Violinist Grace Lee by Supplied

Budding composers hear their music brought to life

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At the start of this term a number of our level 1 and level 2 music students had the amazing opportunity to have their original compositions played by professional musicians at a compositional workshop.

Players were as follows:

  • Fleur Jackson - Violin 1
  • Grace Lee - Violin 2 (she stood for their usual member Christine Foote). 
  • Magarita Jackson - Viola
  • Lissa Cowie - Cello
Lissa Cowie — Image by: Supplied

Level 1 music students were given a composition task to learn about string instruments and compose an original piece for this ensemble Level 2 students were given the choice between a couple of songs written for piano which they then transposed for a String Quartet to play.

The workshop was an opportunity for students to hear a live performance of their piece and then unwrap this by receiving interactive feedback from the professional performers which involved trialing new ideas to make suggestions about their work. Students can now take head of these ideas to polish their work and write their final pieces for submission for NCEA assessment in this standard.

One of the most satisfying parts of the workshop was the rich, sonorous sound of the real-life instruments. Students normally write their pieces using notation software and only hear them with the sounds of midi instrument, so this was a really special opportunity to hear such quality players bringing the music to life.