I always try to make it to The College of Charleston’s Young Composers’ Forums. The School of the Arts stages two of them every school year: one in the fall, and one in the spring. Last Thursday’s noon-hour fall program offered tasty, interesting new works from six student composers – plus some very memorable performances, mostly from student musicians.

One reason I enjoy these affairs is the quality of the teaching that these student composers get. SOTA can boast a first-rate composition department, thanks to Drs. Edward Hart and Trevor Weston – both of whom are distinguished composers themselves. Several of the students heard Thursday have been around long enough to benefit as well from the guidance of Dr. David Maves, who retired just last year.

Kicking things off was Charis, by senior Tyler Wilkinson. Written for cello (Wade Davis) and violin (Sam Kuczynski), the piece delivered catchy exchanges of brief melodies, with some interesting percussive effects from the cello.

Then came Splurge, an engaging number by Maggie Lyons for piano (Huey Waldon) and viola (Elias Latto) that packed quite a lot into its prescribed three minutes. It offered snippets of the main theme lurking amid a “splurge” of musical ideas, before everything comes together at the end.

Next we got a remarkable, all-Asian affair. Full disclosure: Composer Huey Waldon (despite the name, he’s a Japanese native) is a friend of mine: a multitalented young musical omnivore who used to perform in my old Millennium Music concert series. He’s been regularly raiding my own huge personal CD collection for “new stuff” lately. His beguiling Migration and Evolution of a Chinese Bird was beautifully played by fellow Japanese pianist Yusuke Komura and freshman piano student Chee Hang See (a Chinese resident of Singapore), who appeared here playing the erhu: a sort of Chinese fiddle.

And they made thoroughly Asian-sounding music together. Waldon made sophisticated use of both a pentatonic Chinese scale and a different Japanese scale. Beginning with gentle, “chirpy” sounds from the erhu, the music offered lyric beauty as well as considerable drama and excitement. Really good stuff!

Chee Hang’s astonishing virtuosity on the erhu was a delightful surprise: while I’m no connoisseur of the instrument, I know superb playing when I hear it. Who knows what other hidden talents lurk among SOTA’s many gifted foreign students?

There followed The Six-Day War, a cunning number by Kristin Abbott for piano (Alex Hennessey) and trumpet. And trumpet honors were done by none other than CSO Principal Karin Bliznik – whose fabulous playing I’ve already written about twice this season. The music unfolded as a quirky, somewhat disjointed march with some ear-grabbing effects.

David Keiser (piano) and Gregory Guay (amplified classical guitar) appeared next to deliver Julian Pascual’s Depths of a Master Mind. It turned out to be a subtle and appealing blend of plucked (guitar) and more percussive (piano) sonorities – with adventurous harmonies on top of the unusual sonic textures.

The blazing finale came with Alex Hennessey’s Road Rage – again, for piano and trumpet. Erhu-meister Chee Hang returned to the stage, but this time on piano; and Bliznik’s amazing trumpet graced the stage yet again. The music had a vaguely Gershwin-esque, “metro” feel to it, as our musicians deftly evoked a pair of drivers (and their cars) becoming increasingly infuriated with each other.

In view of the CSO’s current financial woes, let me digress long enough to make a timely point. Bliznik went out of her way to give two of these aspiring tunesmiths fabulous first performances – and for free. Neither of them could’ve hoped for a better champion. Bliznik – and the other Charleston Symphony musicians who teach their instruments at C of C – make a real difference in the lives of these students. And that’s to say nothing of the hundreds of private students they also teach. Those who – in these precarious times – persist in wondering whether Charleston is getting its money’s worth out of the CSO’s terrific musicians should take heed.

That said, the year’s first Young Composers’ Forum was a smashing success – for the excellence of both its musical and performance qualities. I’ll keep you posted on future installments.