When Professor Jan Nelson chose to direct An Experiment with an Air Pump this fall, she knew that finding music to accompany this challenging script would be difficult.

“Because of the nature of the play, I didn’t think that I would find music that would fit,” says Nelson. “In a situation like that, it is much easier to use music composed specifically for the script. I also thought it would be neat if the music was composed in-house.”

Dustin Winsor came to WLC from Modesto, California, planning to major in music composition. He was in Dr. William Braun’s music theory class when he heard about Nelson’s composer search. “There are a lot of connections between music and theatre,” says Winsor. When he heard that Professor Nelson was interested in having a student compose music for the play, he jumped at the chance.

Nelson accepted Winsor’s proposal almost immediately. “I found out that Dustin’s interest was in movie music composition, and I wanted to give him this opportunity,” says Nelson.

Winsor, a self-taught composer, was happy to take on the challenge of composing for a full-length play production. “I’ve always been interested in music composition for film,” he says.

“I thought that this would be a good way to get experience working with a director.”

Of course, volunteering for thejob was only part of the process. He read the script and started attending rehearsals with the goal of composing theme music for each of the characters.

“The most important thing in the play is the unseen dimensions of the characters,” says Winsor. “The different themes in the music represented each character’s personality and struggle.”

His favorite song is ‘Discover.’ It is performed when the character Emily delivers her monologue about her wish to be a scientist. “The song conveys her excitement for scientific discovery,” Winsor explains.

Winsor also learned the art of compromise that will be beneficial to his future career. “It was an interesting experience working under someone else’s guidelines. Many times in music, it is just you and your composition, but for a play, you have to work with someone else’s concepts and ideas. It’s a give and take.”

When asked about future plans in theatre, Winsor replies, “I hope to help more in theatre. It was a really positive experience.”