Composer and cellist based in Seattle, WA offering tutoring in music theory, songwriting, and music history.

Methodology

My musical teaching prioritizes creativity, curiosity, and connection. It is my belief that everyone is inherently creative, and my goal in teaching is to cultivate this creativity to instill in my students a lasting sense of curiosity about the world and themselves. My teaching provides students the opportunity to nurture their own creative voice while encouraging them to be critical and thoughtful by challenging their musical preconceptions.

Through guiding my students into processes to find solutions, I encourage students to experiment, explore, and question while giving them the tools to think critically. Rather than telling students an answer, I prefer to ask further questions to guide them find a solution within themselves. I believe this develops a personal connection and trust with students and instills a sense of confidence that will reach far beyond their musical aspirations. Each student is unique—by helping them to find and hone their own voice and apply their own perspective, they will reach a truer understanding of the content being taught and more readily apply such concepts in their musical pursuits.

My teaching guides students towards interdisciplinary, multi-cultural creative research. It is imperative that my students learn from the music of cultures found around the world and of varying time periods and genres, from ancient to contemporary, from concert music to pop. There are many ways music has been thought of and performed in this world, and I hope to expose my students to music that falls outside of the traditionally taught canon of western art music, and in doing so elucidate the fact that often in music—and in life—there is more than one way to see, approach, and solve a problem or proposition. Through teaching music of numerous cultures around the world via listening assignments, participatory experiments, essays, and readings, I hope to give my students a deeper understanding of technical musical concepts of pitch, harmony, mode, tuning, and rhythm, a conceptual understanding of multiple ways to think and approach a musical problem, and a personal understanding of relating to differing ways of thinking and living which will follow them into many disciplines in their life and worldview.

I believe active listening is the core of musical practice, which is why I make it a priority for my students to listen to as much music as they can and think critically about it. In both private lessons and courses in musicology, theory and aural skills, I encourage my students to listen as often as they can to both live performances and recordings and to form their own opinions and takeaways from their experiences. Through listening assignments accompanied by short responses about what they heard, students will learn to think imaginatively while developing practical theory and aural skills.

Participatory learning and active engagement is vital to my teaching. Students are encouraged to share their ideas and understandings of what they’ve learned in class discussions and reflection assignments. Additionally, I bring participatory music making into the classroom through group singing and collaborate composition, providing opportunities for students to learn through lived experience and see how concepts they’ve learned in class apply to music you can hear.

Background

I am a composer and graduate student at the University of Washington in pursuit of a Master of Music in Composition. I have experience in teaching elementary theory and providing one-on-one, individualized tutoring. I have a Bachelor's degree in music composition from Columbia College Chicago, and have been composing and researching music theory and musicology for the past 6 years. I hope to share my love of music history and multi-cultural music with others in my teaching, and help my students unlock their own creative potential.

Rates

Rate for online lessons : $25/h

Rate for 5 hours of lessons : $120

Rate for 10 hours of lessons : $225

Lessons offered by Darcy

Individual

The lessons will be held

webcam

Taught subjects

Singing
Music Reading
Music Theory
Songwriting
Musicology
Orchestration

Levels

All Levels

Darcy's resume

Education
University of Washington, MM Composition, 2019-2021
Studying composition with Joël François-Durand & Huck Hodge
Studied electronic music composition with Joseph Anderson
Studied musicology with Kerry O’Brien, Shannon Dudley

Columbia College Chicago, BM Composition, 2014-2018
Studied composition with Kenn Kumpf, Eliza Brown
Studied electronic music composition & production with Daniel R. Dehaan
Studied musicology with Nate Bakkum

Private Instruction
Huck Hodge, 2020-present
Joël François-Durand, 2019-present
Chaya Czernowin, 2018
Zosha Di Castri, 2018
Kenn Kumpf, 2016-2018
Daniel R. Dehaan, 2016-2017
Eliza Brown, 2015-2016
Masterclasses
Chaya Czernowin, 2018 (direct instruction)
Zosha Di Castri, 2018 (direct instruction)
Amy Williams, 2018 (direct instruction)
Samuel Carl Adams, 2017 (direct instruction)
Natacha Diels, 2016

Employment & Experience
Elementary Music Theory T.A., University of Washington, 2020
Creative Research Assistant, Voices & Voids, University of Washington, 2020
Wire+, co-founder/cellist, 2017-2019
Spektral Quartet, intern, 2017-2019
Ensemble Dal Niente, intern, 2016-2018
Cadre: a composers collective, president, 2016-2018

Residencies and Festivals
SICPP Electronics Workshop, invited for 2020 residency, postponed until 2021
Splice Festival, Kalamazoo, MI, invited for 2019 residency
Banff Centre for the Arts and Creativity: EQ Evolution of the String Quartet, Alberta, Canada, 2018

