This week, the Newtown High School Music Department will inaugurate a new tradition by presenting the first-ever NHS Composers' Concert. The event will take place on Wednesday, April 23, 2014, at 7:00PM in the high school cafetorium, and will feature student work from the school's music theory and music technology programs. With projects ranging from classical-style chorales to electronic dance music, the concert will demonstrate our young composers' abilities to merge technique and structure with personal expression. Some works will be performed by the school's New Music Ensemble, a small group of instrumentalists newly assembled for the occasion. "I'm thrilled," says teacher Chris Lee, "to be finally offering a public event for our student composers, who impress me every year with their craft and creativity." Check out this article from the Newtown Bee: [click here].
Students in Mr. Lee's music classes have been "getting visual" to inspire and organize their ideas. In Music Technology I, our young composers were asked to create a musical cue that depicts the image of a speed train lurching into motion, gaining momentum, and disappearing into the horizon. Check out Freshman Charles Romano's project to hear how tempo and pitch can be manipulated to evoke this imagery. In Harmony and Composition I, students completed concept maps to synthesize their understanding of key music terminology. Our overarching goal was to gain a strong vocabulary that can be used to describe -- in specific and meaningful ways -- what one hears in a piece of music. Click below to see the concept map created by Sophomores Molly Begg, Gill Kirlin, and Aimee Talbot.
MUSIC TEACHER PARTICIPATES IN NATIONAL EVENTS Music teacher Chris Lee has had a busy few weeks. On June 6-8, 2013, he joined 50 music teachers selected from across the United States to participate in the 2013 Yale Symposium on Music in Schools. Experts gave presentations on historical and current trends in school reform and the integral role music and the arts play in our evolving education system. Break-out sessions and a large panel discussion allowed participants to share perspectives and experiences, and the weekend culminated as Yale School of Music Dean Robert Blocker awarded each of the 50 teachers with the 2013 Yale Distinguished Music Educator Award. Soon thereafter, Mr. Lee travelled to Cincinnati, OH, to participate in the College Board’s annual AP Reading in Music Theory. Each June, selected AP teachers and college faculty members from around the world gather in the United States to evaluate and score the free response sections of the AP Exams. Joining about 100 music theory professionals to score about 17,500 exams, Mr. Lee was assigned to "Sight-Singing Question No. 2," where he heard roughly 900 cassette tapes from around the country. From the experience, AP Readers get an intricate view of the exam process and gain valuable insight from professional development sessions that cover current pedagogical trends as well as new initiatives at the College Board. Newtown High School alumnus Alyssa Rodriguez (Class of 2010) is making quite a splash as she purses studies in music composition. Now a junior in the highly esteemed music composition program at Ithaca College, Alyssa is currently enjoying a study-abroad semester in Vienna, Austria. Her composition, "Japanese Maple," was recently named winner of the first Composition Competition awarded by the Greater Bridgeport Youth Orchestra. This colorful work was slated for premiere on February 10, 2013, at the Klein Memorial Auditorium in Bridgeport. Due to snow, the concert was postponed, but we look forward to a rescheduling of the event. Students in Mr. Lee's Music Technology classes have been busy creating original works with various guidelines and in various genres. Click below to hear student examples from a 12-bar blues project assigned in Music Technology II. In this project, students use the vast resources of our software, Logic Express, to create original melodies and solos layered over a rhythm section of bass, drums, and more. Senior Alex Lampel's composition simulates an acoustic blues band while Freshman Dawson Goodrich's composition offers a more electronic, beat-infused interpretation of the project. What happens when a bunch of composers try to collaborate on a single melody? Answer: great ideas and a lot of chaos! Throughout March 2012, students in Mr. Lee’s Harmony and Composition I class have been using their knowledge of musical intervals and voice-leading to produce expressive melodies and countermelodies. On one particular day, we collaborated on a class example to reinforce these concepts. Ideas were offered, revisions were suggested and countered, and at one point, parliamentary procedures were invoked to settle a debate! Finally, four measures of music emerged. As always, we ended by singing our work. Click to hear an informal sing-through of our “grand opus.” (It goes by quickly, so you’ll hear it twice.) Students in Mr. Lee's Music Technology II classes have been "breaking in" the new Electronic Music Classroom with some fantastic new compositions! As part of the curriculum, each class is learning the ins and outs of Logic Express, our professional music production software, and applying that knowledge to original musical works. In Freshman Joe Carrino's "Click-ey Mouse" project, Joey fashions intricate lines of rhythm and pitch using exclusively mouse-oriented techniques (without the aid of a piano keyboard). In Freshman Nicholas Roche's "Speech Remix" project, Nick creates a musical "sound-scape" using his own recorded voice as a raw ingredient. And in Freshman Zach Aumueller's final project, he synthesizes the semester's learning in an infectiously catchy composition. |
Student Work and NewsFrom our young composers, producers, and performers at NHS. Categories |