Chase Dobson hasn’t picked a college major yet, but his career as a respected classical composer is already flourishing. While a student at the Booker T. Washington High School for the Performing and Visual Arts, Dobson saw his original compositions performed at Carnegie Hall and featured on NPR’s From the Top. Now, this exceptional 18-year-old freshman, who currently lives in a dorm room at SMU, is preparing for yet another milestone in his burgeoning career. While most of his peers are spring-breaking at the beach, Dobson will watch as the Dallas Symphony Orchestra and pianist Lucille Chung give his Piano Concerto No. 1 its professional orchestral debut. We sat down with Dobson ahead of the DSO’s performances of his piece (March 12 through 15) to learn more about this young composer’s musical background and professional ambitions.
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When and why did you start studying music?
I started piano lessons when I was 6. I think it was something my parents sort of valued. You know how parents are; when you get to a certain age, they want you to start trying different things. So I tried sports and, well [chuckles], that didn’t go very well. At some point they decided I should start learning an instrument, so I started piano. My first teacher was a really good musician. She introduced me to music theory and composition. We would work through the method book songs, and then she would say, “Why don’t you add some of your own notes?”
How did you decide that you wanted to be a classical composer?
I was living in Tennessee, where I grew up, just going to some middle school in a small town, working with the band, and writing on my own. I started studying music theory with a professor at Vanderbilt University, and I fell in love with it. I soaked it up like a sponge. That really helped me decide that I wanted to compose. It was probably around seventh grade when I first started messing around with orchestral writing. I was just playing around with [the music notation software] Finale. When you write music in Finale, you can play it back. So I played back what I’d written, and I thought, “That sounds okay. I could get used to this. I’m going to keep working on it.”
When did you compose the piano concerto that the Dallas Symphony Orchestra is performing this month?
I wrote it between when I was 15 and 16. Right before my freshman year of high school, my dad found out his job was transferred to North Texas. Once we moved here, I got an audition at Booker T., and they accepted me. While I was there, I started taking private composition lessons with Simon Sargon at SMU. At one point, I took him the first few pages of an orchestral score I’d started working on, and I said, “Look, I’ve started a symphony!” He looked at it and said, “No. This is a piano concerto.” He was right. That one little correction helped me push the rest of the piece out. That next spring, the Booker T. orchestra played it, and I performed the piano solo.
How did this performance with the DSO come about?
I had been working with Jamie Allen [the DSO’s director of education] through the DSO’s Teen Council. I showed Jamie the piece, and he was really impressed. He asked for a copy of the score, and he came back a week later and said, “I’ve shown this piece to the DSO’s director of artistic planning, and he’s really fascinated by it and wants to set up a meeting.” So I went to this meeting, and it kind of caught me off guard, because I thought I was just going to get some feedback on my piece. I sat down in this room and there was Jaap van Zweden behind his big desk, with these giant flags behind him. It was really, like, presidential-looking. We went through my score, and he said, “This is a very impressive work. We’d like to program it.”
In order to work as a creator in any art form, you have to feel that you have something unique to offer. What is special about your music?
I want to offer a new energy to the contemporary concert music scene because, frankly, it’s kind of sleepy. So much of contemporary music is so dark and dismal. My music has a kind of optimism to it. It’s very rhythmic. It’s kind of youthful. It’s got a sense of humor about it as well. I’ve definitely got plans. There’s a lot for me to do as a composer. I’m still 18, but I’m building momentum, always learning and always taking in everything that I can.
Editor’s note: This Q&A originally appeared in the March edition of D Magazine.
