Gene Witt students assist in orchestral composition

By Pam Eubanks
| 4:00 a.m. October 12, 2011

Composer Gregory Smith plays a song he is writing for students at Gene Witt Elementary. The piece features melodies written by select students at the school

East County
News

EAST COUNTY — More than a dozen fifth-grade students at Gene Witt Elementary School crowded around composer Greg Smith as he pounded out a vaguely familiar melody on the piano.

“See if you can hear the fragments of your tune as they go by,” said Smith, who is incorporating student-written melodies into an orchestral piece he’s composing. “See how composers take material and stretch it or they sometimes make it shorter?”

Smith stopped Oct. 5-6 to speak and work with students at four elementary schools in Sarasota and Manatee counties as part of the Sarasota Orchestra’s Student Composer Project. Melodies created by students at each of those schools are being incorporated into Smith’s composition, which the Sarasota Orchestra will premiere in May 2012 during its Young Person’s Concerts.

Music students at Gene Witt Elementary, the only East County school selected to participate in the project, spent the past month learning about melodies and the composition process before writing melodies of their own. Music teacher Julie Herbert then picked the best melodies, which she submitted to the orchestra for review.

During his Oct. 6 visit to Gene Witt, Smith spent time speaking with fourth- and fifth-grade students about being a composer before he worked with the students whose melodies had been chosen for the project.

Students said they enjoyed playing their tunes for Smith, getting to hear how he had orchestrated them and offering feedback regarding which instruments should be used for the various parts of the composition.

“It was fun and an honor to be able to do this,” 10-year-old Jamie Loring said. “(What he wrote) sounded cool. Even though it was fast, you could hear the (melody we wrote). It’s going to sound cool in the orchestra.”

Smith will spend the next six months working on the music, figuring out which instruments should be played during specific parts and what the mood should be for each school’s movement within the suite.

“There’s so much music out there, and I want them to know human beings are the ones responsible for writing it,” Smith said when asked how he became involved in the project. “Second, if they want to compose music, it’s possible. It’s also a big deal for them to have their music played by an orchestra.

“I’m still thrilled every time they play my stuff,” he said with a shrug. “It’s wonderful the orchestra makes this possible.”

Contact Pam Eubanks at [email protected].