 band and orchestra teacher here at Butler High School and the middle school strings teacher at Mainstream Middle School. I am so excited for this evening. This is my first composition concert and this has been, okay, I'm not gonna cry, high schoolers. This has really truly been one of the most rewarding experiences of my teaching career. I have not taught kids how to compose before and learning about how students process music at different age levels, like I get to see them 5th through 12th grade. It's so interesting and so amazing to watch them create in a setting that we all love to do. And it's just so, especially for the youngest ones who are just learning how to read music and being so experimental and like have absolutely no bounds. It's very, very cool. So thank you for giving us this opportunity to share our pieces with you this evening. I'd love to introduce to you my friend Eric Nielsen. Eric is our resident composer and he has been working with this program for 10 years. Yeah, I think this is either 9th or 10th year. So huge shout out to Hilary Goldblatt for starting this program too. What an incredible story. So Eric and Hilary had a wonderful partnership for many years, bringing composition to our students and giving them this opportunity. And we also have, you know, an incredible composition program in Vermont called Music Comp, where Eric's a senior mentor and we have a lot of students who have participated in that. Jamie's about to create a piece with the Vermont Philharmonic. Callum just premiered a piece with the Vermont Symphony that had given them these amazing opportunities that high schoolers don't normally get. This is so unique. It's such a cool program. So Eric, I'm going to ask Eric to come up and tell you guys a little bit about the process and how we approach this approach to this session. Thanks, Allie. Every year is a little bit different when we're working, but the process in a lot of ways is the same. I come in to each class five times during the period of two months or so. And in between, the students get to work on a piece. There really aren't any boundaries except for the instrumentation. For the middle schoolers, they're writing for high school students to play. And so that's stream players. And then each year with high school, we're working with a different combination of instruments. So we have quite a variety this year, as you'll see. But in terms of the kid's inspiration, it's really interesting to watch because some kids just start right off and they have an idea and they run with it. And for other kids, it's a slower process. My job is to listen to what they're doing, to talk to them about it, to hear, to try and get inside the piece of music. That's my job, is to try and get inside what it is so that I can understand. And this may sound funny, but it's the way I think of teaching composition. I'm trying to hear where the piece wants to go, where it needs to go. And then I try and convey that to the student. It's not where I wanted to go. It's the piece talks to me. And as somebody who's been composing for a long time, I've learned to trust that. And the thing that is wonderful about this is that this is a potentially life changing experience. Because with the creative arts, these students are learning something they can't get anywhere else. They can point to a piece of music that they wrote, and they can say, this came from me. No one else created this. And if they realize that, that's a tremendous amount of empowerment that they can take with them everywhere, no matter whether they write more music in their lives or not. And so it's very humbling for me because I didn't really start composing until I was 20. So even the fifth graders here are ahead of me. And so it's, it's just wonderful to watch. It's wonderful to be part of. And to all your parents out there, thank you for sharing your children with us. And please encourage them to keep creating. So much Eric. So we'll go ahead and get started. So there is a little bit of transition time for those of you who have not been to a composition concert before. We have different groups of instruments that will come up and play each piece. So the middle school students were able to compose a piece for any combination of violin, viola, bass and cello and flute, because that is my main instrument. And so you'll see all these different combinations, duets, trios, quartets, and more tonight. So I'm going to invite our first composer up Charlotte Goodwin, who is going to introduce her piece. And it's a duet with the violin and viola. And I hope you And one thing I, I don't remember if I told everybody, I might have told the high schoolers, but at the end of our piece, or the end of your piece, when the audience claps, we use stands so the audience can clap for you composer. So everybody stands at the end of your piece. And Reagan maybe can give us a little light so we can see those composers that okay, can't do that. Oh, never mind. Just clap for the composer, give him a wave composers. All right, take it away, friends. This piece is called the subtle monkey by Harry Evans. Come on up, Harry. It's called the subtle monkey. I wrote this for a base and cello and so yeah, I hope you enjoy it. So what instrument do you play? She plays what I want. There's that. Oh, I should say, oh, sorry. Say Ali. Oh, right. Okay. Every kid in middle school orchestra composes a piece. And then because there are so many awesome kids, Eric and I have to make a tough decision to choose a couple of pieces that are completed. And we help them finesse those pieces in the end, then they come here this evening. Our next, we're gonna move on to sixth grade now. So I'm gonna ask Satya to come up and introduce her piece. Like I said, Eric can help us every day or over the past couple of weeks. Eric's granddaughter is a composer, Eden. And so Eden's piece was chosen as well this year. And I'd like to invite Eden to come up and introduce her piece. This is called fantasy and it's written for flute, cello and bass. I hope you like it. A cool opportunity to practice being a small ensemble together too and having a more soloistic role. Abram, would you like to come up and introduce your piece? Have to give a little pause there. And it's written for bass, cello and violin. Villain has arrived. Okay, our next composer is Winnie Lou. Winnie, come on and introduce your piece. This is called Spring Day and it's for violins. Enjoy. For your flexibility, Sirship. Sorry about that. Piece is Meek by Meekah Jacobson. Meekah, come on now. I want to go through all the process. It sounds like untitled title. I didn't want to leave it at that. This piece with the help of Mr. Nielsen and Ms. Tar Water. It's a duet between, I hope you