By There are few things more rewarding than having your own words and music forever tied to your school’s history — actually, there are about 5,000 things.
Two students have been chosen as the winners for the alma mater song contest that President Jane Close Conoley announced via mass email in late December, cementing their legacy at the school and winning a generous monetary prize of $5,000 each.
“The President came up with the idea for a new alma mater as the old one wasn’t very memorable,” said Carolyn Bremer, the associate director for the Bob Cole Conservatory of Music.
After receiving roughly 150 submissions for both the lyrics and music for the song, a panel of students, faculty, staff, alumni, athletes and members of the community selected one set of lyrics and one melody.
While typically words and music work in tandem, for this project the contestants worked on their own to create one or the other and submit them separately. Third year jazz major Christian Valdez won the lyrics portion of the contest, while vocal performance major Kyle Gabriel was chosen for his music entry.
According to Bremer, Conoley directed the panel to choose a song that “represents the values of our Beach Family and illustrates diversity, innovation, academic rigor, sustainability, justice, public good and community.”
The panel chose the lyrics for the alma mater first, then sent out another email with the new lyrics, stating they only were deliberating on the music. The new lyrics are more modern than its predecessors, free of “thous” and “thees,” instead with key words such as “dreamers” and “black and gold.”
“I feel silly when I say something like ‘thous and thyes,’” Valdez said. “I wanted to write something that didn’t feel silly to say out loud, but also had that timeless feel to it …. Something that captured the appreciation I feel for this place and the memories I associate with it.”
After hearing about the competition through the email blasts, Valdez sat down during winter break and researched other school’s anthems, then came up with the lyrics in one sitting. A few weeks passed, and Valdez heard nothing — until he was playing video games with his friend and got an email from Conoley with the subject line: “You are the winner!”
“I was just taken aback by it,” Valdez said. “It feels pretty surreal, it’s incredibly flattering and validating. You’re always scared [that] you’re not good at [songwriting] and that art is not something serious to pursue, so it always feels good to get recognition and think, ‘Maybe this is something I can do.’”
Once the lyrics were chosen, all that was needed were the music and melodies. Kyle Gabriel heard about the contest through his vocal jazz group, Pacific Standard Time. Gabriel used a combination of woodwinds such as the flute, oboe and bassoon to create a computer-generated melody, which he felt went well with Valdez’s lyrics.
“I’m proud I won, and I consider it a huge honor, knowing that I had even the smallest hand in Cal State Long Beach history,” Gabriel said.
While creating a piece of Long Beach history and winning money are certainly perks of being chosen, Gabriel is hoping the contest will help him be accepted into the vocal performance major, as he is currently waiting to hear back on his transferring majors.
Gabriel was at home when he received a text from his mother with the news, just one minute after the school sent the email out.
“I was ecstatic, which is weird because I’m not super emotional,” Gabriel said. “In one sense it is just another gig, but it’s relevant to my life and it’s more special.”
While the lyrics have been released to the school, the new alma mater will premiere for the first time during spring commencement, which both men are attending.
