Andrew HS to perform "Song for Silent Voices"

Students at Andrew High School will honor those lost at Stoneman Douglas High School and raise awareness against violence through the band's performance of a piece entitled "Song for Silent Voices" by composer Wayne Oquin. The band will partner with the VJA SAVE organization (Students Against Violence Everywhere) to use music as a conduit to further a message of compassion and hope. It will be performed during the school's enrichment period for students on Tuesday, May 14.

Oquin, a composer and member of the faculty at The Julliard School in New York City, was writing a choral piece simply titled "Alleluia" and, before finishing, became certain he wanted to write an instrumental version of the piece as well. He didn't know how the ending would arrive yet.

"Continually I'm drawn to music's power to connect, its gift of going beyond words," said Oquin. "To enter music, this seemingly separate world of pitches, harmonies, rhythms, and textures, is to plunge more deeply into life itself. How true of the current work: unresolved dissonances speaking to our collective humanity in all its beauty and many imperfections' frequent modulations reflecting a world of constant change' a single solo voice signifying childlike innocence' the final diminuendo depicting life's brevity. Words alone would be inadequate."

The ending of the piece was written with Stoneman Douglas in mind. The piece was premiered in December 2018 at the Midwest Clinic by the Stoneman Douglas Wind Symphony. Oquin's hope is that the music somehow merges grief and gratitude; the quiet void from a life lost and the thankfulness for times shared.

Andrew High School Band Director Mark Iwinski learned of the music through a leadership conference for marching band students in the summer of 2018. The director of bands at University of Wisconsin Stevens Point was the consortium lead for the piece and was also on staff for the conference. He introduced Iwinski to the piece and invited Andrew's program to be on the commission allowing Andrew High School to be among the first ensembles to ever perform it.