8th graders get their very own song

COLUMBUS -- Prepping students for their upcoming practice session, Jeff Peabody didn’t want to underplay what was about to take place.

The group of 74 band students were getting ready for one of their final practices of a brand new song created just for them by composer Robert Sheldon.

“If we were basketball players, it would be like having a clinic with Mike Krzyzewski,” said Peabody, CHS instrumental music instructor. He was speaking of Sheldon, who was commissioned by Peabody three years ago to compose a piece of music for eighth grade students to perform.

Tuesday night, the band officially premiered the song “Synergies” during a special concert held at the Nantkes Performing Arts Center at the high school.

Peabody commissioned Sheldon in 2006 when Peabody was the band director at Columbus Middle School. Peabody said commissioning music has been done for years, and he wanted to do it for the eighth grade class so they could have a culminating event for their middle school careers. When Peabody commissioned Sheldon, the current eighth grade students were in sixth grade.

The process to compose the song was relatively quick, taking only a few days. Peabody said Sheldon had a lot of free range to compose the song. Originally the title of the piece was going to be “Power and Progress” to correlate with Columbus’ motto. But that was changed to “Synergies,” which represents the energies working together to create a positive result.

Most of the students performing the song were eighth graders. Some high school students were used to fill out a few seats, Peabody said. Whatever grade the students were in, he said getting to work with a conductor such as Sheldon was a real opportunity for them.

“He’s an expert,” Peabody said. It is an especially unique situation to work with the man who actually composed the piece of music.

Eighth grade students Regan Jones and Joshua Mueller said it was a “little different” working with Sheldon, but it was a change they embraced.

“It’s challenging, but it’s fun,” Mueller said.

Sheldon, of Normal, Ill., is also the concert band editor for the Alfred Publishing Company. He has taught instrumental music in Florida and Illinois public schools, and taught conducting and instrumental music education classes at Florida State University. He also directed the university bands there.

Sheldon said what he wanted the students to get out of the experience was working in a “professional-type of ensemble.”

He also wanted the students to learn how to feel the music, not just read the music that was in front of them.

“It’s not just notes and rhythm ... it’s putting more life into it,” he said.

The students have practiced with the song since January. Peabody said the life of the song will be tracked and, because it was commissioned for the CMS students, any time the song is performed at music events, like a district competition, they will know about it.