Bakersfield Life

Inspired by sons and childhood memories

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}p.MsoNormal, li.MsoNormal, div.MsoNormal { margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; font-size: 12pt; font-family: Cambria; }table.MsoNormalTable { font-size: 10pt; font-family: "Times New Roman"; }div.Section1 { page: Section1; }      Jim Scully is a busy man. When he’s not chasing around his 5-year-old triplet boys, he can be found educating young minds at CSU Bakersfield, his alma mater and where he has been a music lecturer since 2003.

       If that weren’t enough, composer, performer and music promoter round out his impressive musical repertoire.

      Scully found his love for music at an early age. He recalls fondly his grandfather playing television theme songs on the piano.

       “I was amazed at his ability to hear something once or twice and play it back flawlessly,” Scully said.  
      Inspired, he picked up the guitar and dedicated an entire summer to learning the ropes from his grandfather.
      In the years to follow, Scully honed his skills in a variety of ways — taking lessons from friends, playing cover music at high school parties, and writing and performing his own rock/pop/grunge music in the early ‘90s.
      “I had a band at this time that was playing a lot around Bakersfield and had band members and friends in the same circles as Korn,” he said.
     It wasn’t until he started studying at CSUB that he realized that he was a better guitarist than he gave himself credit for. Scully found another mentor in CSUB music director Doug Davis, who pushed him to pursue guitar more seriously.
      “I really started to throw myself into the work and realized that as much as I enjoyed playing music, I had a deeper connection to writing music,” he said. “I really enjoy the puzzle of it all.  The problem-solving aspect is a lot of fun for me.” 
      In the case of his most recent work, Sonata for Guitar, Scully said his emotional motivation came from his three boys — Aidan, Maxwell and Dylan — and conceded that the piece was composed in a pretty unconventional way.
     “I would get up in the morning, bring my children to our favorite park and while they played, I would work on the piece with my classical guitar,” Scully recalls.
     Back at home, he would notate what he composed at the park as his wife, teacher and vocalist Jennifer Neil, took over on kid duty.
     “Each movement is subtitled — arrival, lullaby and adventure — with regard to the experience of seeing these three boys born and then grow into the little boys they are now.”
     The entire process took about four weeks over winter break, with the finished product finalized a mere 10 days before its premier.
     “It is rewarding to write a piece and then watch it played - the hard work of composing is long since done and the performance is just a celebration.”
      And, there has been much to celebrate about recently.
     In July, Scully was contacted by PARMA — a recording company that supplies recordings to a series of internationally distributed record labels — to have his piece Bouncing About recorded in the Czech Republic.
      “The Prague experience was completely surreal,” he said. “The recording will be part of a CD in 2011 highlighting the works of young, up-and-coming composers.”

      Three weeks later, Scully was off to Boston on a Subito Grant from the American Composers Forum for a recording session of Sonata for Guitar and another of his recent compositions.
      Rounding out his eventful summer, Scully found himself at the College Music Society (CSM) National Conference in Minneapolis earlier this month where he was the only instructor from the CSU to have works selected for the conference.
       “I feel very fortunate to have represented the CSU at the conference,” he said. “I brought back to CSUB lots of insight into new music instruction by my peers around the country.”
      Something else Scully will bring to campus this year, with help from colleague Roger Allen Cope, is the inaugural six-concert Guitar Art Series, which began earlier this month. 

     The series spans many months, concluding in April, and features artists from France, Boston, Los Angeles and Bakersfield, as well as students in CSUB’s guitar program.

     The concerts will take place at the Doré Theatre, Choral Recital Hall and Metro Galleries.
 

How to attend the Guitar Art Series

When: Through April
Cost:  Series subscription: $30 to $60, individual tickets also available
Tickets: 654-2511
Information: Go online to this Web site: http://csub.edu/guitar