ENMU music student prepares for recital

Editor's note: This is the first in a three-part series on Eastern New Mexico University music students' recitals.

Jared Aragon spent his spring semester at Eastern New Mexico University preparing for his composition recital, which took place Wednesday.

The recital featured five pieces of music composed by Aragon, who also played the pipe organ and piano for the performance.

Aragon grew up in Bosque with parents who owned a music shop, and after taking piano lessons for four years, was inspired to start writing music.

"My teacher was really big on music theory," said Aragon. "One day I just started writing notes down and brought it to her and it just kind of fell down from there."

Jillian Holbert: Portales News-Tribune

Jared Aragon, left, and Tracy Carr rehearse for Aragon's composition recital in Buchanan Hall.

One of Aragon's pieces entitled, "Little Suite for Big Bassoon," warranted a contrabassoon player from the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, Susan Nigro, to take part in the recital.

"To have someone coming in from such a big name musical organization to Portales, New Mexico is incredible," said Aragon. "And the fact that she's willing to do it for free is amazing."

Aragon's process for writing music begins with jotting it down on a piece of paper. He then goes to the piano and builds up the idea into sketches. Finally, he uses a computer program to fully realize the piece before it goes to other musicians.

"It's about trying to get them to find their own unique individual creative voice in music as a composer," said Mark Dal Porto, the composition professor at ENMU who has been mentoring Aragon for four years. "He's very naturally gifted."

Aragon's pieces are inspired by Aztec melodies, the romantic period of classical music and the nature that surrounded him growing up in New Mexico. According to Aragon, there are few pieces that put the viola center stage and he wanted to amend that. For his "Five Aztec Folk Songs," Aragon enlisted Hannah Simmons, a freshman majoring in chemical biology, to be the viola soloist.

"It has a simplicity that is just beautiful and light and yet a little bit exotic in a way," said Simmons. "It just has a touch from the past and the present that I really enjoy."

A senior, Aragon will be graduating this semester from ENMU and plans to go pursue a master's degree in music composition at the University of Arkansas. He also hopes to get a doctoral degree in music and teach music theory and composition at a university.

"When he first started, he kind of didn't like to practice," said Elaine Aragon, Jared's mother. "But after a while, it became natural to him and he just put his whole heart into it."