After listening to Chick Corea’s “The Continents” for the first time several years ago, Michael Gabriel was inspired to arrange the orchestral concerto for jazz combo into a concerto for jazz combo and chamber winds. His innovation and plans for the project earned first place in a competition that has helped him take his idea to the next level. 
 
Gabriel, a Graduate Teaching Assistant pursuing his master’s in wind conducting, bought a score right away to begin studying the music, while still teaching wind ensembles and jazz bands at a high school. This seed of an idea bloomed into fruition with the premiere of his transcription on Friday, January 26, in the Michigan State University College of Music’s Murray Hall. 

Gabriel’s recording and commissioning project earned him first place in the 2024 Running Start Competition, a program designed to encourage entrepreneurialism and help students bring their creative ideas to life. All finalists in the annual live pitch portion of the competition earn a cash prize to help further their ideas. Gabriel’s first place finish earned $2,500.
 
“I am using am using the Running Start funding for several purposes, including rendering a professional quality video and audio recording of the performance,” he explained. “Other needs include funding an additional recording session in which we will be able to further refine the piece for a final mastered recording, funding the copyright and licensing costs for the premiere and the publication of the parts, score, and recordings, and funding the costs of advertising and promotion.”

The advertising and promotion included creating his own website. That website has since launched publicly with funds from the competition.
 
What inspired Gabriel the most for this project was the collaborative spirit embodied in origins of this work. Mozarthaus Vienna, a museum in Austria dedicated to Mozart, approached Corea, the composer, to write “The Continents” for Mozart's 250th birthday celebration in 2006.
 
“Chick gave very little information about programmatic elements of this piece, except that he wrote it ‘in the spirit of Mozart’,” Gabriel said. “I take this to mean in the spirit of collaboration, diversity, and improvisational freedom.”
 
At MSU, Gabriel is extending the spirit of collaboration to a joint effort between jazz and wind students. Though wind conducting is his focus in his studies, Gabriel’s creative idea allows him to maintain jazz as part of his work.

“This project is one of my ways of keeping that love of jazz in my musical life,” he noted. “At a program like MSU with amazing jazz and band departments, I thought this would be a perfect breeding ground for this type of collaborative project.”
 
Kim Kleasen, Armand Hall, Rodney Page, Lauren Cichocki, and Katie Bethel served as the 2024 Running Start Competition judges, and they agreed with Gabriel. He said he is thankful for the opportunity to pitch his project to the Running Start Program.

“It is a unique opportunity to support students’ dreams outside of the classroom, and we’re fortunate to have it here at the College of Music,” Gabriel said. “I encourage all students interested or passionate in any type of project in music to consider applying for this award. There are several opportunities for advice along the way, and generous funds are available to people with well-crafted ideas and plans. It is a great experience!”

The annual Running Start Competition helps students fund their visions within their professional music careers. Participants create projects and businesses that are unique in their approach, creative in content, can reach more audiences, and maybe solve a problem within the world of music. Past winning ideas have included outreach projects, commissioning projects, a sustainable instrument-building business, and a food and music concert series. Each year, students selected as finalists present their projects to a live audience. All finalists receive a cash award to help further their ideas. Here are the 2024 Running Start Competition finalists and their final placements as chosen by a panel of judges. 

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Full list of 2024 Running Start Competion finalists, their awards and projects:

$2500

 Michael Gabriel (MM, Wind Conducting)
 Project: Chick Corea’s “The Continents”: A Transcription for Jazz Combo and Chamber Winds

 

 

 

 

 

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$1500

 Sam Gucwa (BM, Jazz Studies, Saxophone).
 Project: Quiet Legacies: The Women who Shaped Miles Davis’ Music.

 

 

 

 Ethan Frank (BM, Jazz Studies, Piano)
 Project: Film Score Production

 

  

 

 Ethan Strickland (DMA, Music Performance, Percussion)
 Project: Vulnerability and A Word: Four Solo Theatrical Works for Percussion.

 

  

 

 

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$800

 Mia Chinni-Ianzito (Undergraduate, BA Music, Jazz Guitar, and History).
 Project: “For Astrud”: A Bossa Nova album dedicated to Astrud Gilberto.

 

 

 Cypress (Undergraduate and Graduate, Jazz Studies, Saxophone, Trombone, Guitar, Bass, Drums). 
 Project: Cypress’s first studio album.

 People's Choice Award ($250)
 

 

 AAPI Jazztet (Undergraduate and Graduate, Jazz Studies, Trombone, Bass, Guitar, Drums, Piano). 
 Project: AAPI Jazz Outreach Program