Rexburg 8-year-old earns top honors at music composition competition

Clara’s composition process started by choosing something that made her happy, writing a story about it, and then creating melodies to tell the story. | Emily Miller, EastIdahoNews.com REXBURG – A little ditty about a mama bunny and her babies earned 8-year-old Clara McNiven of Rexburg first place honors in a national composition competition this summer. “The Girl and Her Bunny” is a charming piece composed by Clara during her participation in the Let’s Play Music program, under the tutelage of instructor Laurie Williams. In year three of the program, which Clara completed earlier this year, young musicians are coached through creating their own pieces to perform at the end of the season. “Miss Laurie had us write down three things we liked, and I put friends, music class, and animals,” Clara says, “Then you had to choose one. You had to circle it and I circled animals.” Clara’s mother, Lisa McNiven, says Clara was guided through the process of writing a story and then putting melodies to the different parts of the story. Clara’s story takes some twists and turns before a happy surprise ending. “There’s this storm at the beginning and it’s really cold and the bunny is in the storm,” Clara says. “After the storm is over, this girl finds her, and then at the end it’s a surprise that she’s actually a mother bunny–she just had babies. And so, at the end there’s some staccato notes.” Clara McNiven performs her first-place piece about a mother bunny and her babies. | Emily Miller, EastIdahoNews.com “Lots of little hopping notes, because the bunny was having babies,” Lisa adds. “The beginning is minor, because it’s sad because the bunny is alone and cold, and then it turns major because she finds a friend, and then the hopping part!” Clara says that after she completed her composition, Williams encouraged her to enter it into the national competition sponsored by Let’s Play Music. Before the awards ceremony, the McNivens knew that Clara had placed, but not that she would take top honors. Her mom says it took some convincing for Clara to believe that her piece won first place among all submissions in the country. It’s no surprise that even at 8 years old, Clara knows her way around a piano. Both of her parents are professional musicians, and she has been raised around music her whole life. Mom Lisa is the principal violist for the Idaho Falls Symphony and teaches private lessons in their home and at Brigham Young University-Idaho, and dad Tyler is a stage manager and recording specialist for the university, where he also teaches an audio engineering class. The post Rexburg 8-year-old earns top honors at music composition competition appeared first on East Idaho News.
Source: eastidahonews.com