival Chorus and is director of music at the church, suggested we do Giving Thanks as a Sept. 11 tribute to honor our first responders," Schroeder says.

All the concerts will feature several recent works by Schroeder, including 2015's "Distant Shadows" and 2014's "Time to Trust" and "Lightness Is the Root of Gravity." The title work of his 2009 Passage Through a Dream album will also be featured. Those works will also include digital delays and fixed electronics, while 2014's "Nocturne" and 2015's "Avian Fields" will be just piano and violin.

TOGETHER AGAIN

Schroeder and Jones went their separate ways when he left Butler for Kent State University in 1983 to work on his doctorate. He found success as a composer, educator and recording artist.

Jones finished her degree and pursued her career; she is a co-founder of the Indianapolis S̶y̶m̶p̶h̶o̶n̶y Chamber Orchestra* and has toured with dancer Mikhail Baryshnikov, the late singer Natalie Cole and performed in The Lion King on Broadway. She plays with the Arkansas Symphony Orchestra and teaches privately. Jones also is a part-time intensive care unit nurse at Baptist Health in Arkadelphia.

The couple had sporadic contact during the five years prior to their marriage.

"In 2014, we decided it was serious," Jones, 54, says. "It was, 'You want to give this a try?' And we both felt it was right. Some people have asked me if I wish we'd gotten back together sooner. This was perfect timing. We needed to live our life experiences we had in order to be ready for this relationship."

Schroeder says their reunion sparked a new wave of creativity: "When we got together, I was about to begin a sabbatical. When this relationship happened, the violin became the focus of my work. I wrote eight new pieces for Margaret and I to perform."

They plan to record an album this fall.

"I decided 15 years ago that I was through trying to compose music that I hoped others would like," he says. "I wanted to write music that expressed, that truly reflected my spiritual, ethical, cultural beliefs. This is ideal. I don't have to look for a performer who is passionate about the same things, I'm married to her."

Schroeder says the intimacy of their collaboration awakens qualities he finds hard to describe. "Most of what I have written has been focused for specific players -- orchestra, choir, soloist. Now there is this connection with this violinist who is my wife, companion, best friend, partner. This relationship has opened up a new and much greater creative potential. The spiritual connection Margaret and I have is reciprocal and nurturing; it is precious and liberating."

Jones nods her head in agreement. She feels a strong connection to Schroeder's current work; her voice chokes up a bit as she talks about it.

"It's extremely beautiful, soulful, rich. Phil's music washes over you," she says. "That's what I feel when I play it. As one of his colleagues at the university said, [hearing] his music is like a deep-tissue massage for the soul.

"My motivation as a musician playing Phil's music is completely different than when I'm hired to play a Beethoven sonata or something. It's not that the level of preparation is more or less, it just comes from a different place, a different part of me. This music is his creation ... I am be able to be part of that and realize that in preparing and performing this music, it comes from deep within the core."

The four concerts are an opportunity, Schroeder says, to introduce the music before they begin recording it.

"We'll release a track or two over the summer [of 2017]," he says. "The album will be out in January 2018."

Why so long?

"If you release in January, the album is new for 12 months and that matters for us in terms of radio, reviews, internet play," he says. "Because of the explosion of technologies -- video, streaming, downloading -- different approaches are possible. When we did a concert at Arkansas State University in February, we posted a video on Facebook. We got a lot of good reaction. Those opportunities weren't there five years ago. There are different ways to get the music out.

"Releasing a CD is likely to be a culmination of all of this, rather than the first thing."

Style on 08/23/2016

*CORRECTION: An earlier version of this story contained an incorrect name of the Indianapolis Chamber Orchestra.

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