The Contemporary Classical Collective (CCC) is a group of musicians and composers started in spring 2020 by Dr. Stephen Weber, professor of music and IDS. The group started with 30 artists and now has over 160 artists who come from more than 30 countries.
CCC started as a way for independent artists to have their music heard and spread around the music community. As an artist who primarily releases music independently, Dr. Weber said he wanted to create a community for these artists to network with other artists and have a place for them to talk about composing music.
“As an indie artist, you have to work as a community to get heard, and I saw that was lacking, so I established this group as a place where we could talk to each other,” Dr. Weber said. “It gradually grew as I networked out and I got to know more musicians, and I never imagined that it would grow to that sort of thing.”
CCC’s first album, “Keys for Peace,” was released on International Day of Peace on Thursday, Sept. 21 and it contains music from 16 artists in the CCC. The project was started by two French composer-performers, Raphaël Beaudon and Amaury Laurent, and any proceeds generated by the album are donated to charity. The proceeds support a French charity, S.O.S. Enfants, that provides education and career training for young people around the world.
Dr. Weber’s piece, “Peaceful Meditation,” is featured as song 14 on the album. Originally a piece for guitar, Dr. Weber transposed the piece to be played on piano.
“The recording software allows me to have access to thousands of instruments, since I play the keyboard, I can play guitar on the piano,” Dr. Weber said. “Whatever emotion I’m feeling or whatever image I have in my head, I improvise for a while and then hit record.”
The album is available to download and listen to on over 30 streaming platforms, including Spotify, Apple Music, and Amazon Music.
Luka Messick is a first-year physics major at the University of Science and Arts of Oklahoma.