guys enjoy. Dosti, come on, Charlotte. All right. Our last piece before our quick intermission is by Atticus Kamana. A seven minute intermission. So go use the map and get some water. Reagan, will you turn on those lights for us if you can? And we'll be back in just a moment with our high school compositions. Thank you. Shout out to Reagan Bridgeman. Thank you, Reagan, for being here. We're so grateful for having sounded like to us. Thank you, Orca Media, for being here for live streaming our events. We can watch it later too. Thank you. And thank Callum for being our sound guy today. Callum is testing out a really, really nice microphone. So we got some nice sound happening and some great lighting in this beautiful space. So lucky. So lucky. Okay, so we're going to go, I just told the high schoolers be on deck. We're going to move through these. So be ready before your piece. I probably won't say your name before you come up. So just come on up after the musicians have cleared. Does that make sense? But I will introduce our first person, who is Simon Reeves, who is a new student to band this year. And we're so glad you have joined us, Simon. Come on up. My piece is called Hopeful's First Journey. When I wrote it, all my friends told me it sounded like a sea shanty. So I asked Chad GVT what that would look like. And here it is. Our next piece is written by a freshman trumpet player named Maude Walker. And she says, Hello, my name is Maude Walker and I want this piece, Birds. It's a trio featuring the French horn, clarinet and flute. I chose this title because the flute part reminds me of Birds in Spring. I hope you enjoy it. For the violin, clarinet and bass in my piece, it's titled, it's a bit of a long one. I just want to say iPads for all. Joanna here is playing, is playing off her iPad and I'm like, can we just get a bunch of the school for all these musicians? It'd be pretty sick. It's pretty nice. While we are getting ready for this piece, I'm going to do a quick introduction up for my wonderful friends here who are playing music. So this is Joanna Al-Pazar, Michael Kose. And we've got Taylor Goodwin, Julia Bodewin, Erin Eberhardt and Jeremy Tawada. Our dear friend Jackson is in Austria skiing. Oh, poor Jackson. So I have a note from Jackson. So Jackson's piece is called Jackson Doesn't Know the Measure. We have a tally on our board in the orchestra room of how many times Jackson goes, Wait, what? Because he never knows what measure we're on. We love him dearly. So Jackson says, Hi everyone, my name is Jackson and my piece is named Jackson Doesn't Know the Measure because of my definitely very good ability to listen in class for what measure we're on. This is a short duet for violin and cello. This is an Austria skiing and Jacob is in Hawaii. I learned from Jacob for his piece, Tastes Like a Bagel, Without the Bagel. Hello, my name is Jacob Coffin, Elstrup and I wrote the piece, Tastes Like a Bagel, Without the Bagel. I started by just randomly putting notes down and writing a bunch of random phrases. Eventually I started to string together all those phrases into what is now Tastes Like a Bagel, Without the Bagel. I had no idea what to name this piece. So I asked my classmate, Indy Roberts, shout out. And she came up with a name, Tastes Like a Bagel, Without the Bagel. I don't know what caused her to conjure this name, but I liked it. So it's stuck. Enjoy. My name is Marie Vosian. Originally this piece was called A Stroll at Night, but this duet, Weeping Heavens, is for clarinet and cello. I originally named the piece A Stroll at Night, but the name didn't match the flow of the song. But when I came across the name, The Weeping Heavens, I believed that the name matched the piece. So here she is. The song, French Rise, is a solo for French War. I called it that because French Rise and the French War are both two things that we call French, or not, or are actually French. I hope you enjoy. C.C.'s duet, C for cello, C for clarinet. Hope you enjoy. The continuation is funny. It kind of, I've been told, sounds like the way my older brother Callum Rubacheck names his pieces, but that was non-tended. Anyway, this piece, when I wrote it, in the past, my pieces have been kind of a little weird, I don't know why, but this one I kind of tried to make a little less weird. So it's supposed to kind of be like simple and calming, with my goal. So anyways, to these great musicians. Crocs theme, my piece is called Crocs with Socks. Hope you enjoy. Okay, now I'd like to introduce my piece that I wrote this year. If you were here last year for chance, I must inform you that this is not another song along the lines of March of the Beans. No, I tried to give it an actual theme this time. I think it turned out well, even if I did have the trouble coming up with a name, and it took me a while. And but I found one that fits, and once I hear the piece, I think I'll understand what I was thinking. But further ado, here's Echoes. And I was writing the piece coming off of the back of this huge project for the B.S.O., which took me a few months to write, and I was like creatively, completely like I had nothing. And so I decided to just try and draw inspiration from somewhere that I like would never think to. And what I ended up doing was taking a big band chart from the forties that I'm playing with a big band and taking some voicings of jazz chords and sort of building up of that. And I really like it, so if you'll endure one more. Not being afraid to pick a little part. Thank you, Carter. Everybody, I'm so proud of you guys. This was such a great experience for me. I hope you enjoyed it, too. Thank you so much, Eric, for teaching me a lot about composing and how to start these kids when they're so young, doing something that is really, really beautiful. And I am so excited to keep doing it. Thank you so much, composers. And I will see you all next year. Oh, I'll see you guys. Check your calendars in the program. There's some future events coming up. Oh, sorry. One more thing. Tiny two things. Sorry, liar. First thing is that in March, March 17th, Jamie Maddox White is premiering a piece of the Vermont Philharmonic, which all of us except Michael and Erin play in. So we'll be there playing Jamie's piece, hooray. So come out and see that if you can. And Eric is also premiering a piece with Premierick. Is it a premier or is it just a piece? It's a piece that he's had premiered before in our on our April concert, which I wrote 28th, I think, 27th and 28th. So if you're interested in hearing some new music by living composers that are in our community, please come out and check that out. Happy February break, everybody. Have an amazing, amazing break. And I'll see you guys next time. Thank you.