Marissa Hickman

Introduction
Marissa Hickman is a composer from Montclair, New Jersey. She started playing piano when she was six and through her life became more and more interested in music. She began composing when she was just ten years old to be able to express herself. She attended Montclair High School and was a member of their choir. She also took music theory classes while attending. When it came time to continue her education, she decided to pursue composition in college. Marissa currently attends Rutgers University in New Brunswick and is a Composition Major in the Mason Gross School of the Arts. She likes to compose in various styles such as jazz and electronic. The thing that interests her the most is movie composition. She hopes to one day compose for films.

Works
Anatomy of the Infinite Machine (2017) is an electro-acoustic piece for marimba and bass clarinet. It is a conceptual piece that takes its listeners through a journey of time and space. It contains recording of her own voice saying "time" over and over. The piece plays with the lower register of the bass clarinet and a repeating rhythm in the marimba. It sometimes feels like time is not moving until it all comes to a climax. This piece was premiered at the 2017 Alba Music Festival and was performed by Transient Canvas.

Comparisons
It is hard to compare such a unique artist to anyone. I would say she is innovative like many other composers were who brought a new meaning to music. Her experimentation with electro-acoustic music is unique and I have never heard anything quite like it.

Observations
I can tell Marissa draws inspiration from various parts of her life. Her piece is just so unique that it is hard to compare her to anything I have heard before. Her piece really expresses an urgency and fear about time passing by.