BLUE HILL – Five young composers from the Mt. Blue Regional School District were honored on Saturday, April 30 at the 2011 Maine Young Composers’ Festival, an event sponsored by the Bagaduce Music Lending Library.
Following an inspirational keynote speech given by Grammy award-winning jazz pianist Paul Sullivan, Thad Gunther, Nolan Rogers, and Emma Stinson and other participants from across the state performed their original works for an eager audience. Zachary Armstrong and Darby Sabin, while not present, were also recognized for their compositions. Thad, a sixth grader from Cascade Brook School and a student of Mt. Blue music teacher Mark Phillips, earned an honorable mention for his piece “Scenes From The Maine Woods.” Zachary, Nolan, Darby, and Emma attend sixth grade at Academy Hill School, and are studying composition under the guidance of Mt. Blue music teacher Lindsay Burke.
Launched in 1996, the annual Young Composers’ Festival encourages all Maine students, high school and below, to create new works, develop their composing and notation skills, and get valuable feedback from professional musicians. This year, student compositions were reviewed by Beth Weimann, composer and professor of music at the University of Maine at Orono; Fred Goldrich, composer, arranger and conductor of The Bangor Band; and John Cooper, Professor of Music and Composer in Residence at the College of the Atlantic. Once submitted, all student compositions become part of the Bagaduce Music Lending Library’s esteemed Maine Collection.
Congratulations to you all, we are very proud of you!
Thank you Ms. Burke and Mr. Phillips!
This is an honor to savor — congratulations to all the young composers. Thank you for sharing your talent with the state community and, through Bagaduce, the wider musical community. We are all proud of your achievement!