Greetings, 

In the fall of 2013, Lehigh University's Composer-Conductor Steven Sametz asked Todd Stansbery if Swain students could help inspire a musical message of consolation for families who had lost loved ones at Sandy Hook Elementary School in 2012. As part of the Raymond and Beverly Sacker Music Prize, Professor Sametz had been commissioned by the University of Connecticut to compose an oratorio specific to that event.
 

Professor Sametz had already received over 500 stories and poems from children all over the country, to influence the writing of his composition.
But he sought poetic reflections to balance the violence many of those children had experienced.  As a result, in January of 2014 Marilyn Hazelton, Swain's Poet in Residence, organized special classes with Swain students who had parental permission to participate.
 

"I was very mindful about inviting 4th-8th graders to enter a journey from loss to hope in a single session," Mrs. Hazelton said.  "So, I constructed writing classes for each grade carefully, to create a safe place in which participants could express their feelings."
 

Fifty-three students and four faculty members participated in the sessions.  When Professor Sametz completed his composition, poetic lines by 15 Swain students and two faculty members had been included and help provide structure for the oratorio.

Professor Sametz visited the Swain campus last spring to meet the students and faculty whose work was selected for inclusion. Each one read his or her lines for him, and they were videotaped for possible future use in a performance. But, as Mrs. Hazelton emphasizes: "The creative process requires multiple ways of seeing.  I'm quite certain that the completed musical experience reflects the influence of everyone at Swain who took part."
 

The composition premiered in two Connecticut locations this past week. Additional performances are scheduled for Lehigh University on November 6 and 7, and in Princeton, New Jersey, on November 13. We will provide information for Swain families about those performances when it becomes available.

Professor Sametz' oratorio, "A Child's Requiem", at 45 minutes in length, involves an adult choir, chamber orchestra, a children's choir, and soloists. It is available to review here.