Students have a chance to see Butler University’s student composers perform their own pieces this Thursday.

The Jordan College of the Arts Composer’s Orchestra presents a concert about once a month, and over fifty percent of the music is composed by the students.

Brice Johnson, a graduate composer who plays in the orchestra, said being in the orchestra and playing your own piece with them is an important part of the process.

“Once you do put your ideas down on paper, it is vital to have someone play it because you have to know if it’s matching what you’re playing,” Johnson said.

The composer rehearsing his or her piece with the orchestra allows the composer to interact with the piece and allows the experienced players to give their input as well, said Michael Schelle, music professor and composer-in-residence.

The composition process typically involves the composer studying with a teacher to create a piece of music, the orchestra rehearsing the piece, the composer making final edits, and the audience hearing the final edition in concert.

Johnson studied with Schelle to create his piece.

Taking lessons is “like translating into a different language; you have to know someone who really knows the language to be able to tell you what’s right,” Johnson explained.

Another composer, Ethan Anderson, worked with Frank Felice, an associate music professor, on his piece for the concert.

Felice also said the composer-orchestra interaction is important because the composer gets to gauge the audience’s reaction to the piece, whether it is with roaring applause or sporadic clapping.

Anderson is a junior at Butler and also plays in the orchestra. He said his piece this time around is more traditional than his previous works.

Felice said part of the creativity and fun is the different dynamics each composer brings to the stage. He added that each year has usually gotten better since the orchestra was formed, but each group is different.

Schelle, Felice, Johnson and Anderson are only a few of many who are collaborating to make this concert possible.

Schelle said there are about 20 composition majors, six of which are presenting their work on this upcoming concert.

He hopes for every composer to want to showcase their work through these concerts.

“If they want to, they should have the outlet and the opportunity to do it just the way Beethoven wanted to do it or Stravinsky wanted to do it,” he said.

Schelle has been at Butler for 30 years and he says the bottom line of composing is the creativity, which makes you a better person.

As the sun set on Thursday, Lilly Hall was bubbling with activity. Musical scales and melodies echoed outside the practice rooms on the second floor, classes were wrapping up in the ensemble rooms on the first floor, and the Butler Theatre was alight with people preparing for a week of tech rehearsals.

“[Lilly] is my place of solace,” said sophomore dance major Elizabeth Simoens, adding that she likes to dim the lights of the dance studios at night and dance improvisatorially alone or with a pianist.

“It’s like playtime,” she said, smiling.

Lilly Hall is full of creative energy during the day. It is the home of the Jordan College of Fine Arts as well as the Indianapolis Children’s Choir, American Pianists Association, Dance Kaleidoscope and other arts organizations.

As the night set in on Thursday, Lilly Hall began to change.

Thursday 9:30 p.m.

The basement is eerily empty. The only sounds echoing off the walls are my footsteps. Two girls chat in the lobby by the Butler Theatre on the first floor, where rehearsal for this week’s opening is ongoing.

Thursday 9:47 p.m.

A group of men in suits, all awaiting initiation into Phi Mu Alpha Sinfonia, sing together in the “old Lilly lobby” on the southwest corner of the building. They hold the red books given to all initiates, which contain the history and meaning of the organization.

James Caleca, sophomore music education major, was initiated into the men’s music fraternity on Thursday evening. He laughed and said that he and his fellow initiates decided it would be “a good idea to prance around Lilly Hall serenading girls” before the ceremony. Judging by the smiles on the audience, they were right.

Thursday 10:37 p.m.

Photo by Reid Bruner

On the third floor, Simoens works with a group of instrumentalists on a music and dance collaboration piece. Simoens commissioned this work from graduate composer Brian Spicklemire for a performance at a student choreography showcase next year, but it will be premiered on Saturday at Spicklemire’s composition recital. The dance is also on tomorrow’s Composers’ Orchestra concert  but without Simoens.

Using  Laban scales as a foundation, Simoens said she plans to weave her movements through the sounds of the instrumentalists, picking out musical “asides” to emphasize in order to avoid repetitive flowing movements. She has also developed a thematic movement, crossing all spatial axes, that will tie the piece together.

Thursday 11:22 p.m.

The second — floor music practice rooms are largely empty. Viola, piano and trumpet music floats down the corridors from various directions. A music student is asleep in the old lobby.

Friday 12:55 a.m.

After rehearsal, a group of theater students watch an episode of AMC’s television show “The Walking Dead” in the theater design lab.

Friday 2:22 a.m.

The last musician leaves her practice room and heads home for the night. The fluorescent lights in the hallways buzz, awaiting the sunrise and the influx of students for morning classes.

The metal door locked behind me, and the crisp air enveloped me as I left the building in the small hours of Friday morning, surprised and inspired by the mix of diligence and light-heartedness that is Lilly Hall after dark.