Although to most people “Metamorphosis” implies caterpillars or Hilary Duff, it has a very different meaning to Natasha Sinha ’08. It is the title of her recently completed two-movement piano concerto. Sinha spent a year composing the piece. “Metamorphosis” illustrates many stages in music. The piece is cyclical in its three sections, opening on comfortable ground, moving away from home, and finding its way back. Sinha sees this piece as the climax in her budding composing career. “In terms of my inspirations, I used ideas that I have been developing over the past few years,” Sinha said about “Metamorphosis.” Sinha took an idea that symbolizes life and displayed it in three parts. While the beginning evokes a feeling of lightness, the middle is darker. Sinha has been composing music since she was seven. She began to play the piano at age five and her parents soon encouraged her to pursue her obvious talents in musical improvisation and composition. “My family has been very supportive,” Sinha said. Beyond encouraging her from a young age to follow her passion for music, they’ve supported all that she’s involved herself with. Of PA Sinha said, “Since I’ve been at Andover, I’ve grown as an individual so my music has progressed.” However, she doesn’t feel that the new environment has directly affected her composing. On the weekends Sinha takes classes in composition and music theory at the New England Conservatory in Boston. As a Junior, Sinha participated in both Cantata and Chorus, while this year she has concentrated on writing music and playing the piano. Indeed, composing takes up most of her time. Sinha described her love for composing: “I’m able to portray my feelings as music, because I can’t always express them as words.” Sinha writes her contemporary music in the Western Style, which means she does all of her work by hand before transcribing it onto the computer. “I develop with each piece,” she said about her work over the years. The American Society of Composers and Publishers (ASCAP) has recognized Sinha numerous times since she was nine for her work. In 2005 she earned the Morton Gould Young Composer Award. In 2004 she won an ASCAP award for her composition “In the Light of the Seven Stars.” This was the first piece Sinha wrote that incorporated both instrumental and vocal parts. A few years ago MIT commissioned Sinha to write a piece. The Essex Music Chamber Group has also commissioned her work. The Phillips Academy Orchestra will perform “Metamorphosis” sometime this or next year. Sinha will continue to compose and will contribute more of her music to Andover in the future.
