News 2008:

Visit the new Vermont MIDI Project Blog. Read audience members comments from Opus 16 and general contributions from parents, teachers and students about composition and mentoring.
ASCAP announced the 2008 Morton Gould Young Composers Award. Tim Woos, an Independent Study student from New Haven, Vermont, received honorable mention for his composition That's Not Candy premiered at the Opus 15 concert in November 2007 for xylophone, piano and tuba. This is Tim's second year as an honorable mention winner. He and his family traveled to New York City to accept the award on May 22, 2008. Receiving the designation as finalist in this same competition was Zach Sheets from Norwich, Vermont. In the past two years this award has attracted over 600 entries from young composers ages 6-30. Congratulation Tim and Zach!
The Constitution Brass Quintet performed Garrett Cornelius' composition, The Frustration Complex at St. Mark's Church in Newport in a public concert on Sunday, May 18th.  Garrett's piece was first premiered at the Opus 15 concert in November 2007.
The Vermont Contemporary Music Ensemble (VCME) premiered a new work by Tim Woos at their April 18th and April 19th, 2008 Spring Concerts. The piece, 3-Minute Break, was composed for clarinet, cello and piano and will be performed by Steve Klimowski, Bonnie Thurber Klimowski and Annemieke Spoelstra. Tim says of his piece, “I started writing 3-Minute Break last summer at the New York Summer Music Festival. An early version of the piece was played there. I knew that the other pieces on the program would be dark, and I thought the audience would enjoy a "break". I've since revised the piece and expanded it, but kept its original character. I wrote is as a free-spirited, cartoonish kind of piece, with both polka and waltz rhythms.”   Tim has composed with the Vermont MIDI Project for a number of years. The VCME held a “Call for Scores” again this year with the MIDI Project, and Tim’s piece was selected for performance from among the scores entered in the competition. Hear  3 Minute Break.
	photo by Bob Eddy/First Light Studios

November 2007 - VERMONT MIDI PROJECT HIGHLIGHTED IN NATIONAL MUSIC EDUCATION MAGAZINE
John Kratus, a noted music education professor at Michigan State University, cautions that music education is at the tipping point and in great danger. Our profession needs to consider moving from the traditional music program and its focus on school performance groups to one that broadens the offerings for students, particularly at the high school level. Kratus has researched and written about creativity, composition and improvisation during the past two decades.

In this article, he specifically mentions three programs that meet his criteria for a new music education. One of these three is the Vermont MIDI Project. Read about the “stickiness factor” of the Vermont MIDI Project on page 46 of Music Educators Journal, November 2007.

In his many references to the Malcolm Gladwell book, The Tipping Point: How Little Things Can Make a Big Difference, Kratus defines “stickiness” as a program that is “memorable and potent enough to capture the public’s imagination.”
 
Article available at: Music Educators National Conference - Music Education at the Tipping Point

News 2005 - 2006:

Congratulations to Benji Goldsmith! His piece Suite for Orchestra was selected by a jury including Troy Peters of the Vermont Youth Orchestra who performed Benji's piece at the Flynn Center for the Performing Arts on First Night Burlington, Dec. 31 2005. View and listen to the work in Sibelius Scorch - a free plug-in.

Hear a recording of the live performance of Benji Goldsmith's composition Suite for Orchestra:
I Prelude
II Cantata
III Fugue

Four more young composers were also featured at First Night Burlington: The Constitution Brass Quintet performed Fanfare for Brass Quintet by Brendan Grant from St. Johnsbury Academy, On the Green by Sam Schiavone from Hazen Union School, Wayward Waltzer's Wonderland by Allan Beaudry from North Country UHS, and Brass Bamboozlement by Leon Campos from Hazen Union School.

 

Presentations which occurred during 2005-2006:

MENC National Conference, Salt Lake City, April 20 - 22, 2006

TI:ME (Technology Institute for Music Educators) National Conference in
connection with Florida Music Educators Conference, January 4-7, 2006

Maryland Music Educators Conference, October 21, 2005

 

NEWS FROM PREVIOUS YEARS:

Nicole Titley, a 13 year old young composer from Bridport Central School, had the experience of a lifetime when the string quartet Ethel decided to perform her composition in their concert at the Flynn Theater on Friday, May 14th. Nicole and schoolmates, Christina Kollar and Matt Burkins were part of a group of young composers who were invited to bring their work for a reading session on Thursday, May 13th, 2004 with Ethel sponsored by the Vermont Youth Orchestra. Following the two hour session, Ethel announced that they would like to include Nicole's piece Metamorphosis in their program. Nicole attended the concert and received a wonderful ovation following the performance of her work. Congratulations Nicole and thank you Ethel for working with our students in an exciting and highly educational session. Also at the reading session for young composers was Karen Boltax, Vermont MIDI Project contributor, from Montpelier High School. Nicole's score for Metamorphosis can be viewed here. (Download the free plug-in from Sibelius.)

Eva Sachsse, a fifth grader at Marion Cross School in Norwich, VT, is the elementary division winner of the National Student Electronic Composition Talent Search! sponsored by the National School Board Association and MENC: The National Association for Music Education.

Minneapolis, MN was the site for the MENC National Conference and three presentations by Anne Hamilton and Sandi MacLeod. Their sessions were titled, "Is that Mozart, Is that Gershwin? No, It's Me!" and "From Cyberspace to the Concert Hall: Compositions Come to Life". They shared student work and strategies used in the Vermont MIDI Project. Anne also presented a session with Robin Hodson from Sibelius on "Building Musicianship Skills in Chorus and Band Using Technology".

Dr. Patricia Riley from Crane School of Music and Sandi MacLeod gave two presentations in San Antonio, Texas at the Texas Music Educators Conference and TI:ME (Technology Institute for Music Educators) sessions.