Senior music major has noteworthy Lakeland career
This semester, Alyssa Voigt, a sophomore from New Holstein, Wis., majoring in marketing, is creating content for the Lakeland blog. This is the latest in a series of blog stories she will write.
Senior Ashley Esser will make some 51ĀŅĀ× history this May when she becomes the first student to graduate from LUās composition and songwriting program.
Esser, a music major from Arpin, Wis., started her career at Lakeland undecided academically, but always knew she wanted to go into something with music. During her sophomore year she reflected and dabbled in different music areas until she found her spark.
āLater in my sophomore year, I realized I always liked creating melodies, so I decided on the music major with two emphases: songwriting and composition and business and contemporary music,ā she said.
The program has allowed Esser to further explore her passion for composition alongside LU Associate Professor of Music Evan Chanceller.
āI was grateful that Lakeland had this pathway, as Dr. Chancellor helped me learn much more about composition than I thought there was,ā Esser said.
āIn general, I was interested in composition because I wanted to write music that was like music from the movies, that sounded deep and emotional. I also branched out and found I like writing driving beats, like a marching band song I wrote, or an Irish-sounding flute reel/jig.ā
Esser excels in playing the French horn and the piano. She continues to expand her talents as she has taken violin lessons for the past two semesters, is able to play some chords on a guitar, can sing and is currently taking percussion lessons.
Esserās talents will be on display at her senior recital on Friday, May 2, at 7 p.m. in the Bradley Theatre. The program will feature a variety of music, including some personal pieces and arrangements of existing songs.
Personal pieces she plans to perform include a show piece featured at a previous LU Homecoming, the little Irish reel and her Honors project song, āA Journey Toward Hope.ā Other existing songs she will perform include āSailā by AWOLNATION, āA Sky Full of Starsā by Coldplay and an arrangement of some of Esserās favorite music from movies, written for four horns.
Esserās inspiration for composing music started at an early age as she began composing non-seriously on the piano as a teenager. She finds her inspiration for composing music through many distinct aspects.
āOne of those things is just my love for music, especially epic movie music such as music from āHow to Train Your Dragon,ā āPirates of the Caribbean,ā āAvengers,ā etc.,ā she said.
āListening to music, instrumental or otherwise, inspires me to write music that sounds good at least, and hopefully inspires others to feel some emotion, depending on the piece.ā
With her gained inspiration, Esser has been able to produce pieces for sentimental pleasure or for inspirational movements.
For instance, for her Senior Honors Project she wrote a piece of music in response to environmental issues presented at Maywood Environmental Park in Sheboygan. The piece, a work for chamber orchestra entitled āA Journey Toward Hope,ā musically interprets the parkās sounds and explores the feelings of concern and hope related to its sustainability efforts.
āIt included different sounds that represented different issues or types of destruction, but also showed the beauty of the Earth,ā she said.
For her efforts, Esser was named a winner of a 2025 LU Outstanding Undergraduate Scholar Award, which celebrates top undergraduate students who have contributed to the advancement of knowledge for the public good through independent and group research, community education outreach or innovative experiential learning projects in their field of study.
Esserās pieces also depend on what kind of melody or emotion she is feeling in her head that day. āThe focus of other pieces I've written are based on what I want to hear, such as epic chords, a soaring melody, etc.,ā she said.
Since plunging into her journey, Esser has been given many fostering opportunities to display her talent. Along with the piece she composed for Maywood, the Lakeland Symphonic Band has premiered some of her pieces at concerts. Additionally, Esser felt honored when the Muskie Pride Marching band performed one of her pieces at Lakelandās Homecoming halftime show in 2023.
It is all part of an accomplished music career at Lakeland that has included multiple appearances performing as part of the Wisconsin Concert Band Association Intercollegiate Honor Band. She was named a 2025 LU Outstanding Student in Music.
Involvement in numerous social groups at Lakeland has also been of value to Esser. Music groups include Lakelandās Symphonic Band, Concert Choir, Muskie Pride Marching Band and Muskie Tones A Capella. Sheās also been active with non-music groups like the CRU and the Global Student Association.
Esser says that the process of writing music pieces can be challenging at first. To overcome this barrier, she listens to instrumental music to help get herself into the right mindset and her music begins to flow from there.
She explains, āI use the compositional program MuseScore to āwriteā my music down, but usually I create a melody on the piano first to figure out the notes, then I type them into the specific instruments I want playing them. Sometimes I create a melody first, but other times, I get a beat in my head that I write a melody or chords around. Then, depending on the instrumentation I am working with, I expand the melody and chords into a whole piece.ā
When listening to her music, Esserās overall hope is for people to enjoy it and feel something deeper and transformative in correspondence to the type of music she is playing.
Esser explains, āIt does depend on what kind of music it is. For example, when people are listening to the Irish reel I composed, I hope it makes them feel like theyāre at a little pub in Ireland, wanting to tap their toes or clap along with the beat. Conversely, if people listen to the piece I composed in response to environmental issues, I want them to feel a deeper meaning behind the music.ā
For students interested in a future in composition and songwriting, Esser suggest they āgo for it!ā She restated the little experience she had before coming to college and that āas long as you have music in your head or your heart, you can compose anything.ā
For those who have the initiative but struggle getting started, Esser says that listening to favorite artists, composers or whoever you want to write music like is another way to get into the mindset of composing. Additionally, Esser recommends not letting music theory interfere with the personal music or compositional process.
She expresses that the music theory ācan be helpful, yes, but I realized that once I found out about cadences, correct chord progressions, etc., it felt like it limited my music to just what was ārightā in the music theory world. I had to forget about some of that stuff to write what I felt instead of what theoretically āshouldā come next.ā
Esser plans to continue her studies and is currently exploring several graduate schools where she will most likely double major in music composition and horn performance.
