HONORABLE MENTION Sam Melton ’23
Sam Melton is a first-year student planning to major in Civil and Environmental Engineering. As a pianist, occasional guitarist, and composer, she entered the Creative Reactions Contest to combine her passions for music and drawing. An active participant in the arts on campus, Sam writes for the Princeton Triangle Club and is looking forward to having the Princeton University Players produce a staged reading of her original musical next academic year. Although she enjoys many different styles of music, Sam has not heard a lot of live classical music before coming to Princeton. The concert that she attended for the contest, featuring the Calidore String Quartet, was the first Princeton University Concerts event that she experienced, and she looks forward to “seeing even more live classical music in Princeton in the future.”
The music felt like it disrupted the rigid columns of Richardson Auditorium — and the rigid structure of my typical day. Fond of doing architectural sketches, Sam was initially inspired by Richardson Auditorium. Hearing music within the hall compelled her to relax away from the structure and embrace a more free-flowing and colorful approach to her drawing. “The music felt like it disrupted the rigid columns of Richardson Auditorium — and the rigid structure of my typical day.” The resulting piece, a colored pencil drawing, sets four colorful musicians and a dynamic representation of their music against the detailed backdrop of the concert venue.
16 • CRC 19/20