Awards, Scholarships & Recognitions
University of Washington School of Music Scholarship, 2020
Loadbang commissioning competition; runner up, 2020
John and Sheilagh Langille Artist Award, 2018
William J. Russo Award for Excellence in Music, 2018
National Choral Award for Exceptional Artistry in Vocal Performance, 2014

Selected Works
they condemn that which they do not understand, 8 min. for flute, bass clarinet, piano, percussion, violin, viola, & cello, 2020
an eclipse, a rapture, 14-18 min. for solo performer, virtually premiered 2020
the tiger bares its teeth, 10 min. for bass clarinet and percussion, Constellation Chicago, 2019
even the words that we are speaking now, 8 min. for soprano saxophone quartet, Constellation Chicago, 2018
string quartet no. 1, 10 min. for baroque string quartet; Banff Centre for the Arts, Alberta, Canada and Roulette, NYC, 2018
She Holds the Sun in Her Mouth, 5 min. for mezzo soprano and harp, Sherwood Concert Hall, 2018
petal by petal, 11 min. for solo harp and electronics, Sherwood Concert Hall, 2018
what is dark is not always lightless, 7 min. for 2 transducer speakers, flute, bass clarinet, violin, cello, piano, percussion; 2017
what emerges from your hiding places, 6 min. for solo cello, Jefferson Park Library 2017, rev. 2018
not in silence, but restraint, 8 min. for solo horn, violin, viola, cello, bass, flute, clarinet, & percussion; 2017
fleeting…, 5 min. for english horn, trombone, cello, and vibraphone; 2017
all is well, but there is a virus in my brain and it is slowly eating me alive, 7 min. for viola, alto flute, harp, Sherwood Concert Hall, 2016, rev. 2018

Current Projects
bluet (i): aporia, for solo cello, 2020
metastasis, fixed media, 2020
Deus ex Machina, for SATB and live/fixed electronics, 2021
the honey is sweet but the milk has gone sour, for baritone, bass clarinet, trumpet, and trombone, 2021

Commissions
Loadbang ensemble, the honey is sweet but the milk has gone sour, for 21/22 season
Aaron Michael Butler, an eclipse, a rapture, 2020
Kyle Flens, the tiger bares its teeth for bass clarinet and percussion, 2019
~Nois saxophone quartet, even the words we are speaking now for saxophone quartet, 2018
Selected Performances (as composer)
Aaron Michael Butler, virtual livestream premiere, May 2020
an eclipse, a rapture, 2020*
Ensemble Dal Niente Presents: Kyle Flens at Elastic Arts, Oct 2019
the tiger bares its teeth, 2019
Kyle Flens at Constellation Chicago, Aug 2019
the tiger bares its teeth, 2019*
~Nois Saxophone Quartet at Constellation Chicago, Aug 2018
even the words that we are speaking now, 2018
~Nois Saxophone Quartet at Impromptu Fest, Guarneri Hall, Mar 2018
even the words that we are speaking now, 2018*
Elixir String Quartet at Roulette, NYC, Oct 2019
string quartet no. 1, 2018
Elixir String Quartet at Banff Center for the Arts and Creativity, Banff, Alberta, Canada, July 2018
string quartet no. 1, 2018*

Selected Performances (as performer)
Percussionist, UW Gamelan Ensemble, Seattle, WA, May 2020
Improvisor & cellist, Slate Arts & Performance, Chicago, Il, Oct 2018
Cellist & visual artist, Wire+ at Tri-triangle, Chicago, Il, May 2018
Laptop artist & cellist, Tom Kelley & Darcy Copeland Senior Recital, May 2018
Cellist, Wire+ at Cafe Mustache, Chicago, Il, Feb 2018
Cellist, Library Experimental, Chicago, Il, Oct 2017

Selected Recordings (as performer)
Adam Shead’s Impro Jam Anniversary Compilation, Adiaphora Music, 2019

Writings
“Retribution Will be Swift”: Indigenous Ecological Knowledge and Environmentalism in the Music of Tanya Tagaq, 2020
A Timeline of Magick, Metaphysics, and Transgression in the Music of John Zorn, 2019
The Mechanism of Grisey’s Talea: the Machine and the Rank Weeds, 2019
An Analysis of Béla Bartók’s Music for Strings, Percussion, and Celesta, 2018
An Analysis of Rhapsody on a Theme of Paganini, 2018
At the Intersection of Art Forms: Performance and Visual Arts as Musical Parameters, 2017
A Contextual Analysis of The Fifth Symphony of Shostakovich, 2016

Familiar Technologies
MAX 7/8
SuperCollider
Sibelius
Ableton Live 10
Logic Pro X

Professional Affiliations
Society of Composers, 2017-present

Press
Cacophony, F-Plus and ~Nois at Constellation, published September 2018

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