Lake Forest composer James Stephenson spent a day visiting with middle school orchestra students to help them prepare for the premier of the commissioned piece “Sometimes We Dance” at the All City Orchestra Concert in February. The students were able to spend some time asking a living composer many questions about the process of what it is like to be a full time working composer as well as ask him specific questions about the piece of music he had written for them. Mr. Stephenson also worked with the students on several musical elements of the piece, helping them refine and in some cases adjusting things in the music, “composing on the fly”. It was a truly unique learning experience for the students to work with a living composer.
The piece has been dedicated to Stephen Rohwer, who spent many years in our district inspiring a love of music into young students before his sudden passing last November.
