BUFFALO, N.Y. — More than 100 student musicians from Williamsville East, North, and South who auditioned to be on stage together are performing a never-heard-before piece at their school. They say the process wasn't easy.
"It's difficult because there is no recording of it. There's nothing that we can listen to know what to do. So, we are the first. We get to show people what to do with this piece," Tarin Rietz, a piccolo player at Williamsville South High School said.
The composer who wrote the piece for the students is the same man who wrote music inspired by "The Lord of the Rings," Johan De Meij. He was approached by the Williamsville central school district music department with their music boosters a couple of months ago to write music for the district.
"I had an idea of what I wanted to write then the pandemic hit. This was mid-March 2020. This was the first piece I was going to write sitting at home during the lockdown and I have a list of ideas and titles," said De Meij, the guest conductor and composer for the Wind Ensemble Festival.
And one of the books he was inspired by was "The Painted Bird."
"It's a controversial novel. It's very cruel. There are a lot of horrible things happening in the book, but for me, it was a great way to turn my anxiety and my fear, and anger into music. It was theopoetic for me to write that piece. I was like everybody. I was pretty down when the pandemic hit. I had 74 concerts canceled, one after another, and that doesn't put you in a good mood. I put all my energy in writing this piece," De Meij said.
De Meij's piece is an 11-minute original also called "The Painted Bird."
"My music really tried to express the anger and the fear I have for fascism in general," he said.
And now he's excited to show the world what these kids did with is piece.
"It's been wonderful to work with kids. They came with great questions. They are super motivated and they worked very hard," he said.
"I play first clarinet. It's very high and fast. I worked with my teachers a lot. And it's come along way, I am really proud of myself. My range has extended a lot," said Connor Smith, a clarinet player at Williamsville North High School.
"But we also get to premier a piece that was written for us, which is really, really cool," Reitz said.
"Because of COVID and the fact that we weren't able to play in an ensemble for a long time and one that's, I think they said 98 people. Just having that around you, with that much noise and that many people, it's is really nice," said Maler Suresh, a clarinet player at Williamsville East High School.
Johan says he hopes to make the world a better place by using music.
"People with all races and ages and genders, that's my goal. I like to make a better world through music and hopefully, this will add something to it," De Meij said.
Listen to how the final product turned out on Thursday. They will perform at the Wind Ensemble Festival on March 30 at 7 p.m at Williamsville South High School.
The event will also be streamed on the District’s YouTube channel.