Showcasing Music Composition in Michigan Schools: The 2015 MMEA Honors Composition Concert January 24th, 2015
Chris Bulgren
Students of various ages are scattered around the Ambassador Ballroom of the Amway Grand Hotel in Grand Rapids, Michigan. They listen attentively to the parade of ensembles and solo- ists as they wait their turn to rehearse for the evening concert. The 2015 Honors Composi- tion Concert, sponsored by the Michigan Music Educators Association (MMEA) as part of the annual Michigan Music Conference, featured a wide array of styles and ensembles including wind band, solo violin, piano, and singer song- writers. However, what makes this concert dif- ferent from others is that the students perform- ing are also the composers.
Now in its 14th year, the Honors Composition Concert is the brainchild of John Kratus, Profes- sor Emeritus, Michigan State University. In or- der to promote composing and provide a venue for student composers Kratus took his idea for a composition concert to the MMEA. “I wanted to place student composition in Michigan on equal footing with student performance at all-state bands, choirs, orchestras, and jazz ensembles,” said Kratus (personal communication, May 27, 2015). The first Michigan Honors Composi- tion Concert took place at the 2002 Midwest- ern Music Education Conference in Ann Arbor, Michigan. That year, the concert lasted more than three hours and featured the Interlochen Arts Academy Orchestra, a children’s gospel choir from Detroit, and a family rock band. Kra- tus looks forward to the future of this event as a means of developing the whole student through composing and performing. “I am very proud of my work in establishing the concert, and I have been delighted to see it continue and flourish.”
Music education researcher Maud Hickey re- minds us of the important connection between creating and performing and its centrality to be- coming a whole musician:
I have yet to meet a child who could not or would not compose when asked, just as I’ve never met a child who could not or would not get joy from listening to music, or singing, or performing music on an in- strument. Making up music is as natural to children as making up stories and games, or creating original artwork with finger paints and crayons. Yet music composition has not been included as a regular part of the school music curriculum in the United States. In fact, the idea of a person who is both performer and composer at the same time has nearly vanished from Western music since its normalcy only 200 years ago (Hickey, 2012, p. 3).
The normalcy of which Hickey speaks is evi- dent in these young composers. Many of the performers at the Honors Composition Concert began composing at very young ages. Of the 20 total winners, six student composers were inter- viewed for this article. These students, whose ages ranged between 8 and 18, demonstrated common characteristics that led to composition, including their inspirations, creative processes, and support from parents and teachers. Addi- tionally, they all study and perform music in and out of school. Despite their youth, many have clear plans for their futures that include music composition. Most importantly, the experiences they shared as a result of participating in the Honors Composition Concert illustrate the joys of composition.
Finding the Inspiration
Motivation to compose arises from various in- ternal and external sources. Brothers Nikhil (13) and Sahill Deenadayalu (12) write a piece for piano every year. They credited their piano teacher and their father with encouraging their
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