Nathan Grabow, a young American composer and pianist performs his original composition entitled Concertino in G Minor for Piano and Strings. He wrote the piece when he was twelve years old and is thirteen at the time of this performance with the Marywood University String Project Presto Orchestra, which is a youth orchestra. Nathan plays the piano in this performance.
It was a bright and sunny day, and Gooby was racing down the hot pavement. It had only been one year since humans had accepted aliens into Earth’s society. The planet that Gooby was from was taken over by another species, so they had no choice but to retreat and come to Earth and ask humans for help. It had been a hard six months, and Gooby was still getting used to going to a human school.
Believe
Ben Starner, 12
The greater the challenge
The rougher the sea
The thinner the bridge
The less you believe
The wider the water
The bigger the plight
The harder the problem
The darker the night
The imposing contagion
There’s people who fight
So don’t be afraid
But careful of night
It soon will be over
Soon it will end its rampage
And will not come back
Until a different age
The greater the challenge
The rougher the sea
The thinner the bridge
The more you be
Beyond the Dance, by Chan Hon Goh;
Tundra Books: New York, 2002; $15.95
When I first saw the cover of Beyond the Dance, I thought it might be a book that was just about dance technique. But, as the saying goes, you can't judge a book by its cover. As I started reading, I found that Chan Hon Goh was writing not just about her dance career, but also about her life growing up in Communist China where the government was very unsupportive of artists.
The Gone series by Michael Grant was a very gripping, fun, and entertaining read, and despite it not being for the faint of heart, I would recommend it to just about anyone—which is why I find it so odd that the protagonists are not the characters that make it so riveting, but rather the villainous antihero, Diana Ladris.
As I recall, it was early in the morning, around seven or eight, when I first arrived at summer camp. The beautiful summer breeze whisked through my nose, giving me a vague sense of freedom. How I had longed to leave school and have this feeling tingle my senses. This had marked my third year at summer camp, and I was ecstatic to meet my friends again.
I walked across the new green grass leading to the main campus.
At 8:30 pm I—still wet from my post-swimming practice shower-- sat down on my soft blue couch with a plate of warm red pasta in my lap to watch the Cincinnati Reds take on the Milwaukee Brewers. After about 10 minutes two of my dogs, Butter the coonhound, (with her floppy ears and her habit of turning three times before curling up in a ball) and Albus, the old beagle, (with the tilted head and long pink tongue that sticks out the side of his mouth) crowded into the room and onto the couch next
What a little angel she is
Whisper the Jewish Sunday-school ladies behind gloved hands
As I flounce down the hall
All dressed up in my blue silk party dress, the one with the frills on the bottom
Another gift from Daddy’s friends in Chicago
A special dress for a special girl like you
My proud parents beam with pride when I stand behind the microphone in the school auditorium:
Oh, say can you see . . .?
Thank you for sharing this powerful story with us. Could you tell us about what inspired you to write it?
My story is called “Suffering.” My father’s name is Shika Demzungu and my mother’s name is Jeanne Kiza. I chose to tell this story so that I can teach people, through my life history, that in this world many fathers and even mothers leave their families in different situations. They should take care of their families.
I started to compose when I was about 9 years old and wrote about 5 pieces of music. Back then I had played the piano for about 5 years already. I started to play the oboe when I was about 12 years old and still play both instruments today.
What inspired me to write this piece was another composition that had a rhythm as the bass and a violin that was playing out the melody much louder and unique. I decided to create a piece for the oboe and piano because I am familiar with them.
