Coury has been taking piano lessons for a year and wants to learn flute and violin as well. She likes music and reading and loves playing with her family pets.
Hayvon Wilson, an 8-year-old Girl Scout, took a field trip to the Sounds of Music Studio and met Gail Vanderslik, studio director and MSO member. While there Wilson learned about the competition and shortly afterward signed up for violin lessons. Her winning entry is called “Spring.”
“When my name was called at the concert, I wanted to cry, I was so happy,” she said.
She appreciates Vander-slik’s help in printing her piece according to competition guidelines.
At recent MSO rehearsals the musicians shift easily from the bright, sweet sounds of the two younger students’ works into the somewhat haunting theme, “Deep, Dark and Mysterious” by Osha Jackson.
“Each of the six winning entries is characteristically different from the others,” noted Marsden.
As a big fan of music, Osha takes lessons in piano and trumpet and plays guitar, clarinet and drums. His first-time entry just sort of popped into his head, he claimed. The energetic 10-year-old is spending his summer on the coast, but he’s definitely planning to be in the audience tonight.
“Relentless” is Michael Cecil’s composition.
Michael is a 15-year-old Glacier High School student and member of the Civil Air Patrol. He plays violin and cello, is a member of the Fresno Youth Orchestra and the MSO (with his two brothers) and plays with the Yosemite String Academy, founded by his mother, Debee, who also plays violin with the MSO.
Marsden orchestrated Michael’s piece with strings dominating throughout, in sort of a neo-Baroque style.
Emily Croft’s winning composition, “Dreaming,” is reminiscent of a soundtrack for a movie set in a romantic 18th-century England. Marsden refers to it as evoking a beautiful world, in a combination of innocent wonder and mature reflection belying her years.
“Some secrets aren’t meant to be shared,” the 15-year-old said when asked what she was thinking about while working on her composition.
Emily has completed her eighth year of piano lessons and her first year teaching beginning piano.
Not seeing herself as a composer, she had heard about the competition a few years ago but didn’t think she was up to the task. This year, she was convinced to make an attempt. After the nervous anticipation of waiting and the unexpected thrill of winning, she’s lately
spending spare time at the piano composing more pieces.
Juliana Bodfish, a Mariposa County High School honor roll student and Grizzly band member, also plays trumpet in the MSO. This year’s entry, “Wander Alone Until Morning,” is one of her many Young Masters’ winning compositions, and has, according to Marsden, an unsettled, searching, but ultimately triumphant sound. Her “classical” piece is an example of the remarkable creativity seen in the 2011 competition.
Each of the six winners will receive $50, a certificate, an orchestral score of the six compositions and a CD of their music.
(See my Over the Back Fence column on page C1 for details about tonight’s MSO performance.)
Debbie Croft writes about life in the foothills communities. She can be reached at composed@tds.net.