Student Activity
Kids Compose
Resources
KIDS COMPOSE: performances of IU composition majors' arrangements for orchestra and band of local kids' melodies during the annual grade school concerts for capacity audiences in the Musical Arts Center.
History
Started in Bloomington in 2006 by Debbi Ponella and Ruth Boshkoff with assistance from the Jacobs School of Music Composition Department, Kids Compose aims to foster children's natural talent for composing melodies.Kids Compose is sponsored by the Jacobs School of Music, and has received funding from the Bloomington Community Arts Commision and the Community Chamber Music Association.
- Elementary School children from grades two through six are invited to submit original melodies that fit on one page and are less than one minute in length. Students invent a melody and learn the simple tools needed to get it written in musical form.
- IU Jacobs School of Music composition students turn the melodies selected by a panel into orchestra or band compositions.
- The selections will be performed to over 1,600 local 2nd and 5th grade elementary students who visit the Musical Arts Center each school year for youth concerts given by IU Jacobs School of Music ensembles.
- During the concerts each student melody contributor and the IU composition student will be honored. Recordings will be produced to document the project.
- 2009-10 Review
Our unique Bloomington community offers everything needed to work this magic: a world-class music school that has pledged its support for the Children's Composition Project, a collaborative school system with highly-qualified MCCSC music teachers, and a sponsoring community groups in the form of the Community Chamber Music Association and Bloomington Community Arts Commission.
For more info contact Ruth Boshkoff at ruth.boshkoff [@] gmail.com or Debbi Ponella at dponella [@] gmail.com . Applications and melodies must be received by October 08, 2012.
You can download the Kid's Compose Registration Form in two formats here:
Word document or PDF (right click on the link and "save linked file as...")
Previous Years
Recordings, Finalists, Winners and more information for all previous Kids Compose Seasons
2012-2013 Kids Compose Event Information
Grade School Finalists
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Grade School Winners
CONCERT BAND - Anna Yoon, Clara Voskuil, Helen Crist, Joy Bhattachaya, Chloe Dekystspotter
ORCHESTRA - Riley Gallagher, Harilaos Deliyannis, Roxanna Ray, Jessie Brown, Braydyn Lents
IU Composer Winners
CONCERT BAND - Benjamin D Taylor, Nicholas Cline
ORCHESTRA - Junyi Chow, Texu Kim
Performance Dates
Orchestra
Spring 2013, Feb 12, Musical Arts Center (MAC) 10:10AM
Concert Band
Spring 2013, February 5, Musical Arts Center (MAC), 10:10AM
Program Notes:
Ocean March, arranged by Benjamin Taylor
Melodies by Anna Yoon, Clara Voskuil, and Helen Christ
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Ocean March begins with Anna's lyrical melody played by a solo piccolo flute and gradually expands to a full band orchestration of her melody. The energetic yet playful melody cowritten by Clara and Helen then enters featuring a solo saxophone. The piece ends with a combination of the two melodies. The title was suggested by Anna who thought the song suggested imagery of the ocean while also feeling like a march.
Under the Ocean/NightMusic, arranged by Nicholas Cline
Melodies by Joy Bhattachaya and Chloe Dekydtspotter
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In Under the Ocean, Joy depicts schools of colorful fish swimming through the ocean. One lonely fish, played by a clarinet, swims along and is quickly joined by another, then another until all types of fish and instruments are swimming together. Suddenly, all the fish scurry off into the deep water.
Chloe's vivid Night Music paints a picture of the night in sound -- from twinkling and shooting stars to howling wolves and bats flying through the sky. The story ends, like all nights do, with the warm sunrising.
IU Composition Majors
The Composition Department is proud to support Kids Compose, a community outreach program started in 2006. Kids Compose aims to foster children's natural talent for composing melodies. Children (grades 2 - 6) may submit melodies of which four will be selected by IU Jacobs School of Music Composition Faculty as winners. These melodies will then be arranged and orchestrated by IU Jacobs School of Music composition students and performed by the band and orchestra at MCCSC MAC series performances. Composition students and winners will be present at the performances, and may take part in a question and answer session at the completion of the performance, as time allows. IU Jacobs School of Music recording students will record, edit and press CDs, which will be presented to the winners, IU composition students and kept for archival purposes.
The four composition majors selected to participate in this venture will each receive an honorarium of $500 which will cover their honorarium and the expenses of providing performance materials. Two works will be for orchestra and two will be for wind ensemble.
The resulting arrangements will be less than two minutes in duration, and should be relatively straightforward, preserving the identity of the Kid's melodies, and making no elaborate or unusual demands of the ensemble, as there will be very little rehearsal time. Faculty will discuss this more with the selected composers. The arrangements should be effective and interesting, but also clear and concise. The IU composers should communicate and interact with the kids while completing the arrangement, and also plan to write a short program note for the website and speak briefly at the concert.
If you are interested in being considered for this project, please send Prof. Dzubay (ddzubay@indiana.edu) an email indicating your preference of band or orchestra and including a PDF example (complete work or excerpt) of your orchestrating for either band or orchestra by noon on October 1.
