PUTNEY — Four selected student composers from The Grammar School traveled to the Chandler Center for the Arts in Randolph on April 28 to hear their original musical compositions played live by professional musicians in the Vermont Midi Project's Opus 22 Concert for strings and woodwinds.
The selected pieces were: A Flounder at C by Jamie Lumley, third time winner, grade 8; Dragon Fruits by Luke Cuerdon and Andres Rodriguez, grade 5; and Robins Return by Molly Durling, grade 5.
Three-time winner Lumley named his piece A Flounder at C “because all three instruments are continuously floundering around for a tune to stick to.”
Cuerdon and Rodriguez wrote that “the reason we named our piece Dragon Fruits is because as a jokem Andres suggested oranges. Then Luke suggested Dragon Fruits and we both loved it.”
In Durling's piece description, she wrote that she wrote the first part of Robins Return in E minor “to sound like the last days of a long winter. The mood is dark and gloomy. The second part sounds like that thrill of seeing spring arrive on birds' wings. The trilling flute is the birds' voices and the pizzicato notes are the birds hopping about, picking at the ground, searching for food. I wrote it in G major because the mood is lively and joyful.”
In addition to the evening concert, each composer had a dedicated rehearsal time with the performers during the afternoon, plus the opportunity to attend interesting workshops and discussion groups to learn more about composing for woodwind and stringed instruments.
Under the direction of Alli Lubin, head of the Music Program and Technology Administrator, these young composers join the list of 17 former TGS Opus selected composers: Jacob Knapp, Miles Hume, Colin Clark, Brooke Mooney, Katelyn Donovan, Julian Stolper, Tim Quimby, Nathaniel Todd Long, Antonia Dufort, Michaela Shea-Gander, Lucie Foster, Ona Hauert, Claire Thomas, Jamie Lumley, Libby Green, Russell Boswell, and Isaac Freitas-Eagan.
“The live performance experience is such a reward,” writes Sandi MacLeod, VT Midi Project coordinator. “When music comes from living, breathing musicians, there is an energy and vibrance that the computer can't imitate.”
More information about these events can be found on the web at http://www.vtmidi.org/opus22.htm.
Celebrating its 50th anniversary this year, The Grammar School educates children in preschool through eighth grade.