Champlin Park Creative Writing, Orchestra Students Collaborate For Concert

Everyone has a story to tell. The arts make that possible, especially in high schools.

Champlin Park High School students are taking expression to the next level, as students in creative writing and orchestra collaborate.

Kristi Romo is a creative writing teacher at Champlin Park High School. She sees language in a number of ways — in writing and in music. Her students have a unique way of capturing those languages.

“Kids are honest in a way that adults have learned not to be,” Romo said. “There is an honesty in music. We feel a variety of ways when we listen to different songs. We choose songs when we are feeling a certain way to help us go through it.”

Her creative writing class allows students to express themselves through words. In another part of the building, orchestra students are showcasing their own creative work.

“The writing of music is storytelling, and the writing of words is storytelling,” Romo said.

A Creative Collaboration

In a concert tonight, the English and music departments are putting on a collaborative concert.

It was the brainchild of orchestra teacher Levi Comstock.

“The composition process really helps to understand the music that you are playing,” Comstock said.

Creative writing students wrote pieces inspired by orchestral pieces, and for their classmates to draw inspiration from. Meanwhile, orchestra students created compositions based on some of that work, too.

On stage, one student may read a piece they wrote, while the orchestra plays a corresponding student-composed piece in response.

“They’ve grown and they’ve been challenged to think about music and art in a different way,” Comstock said. “I hope that by pairing it with the writing that the audience can really latch on to the emotions, the experiences and the imagery.”

Another group of orchestra students took on a slightly different challenge.

The students used Maya Angelou’s poem “Still I Rise” for inspiration. Piece by piece, they put their work together to craft a full score for the poem. On stage, a student reads the poem while the orchestra plays.

Nkaujoo Lee and Lyla Smith are both in ninth grade, and got to try their hand at composing at a small level.

“We all split into groups, and we call composed our own little piece to a certain verse in our stanza,” Lee said.

One CPHS student reads Maya Angelou’s ‘Still I Rise’ for orchestra students.

“I feel like it really adds emotion to it,” Smith said. “You can really just feel it, and connect it to other pieces you read or try to play.”

The students’ hard work will be showcased on stage at 7 p.m. on Wednesday, Feb. 28 at Champlin Park High School. Their teachers are excited to see how the show comes together.

“Having a connection to literal human experiences — bringing the specific into the general, and the general into the specific helps you to make more out of your music, give it meaning,” Comstock said.

Champlin Park High School

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