Seniors win first place in music composition

Ever since they were young, seniors Maya Nag and Rebecca Yang have played both the piano and the bass clarinet, among other instruments.

Over the past year, however, the two have taken their love of music to an even higher level. All last year, Nag and Yang worked together to compose an original piece. The piece was written for wind ensemble, which contains the flute, clarinet, oboe, English horn, soprano saxophone, alto saxophone, tenor saxophone and more. They titled their composition “Arab Spring.”

They entered their piece into the County Honor Band, a yearly event hosted by the Santa Clara County Band Directors’ Association (SCCBDA).

“We were inspired to write the piece because we were thinking of ideas for the National History Day competition and we wanted to do a project on Arab Spring,” said Nag.

Yang explained that their topic was too recent to be entered into the National History Day competition; however, since both students took an interest in the Arab Spring and music, they decided to combine the two.

Nag and Yang participated in the separate competition for soloists and composition. Once the scores are entered, the judges look at them and listen to the recordings to see if they like them.

“In the beginning, we’d play some tunes on piano and send each other recordings,” Nag said. “Eventually we ended up adapting those melodies and harmonies onto a score for band.”

Nag and Yang were able to get help from their band director Michael Boitz and others, since they did not know much about percussion.

However, they did not have any formal composition teacher. The writing process was lengthy and frustrating at times.

“The writing took us awhile. We hit some roadblocks, kind of like writer’s block,” Nag said.

Finally, after putting together all their melodies, harmonies, and editing the piece, they were finished.

In the past, the contest has typically only received one or sometimes no entries. This year, however, four entries were sent in, resulting in more competition for Nag and Yang.

Nag and Yang were contacted on Dec. 5 by the judges via phone call, and were told that their piece had been selected as the winning composition. For winning, their piece was played at Evergreen Valley High School by the SCCBDA County Honor Band on Jan. 13.

“We were ecstatic when we received the phone call from the SCCBDA president informing us that we won,” Nag said. “It is such an honor to have our piece played by such a talented group."