Mach 1 Music Rocks!

Columbus Academy's 2nd-4th Graders yell out "Mach 1 Music Rocks!" while accompanied by Amy and Eddie's song, "Put Yourself in Their Shoes."

Mrs. Garver Solis works with Eddie Galan and Tiffany Thornton!

Columbus Academy Lower School music teacher Amy Garver not only got married this summer (she’s now Amy Garver Solis), she also used one of the school’s Putnam Grants to travel to California to create a song with four-time #1 Hit Billboard songwriter Eddie Galan.

While in Los Angeles, Garver Solis also sang background vocals for a song called “Picture Perfect” on a new album by Tiffany Thornton, who stars on the Disney Channel’s “Sunny With a Chance” and is pictured above with Garver Solis on the left and Galan on the right.

At the beginning of the 2008-09 school year, Garver Solis selected Galan as the first Composer of the Month for her Lower School music classes and posted information about him on her school blog. Galan found the blog while doing a Google search of his name and left a comment for Garver Solis, who contacted him through his MySpace page.

Galan offered to answer questions from students about his life and being a composer. The students, in turn, showered him with homemade “thank you” cards and his favorite chocolate bars. When Garver Solis requested his assistance on helping to create a song for her students, Galan suggested she come to his studio.

To hear Garver Solis’ duet with Eddie Galan – titled “Put Yourself in Their Shoes” – go to http://intranet.columbusacademy.org/mod/resource/view.php?id=2958.

The trip was funded by the school’s Putnam Grant program, which was established to honor the legacy of William Putnam, Columbus Academy Headmaster from 1960 to 1977. The grants are intended to encourage professional and personal growth through a variety of summertime experiences which enhance and nourish the teaching life rather than meet specific instructional needs of the school, a division or a department.

Click here to read a Suburban News article about Garver Solis' trip!

Click here to read a This Week news article about Garver Solis' trip!

(Taken from the Columbus Academy Official Website.)

April/May Composer of the Month: Alan Menken!

Alan Menken is an American composer of musical theater and film music. He was born in New Rochelle, New York on July 22nd, 1949. Menken developed a love of music at a very early age, and he took private lessons on both the violin and piano. He grew up to be an extremely talented pianist.

Despite that early tutelage, Menken decided to attend New York University after high school in order to major in their pre-Med program. However, after several months of studying, he realized how much he missed music, and he decided to switch over his focus to it. After graduating, he met a wonderful lyricist named Howard Ashman, and the two began a very famous professional partnership.

Menken is well-respected for his work with musical theater (with such shows as "Little Shop of Horrors" and "Weird Romance,"), but he has become a household name due to his association with Disney films. He wrote the music for such famous movies as "The Little Mermaid," "Beauty and the Beast," "Aladdin," "The Hunchback of Notre Dame," and "Hercules." Recently, he composed the soundtrack for "Enchanted." He has won 8 Academy Awards for his film music, and he has been nominated 10 times on top of that!

*Adapted from Wikipedia

Ms. Garver to write a song with Eddie Galan!

At the beginning of the schoolyear, Ms. Garver searched quite a long time to find a suitable composer to be selected for the first choice of the "Composer of the Month" program. She wanted someone that had written music for the Olympics, as she thought that would connect with the students really well at the start of the year. Several Google searches later, she came across Eddie Galan. He seemed like the perfect fit, as he had also worked on music for "High School Musical" (and the big screen version was due to release later that fall). So, the Columbus Academy Lower School learned all about him and absolutely fell in love with his song "Incredible."

A few months after that, Mr. Galan did a Google search of his own and found out that he was the August-September Composer of the Month for Columbus Academy. After much conversation, the Lower School got the tremendous honor of developing a wonderful relationship with him. He opened up and answered their questions about his life and about what it's like to be a composer. They, in turn, showered him with their homemade 'thank you' cards and Hershey chocolate bars (his favorite).

All of that, in of itself, was a wonderful turn of fate. But now, a true dream of Ms. Garver's is coming true. Due to the receipt of a special grant, known as the Putnam Grant, she will be flying to Los Angeles in June to write a song for the Lower School with Eddie Galan. When approached with the possibility, he was beyond receptive to it and in fact suggested that she also shadow him as he worked. Right now, he is in the studio writing with Selena Gomez (the star of Disney's "Wizards of Waverly Place"). Needless to say, Ms. Garver is (EXTRAORDINARILY) excited about her upcoming trip, and she wanted to share that exuberance with all of you!

J.S. Bach - January Composer of the Month!

Johann Sebastian Bach (pronounced [joˈhan/ˈjoːhan zeˈbastjan ˈbax]) (31 March 1685 – 28 July 1750) was a German composer and organist whose sacred and secular works for choir, orchestra, and solo instruments drew together the strands of the Baroque period and brought it to its ultimate maturity. Although he introduced no new forms, he enriched the prevailing German style with a robust contrapuntal technique, an unrivalled control of harmonic and motivic organisation in composition for diverse instrumentation, and the adaptation of rhythms and textures from abroad, particularly Italy and France.

Revered for their intellectual depth, technical command and artistic beauty, Bach's works include the Brandenburg concertos, the Goldberg Variations, the English Suites, the French Suites, the Partitas, the Well-Tempered Clavier, the Mass in B Minor, the St. Matthew Passion, the St. John Passion, the Magnificat, The Musical Offering, The Art of Fugue, the Sonatas and Partitas for violin solo, the Cello Suites, more than 200 surviving cantatas, and a similar number of organ works, including the celebrated Toccata and Fugue in D Minor.

While Bach's fame as an organist was great during his lifetime, he was not particularly well-known as a composer. His adherence to Baroque forms and contrapuntal style was considered "old-fashioned" by his contemporaries, especially late in his career when the musical fashion tended towards Rococo and later Classical styles. A revival of interest and performances of his music began early in the 19th century, and he is now widely considered to be one of the greatest composers in the Western tradition, being included with Ludwig van Beethoven and Johannes Brahms as one of the "three Bs".

**taken from Wikipedia