IU alumnus remains composed after finding early success

Brian Buch, an IU alumnus, started writing music for his friends in fifth grade, and by his senior year of high school he had already composed his first major classical work. \nLast year, Buch was a finalist for the 2007 Queen Elisabeth Composition Competition in Brussels, Belgium. \nBuch was one of six undergraduates to complete the composition program, a unique and small portion of the Jacobs School of Music. A composition recital, sans Buch, will be held at 8 p.m. Nov. 6 in Auer Hall and will feature some of the program’s talented writers.\nAt 22, Buch was the youngest finalist for the Queen Elisabeth Composition Competition, but his interest in writing music was sparked at a much younger age.\n“I started playing piano at age 7, picked up the trumpet at age 11 and the guitar at 12,” Buch said. “My friends and I didn’t have the money to spend on music when we first started so we often transcribed and wrote out our own material. It was a lot of fun and a priceless experience.”\nThough he began writing and then playing his own music on the piano, Buch said the most memorable moment in his young career was when the Estonian National Symphony Orchestra, located in the Estonian capital of Tallinn, performed his very own work.\n“It was amazing experience to sit in a filled concert hall of people I didn’t know listening to the music I wrote out note by note at the piano the summer before,” he said.\nBuch said he wouldn’t have been as successful without the help of his primary teacher and mentor, Alla Cohen, at the New England Conservatory and the Berklee College of Music in Boston.\nBuch mentioned some of his peers at the music school and performers at IU who “were also very inspiring to be around.”\n“It was obvious he was a very serious student from the beginning,” said Sven-David Sandstrom, one of Buch’s private teachers during his time at IU. “The writing seemed to come so easily for him, though at the same time he did work very hard.”\nWhen asked about his challenges, Buch paused.\n“Fortunately for me, I can say that gathering performers is the hardest part of my compositional process,” he said. “Writing music has never been a struggle for me. I always make sure that every note that I put on the page has been given 100 percent of my effort and thought.” \n“Following a profession in composition can often be a dead-end job,” said Don Freund, a Jacobs composition professor. “Brian was a special case. He was extremely talented during his time here; it was obvious he would move forward with his career.”\nBesides becoming a professor of composition, Buch hopes to continue to write music for symphonies and jazz groups. He also offers some words of wisdom for future composers:\n“I really believe that a composer should live and die for every note and that (his or her) music should be genuine and strong.”