This year students in grades 6-12 had the opportunity to participate in the Express the Music Contest. The Express the Music Contest is a competition where students listen to a piece and respond with poetry or prose that expresses creative thought and emotion inspired by the music. The song this year was, “The Great Gate of Kiev” from Modest Mussorgsky’s Pictures at an Exhibition (orchestrated by Maurice Ravel). 

The students who participated this year were 2 8th graders, Emil Galliano and Aiden Parker. They had a choice of writing for this event or writing and illustrating a Christmas story for kids. 

Emil chose to write a story for this competition because writing a story to fit the music seemed easier to him. He wrote a story about a Ukrainian who was going through a version of WWII with a bit of a modern spin-off. His favorite part of writing for this event was writing the climax of his story. 

Aiden chose to write a story for this competition because whenever he listened to this song he got an idea of what he wanted to write about, assisting in making his decision. 

Though neither of them made it to the next round, we are so proud of them for all the work they put into their stories.