Aquinas Institute of Rochester

Remarkable Performance on Video
Sophomore Composes New Music for Children's Opera

Each student in Mr. Connelly's sophomore level Sacred Scripture/Booksharing class must complete a final project, interpreting the lasting effects of the Holocaust from their own point of view.

John Wilson was inspired by the amount of music composed during the time of the Holocaust. "I wanted to incorporate music into my project. Mr. Connelly told me about Brundibar, a children's opera composed by Hans Krasa, which was performed by children in the Terezin concentration camp. The words from one of the songs spoke to me, but I thought that the music could be more upbeat," he said. John not only wrote new music for the song, he composed an arrangement for a ten piece orchestra.

He performed the piece on piano in the Blackbox theatre for Mr. Connelly's fifth-period Sacred Scriptures class. Mr. Jeff Wilson, Aquinas Theatre Director, agreed to sing the vocals for the performance. "I wanted to play and sing it myself," said John, "but the piece was too complicated, and I wrote it in a key that is difficult for me to sing."

John began playing piano five years ago, but has no formal training in music theory. He hopes to pursue a degree in the medical field, and is considering music as a minor in college.

The outstanding performance was videotaped and can be viewed by clicking this link to YouTube. We are pleased that John was willing to share his talent with us all.

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