Making a 
music 
concert, 
student-style

PRINCETON — Original student compositions and music in the dark await family and friends at next week’s annual winter concert by the Princeton High School band.

PHS senior Patrick Reeves and sophomore Ryan Jensen are two of the students who will have their compositions played as part of the winter concert, set for 7 p.m. Thursday in the Sally Skinner Council Auditorium at PHS.

For his composition, Reeves took the melody line of an Irish folk song, “I’ll Tell Me Ma,” and wrote the accompaniment for percussion, flutes, trumpets, trombones and tubas. It’s a very upbeat, quick piece and it will be cool to hear the whole band play it, Reeves said.

Jensen said his composition is a Drum Corps piece, “Untitled #4,” with lots of complex rhythms. He had completed three other pieces for the class composition project but wasn’t satisfied with them, so he threw them out. He’s pleased with his fourth and final piece, which he described as a very guttural and punchy sound. Like Reeves, Jensen said it feels good to have his music among those chosen for the winter concert.

PHS band instructor Laurie Bonner said the original compositions were part of a class assignment for her students. In her percussion class, students were assigned to groups and asked to write a percussion ensemble at 1 minute, 30 seconds in length and with at least 17 different rhythmic figures and elements, which they had studied in class.

“I did not give them too many parameters because I wanted to give them room to think critically and creatively,” Bonner said. “This is the first time I’ve assigned a composition project to the percussion class, but I think they did a great job with it. It’s been fun for me and the students alike to work on their own compositions and see how they turned out. It’s even more exciting for students when they reach that moment when it all comes together because they are finally hearing with their ears what they heard in their head when they were composing.”

In addition to the student compositions, Thursday’s concert will also feature a song called “VooDoo,” which is a performed entirely in the dark, audience included, with the exception of the percussionists who will have covered stand lights and music. Aside from a few cues, most of the piece is performed without a conductor and is student run, based on different cues. The piece will sound different each time it is performed, Bonner said.