By Samia Afsar
Reporting Assistance by Michela Arlia
Acclaimed pianist and Brooklyn College professor Jeffrey Biegel has composed a musical tribute titled, “Reflection of Equality: An Ode to Martin Luther King,” with Zhi Chen and Harrison Sheckler.
This composition is part of a themed trilogy called “Three Reflections,” which includes a tribute to Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg and President John F. Kennedy. The trilogy, composed as solo works or works for piano and orchestra, reflects ideals of humanity through historical figures in American history, with the hope of bringing those ideals to a global audience via music.
The trilogy first began in October 2020 with a musical composition dedicated to the late RBG titled, “A Reflection of Justice: An Ode to Ruth Bader Ginsburg,” and was completed last summer, after which Biegel was asked to play the piece at the Dallas Symphony Orchestra.
Following the invitation, Biegel asked Harrison Sheckler, a now Brooklyn College alum, if he would like to orchestrate around the piano. Sheckler agreed and has been working on the project since August 2021.
Sheckler, who is currently pursuing a doctorate in piano performance at the University of Arizona Fred Fox School of Music, created a video montage set for Biegel’s orchestration. “There’s a few ideas of mine, but for the most part, it’s all Harrison,” Biegel said.
Sophomore piano and composition student Zhi Chen also assisted Biegel in the piece by serving as a music producer and audio engineer, weaving the orchestration around sample libraries with the digital audio workstation, Logic Pro X.
“[…] Zhi Chen is a computer wizard with using sample libraries and he knows how to take printed music, from my piano part and the orchestration by Harrison Sheckler, and line them up to create a conductor score, and then start to create based on the instrumentation, a nearly human-sounding orchestra,” Biegel said.
Building on the momentum of that original RBG project, Biegel composed “Reflection of Equality: An Ode to Martin Luther King” and “Reflection of Freedom: An Ode to John Fitzgerald Kennedy,” using their names to form the themes of the music.
By creating a unique music scale for each piece, Biegel redefined music to fit the narrative of the names that these influential people carry.
“I took their names, their monikers, you know, the initials- RBG, MLK, JFK,” Biegel said. “I noticed that the music scale is from A to G, then it repeats itself as the scale gets higher and higher on the piano, so with G, the next note would be A, but instead of A, I made it an H, and then the B, and I just kept going in the alphabet until I hit Z. I did that for each of their names, so their full names each have a musical tone.”
Biegel then created original themes corresponding to each of their names. For Martin Luther King, he emulated marches, something Dr. King was known well for as a civil rights activist.
“I decided to make it a march, just like the marches that MLK led for equality, and took a late 1700’s hymn called the ‘Amazing Grace,’ and I put that in as the heart of the piece,” Biegel said.
He emphasizes, however, selecting Dr. King, John F. Kennedy, and Ruth Bader Ginsburg based on merit rather than political bias. “I’m not reflecting party, I’m reflecting values,” Biegel said. “It’s not about sides. It’s about the values that they represented in their lives and how to make the world a better place by working together to pull those values through music.”
The piano concert tributing MLK was also performed at the Alaskan Black Caucus via Zoom, alongside Democratic Senator Elvi Gray-Jackson.
“Some of the speakers [at the Caucus] were truly touched by our work,” Biegel said. “One of them said, ‘Professor Biegel, you get it, you understand, this is what we are fighting for.’”
Reflecting on his involvement in the piece, Zhi Chen told the Vanguard the hopes he has for listeners to take with them.
“I hope that this piece will inspire others to continue the fight to achieve peace and equality for all as MLK’s will continues within all of us,” Chen said. “It’s an honor to bring to life the music of Professor Biegel’s beautiful tribute to these three political icons of our time.”