Very Young Composers

The SOAR charter school is one of four schools in the country to take part in Very Young Composers, a week-long program that offers middle school students the chance to compose their own music. Students pair with local professional musicians.

SOAR Charter Middle School's Very Young Composers program is an opportunity for students to write music for accomplished musicians to play. The best part about the project is that the student does not need any prior experience in music. All children are born with the skills to imagine and create musically, and this project provides these students the opportunity to get their ideas down on paper and into the performance of trained musicians.

With visual art, students can express their artistic ideas with the rudimentary use of a crayon box. However, with music the process of getting musical ideas down on paper and out of the instruments of skilled musicians is more difficult. The process of students composing music using the Very Young Composers method is made possible through aid of highly trained community musicians, each of which is paired with a young composer to transcribe down musical ideas note for note. As you can imagine the students learn about music in the best possible way, by creating it! On Monday, January 18 their work was premiered in the Northland Pines High School auditorium by local musicians.

The concept for Very Young Composers originated with Jon Deak, former principal Bassist of the New York Philharmonic, was first introduced in Wisconsin at the University of Wisconsin-Stevens Point and Stevens Point Public School District, and is now available here in the Northwoods under the direction of Northland Pines School District's Music Teacher, Rachel Strong.