Natural Musician

Elizabeth Borowsky ’05 was named the 2021 New Hampshire Commissioned Composer.

By Mike Unger

Elizabeth Borowsky has been performing music for most of her life. She’s also a composer and teacher, so when the pandemic hit, she found herself longing for the musical interaction that fuels her.

She used some of her newfound free time to finalize 100 solo piano compositions of all skill levels she wrote for her students. Although based on a classical foundation, most are cinematic, pop or jazz in style, and each one is customized to a particular student’s personality. Borowsky gives each student a composition for their birthday, but now she’s published them on her website and made them available for download to teachers and students everywhere. 

“These are pieces that I’ve been writing for young musicians with the intention of it being a musical gummy vitamin,” she says. “Basically, a piece of music that is fun for them to play, so it tastes good, but it has all the technical and artistic nutrients that I, as a teacher, want them to learn and develop.”

Borowsky was named the 2021 New Hampshire Commissioned Composer, a joint commission by the Music Teachers National Association and New Hampshire Music Teachers Association. As part of the role, she wrote The Nature of Life, a 16-minute composition for piano and vocals. In October, she debuted the piece at a conference in Maine. Her friend Jessica Deskin ’06 was the vocalist during that performance and an ensuing one for the public in her hometown of Lebanon, New Hampshire. The piece will now compete for the Distinguished Composer of the Year Award.

The idea of the music is that it relates to nature and life, says Borowsky, whose mother, Cecylia Barczyk, is a former cello professor at TU. The five-part song cycle is based on texts by historical and contemporary New England poets.

“The music is infused with what we call word painting, when the melody of a song actually reflects the meaning of the text,” she says. “I selected texts that really hit home with me—they ask questions about the balance between responsibility and freedom, what it means to grow up, and really, what does life mean. This is all through the lens of nature and the inspiration it has brought to people throughout history, myself included.”

Borowsky played a concert in Bulgaria when she was 8, and by the time she was 18 had performed in 30 countries.

“I don't remember life before piano or life before music,” she says. “It's something that always seems to have been a part of my existence.”

And it always will be.