Jersey City, N.J. – Molly Rotondo, a member of Saint Peter’s College class of 2012, received an honorable mention for her musical composition “Defeating Enthrallment” as part of the fifth New Jersey Arts Collective (NJAC) Student Composition Contest, “Pictures 2010.” Molly, who majors in criminal justice and music, was one of six students recognized as part of this contest.
The NJAC Students Composition Contest invites college, high school and middle students from all corners of the Garden State to create works that translate the emotion, composition, structure and tone of visual art into music. Students were asked to write a trio for flute, viola and percussion inspired by the sculpture “Whirlwind,” created by J. Scott Hartley.
Renowned musicians John McMurtrey, a flutist, Brett Deubner, a violinist, and Kimberly Burja, a percussionist, performed Molly’s composition on May 8 at an awards ceremony and concert at the Montclair Art Museum.
J. Scott Hartley was a late nineteenth-century sculptor who helped influence the newly developing artistic center of Montclair, New Jersey. He worked with one of the most famous neoclassical American artists of the day, Erastus Dow Palmer. Mr. Hartley’s fame is largely due to his ideal subjects in clay, including “The Whirlwind,” a beautiful nude figure of a woman, involved in whirls of drapery, appearing to spin in perfect poise in a pillar of cloud. It was first exhibited in 1878.
Saint Peter’s College, inspired by its Jesuit, Catholic identity, commitment to individual attention and grounding in the liberal arts, educates a diverse community of learners in undergraduate, graduate and professional programs to excel intellectually, lead ethically, serve compassionately and promote justice in our ever-changing urban and global environment.