An appreciative audience was treated to extraordinary student work at the annual NHS Composers' Concert on April 23, 2025. Students in Mr. Lee's Music Technology as well as Harmony & Composition classes produced top-notch audio and multimedia compositions demonstrating considerable artistry and craft. As a small sampling of that work, here are three film-scoring "warmup" projects in which students created original music to accompany a storyboard image depicting a scene from an imagined movie.

Freshman Leo Van Straten - Kneeling knight at sunrise

Sophomore Ethan Kirk - Futuristic cityscape

Senior Warner Bacon - Spanish flamenco dance

Creativity was flowing in the Music Technology classroom this past fall semester! Teacher Chris Lee notes, "I'm constantly amazed by the novelty of sound our students express through their music!" Here are three outstanding examples:

Sophomore Ethan Kirk expertly employed synthesizers, filters, and effects to render an enthralling and superbly crafted soundscape.

Senior Sadie Baimel composed new music for an iconic scene from the 1923 silent film Safety Last! Notice how the compelling music tracks the protagonist’s gradual ascent up the building side, and notice Sadie’s masterful use of dissonance and modulation to mark specific moments and achieve a measured rise in tension.

Senior Dominick Hampton composed an original song that is at once fun and dramatic. Notice the engaging and improvisatory horn solos in which Dominick creatively manipulates individual notes to add nuance and realism. Electronic emulation of live instruments has come a long way in the last few years, and Dominick’s work really demonstrates that!

Music teacher Chris Lee has been delighted throughout the 2023-24 school year as he observed abundant creativity in NHS's music technology and music theory/composition classes. Here is a sampling of two excellent works that demonstrate the wide spectrum of musical style explored in our classroom!

​Sadie Baimel, original arrangement of "The Agincourt Song" (English folk song):

Kayla Emmi, electronic music composition:

Music teacher Chris Lee was delighted with the creative projects from the fall semester's Music Tech 1 students. Here is a sampling of pieces demonstrating original music and sound design for a variety of video game clips.

Senior Jules Kessler, clip from "Cuphead"

Senior Lesley Rodriguez, clip from "Super Mario World"

​Sophomore Keanu Parcon, clip from "Among Trees"

In 2022-2023, the NHS Music Lab was filled with the amazing work of students expressing themselves through music composition, music production, and sound design. Teacher Chris Lee was delighted by the seemingly endless supply of creativity and novel thinking. Here is just a sampling of examples!

Students in Mr. Lee's Music Tech 1 class were busy creating compelling music throughout the first semester. Here are a couple of samples from the final project of the course, where students were given freedom to pursue their own project ideas. Both of the following compositions demonstrate creativity and sophistication of musical form and texture. Enjoy!

On April 20, 2022, the NHS Fine Arts Department and teacher Chris Lee were delighted to present a grand return of the annual NHS Composers' Concert, a live event that offers a sampling of original work from our amazing student composers! Check out some of the pieces that were shared...

Smartphone ringtones, by Jason Quiroz, Ben Stubbs, Shane Feeley, and Dean Carollo:

World music project, by Rose Lehnes:

World music project, by Jonathan Ramzy:

Instrumental arrangement of English folk song ("King's Lynn"), by Bella Battaglia:

Film scoring warmup project, by Matt Pietrorazio:

Students in Mr. Lee's Music Technology 1 classes were busy this past fall semester producing original music with terrific craft and creativity! Here are some samples...

​Students in Mr. Lee’s 2020-21 music classes have engaged in creative work spanning a wide range of forms and styles. The two projects highlighted below illustrate this point!

English Folk Song Arrangement
Students in Harmony and Composition 1 used compositional tools -- such as doubling, high pedal ostinatos, scalar figuration, and parallel harmony -- to create fresh instrumental arrangements of classic English folk songs.

​Audio Origami
Students in Music Technology 3 were given a sheet of paper, a microphone, and the myriad audio resources of Logic Pro (our audio production software), and they were asked to create something completely new in sound. These highlights demonstrate the innovation and skill of our students, who transformed the mundane "rips and crinkles" of a piece of paper into novel musical grooves!

Students in Mr. Lee's Newtown High School Music Technology classes have been making great use of audio production software to create excellent new music. Here’s a sampling of recent projects focused on creative use of audio editing and processing techniques as well as incorporation of outside audio samples.