Congratulations to Koharu Sakiyama and Jake Safirstein, winners of OMEA’s Composition Contest

Posted on December 22, 2017

Words by Carolyn Talarr, PYP’s Community Programs Coordinator

Congratulations to the Middle and High School winners of the Oregon Music Educators Association’s inaugural Composition Contest: Koharu Sakiyama of Athey Creek Middle School and Jake Safirstein of Grant High School!  PYP is happy to have played a part in Koharu’s and Jake’s successes, as both composers also in PYP ensembles: Koharu as PYCO co-concertmaster, and Jake as PYWE percussionist.

Koharu first studied composition in elementary school , but has kept composing on her own ever since.  She relates that her middle school band director, Ms. Arthur (yes, band director: in addition to violin, Koharu plays clarinet and sax in school ensembles), has consistently encouraged and helped her composing.

At the same time, her PYP involvement has afforded Koharu opportunities to play great pieces with wonderful musicians and to hear her compositions performed, including “Christmas Carol from the North Paul”, in honor of YSE conductors Carol Sindell and Paul Kim, on the Schnitzer stage at the Concert-at-Christmas last year! The OMEA-winning piece, “Little Bird”, is inspired by Koharu’s pet parakeets, as you’ll hear in this live performance recorded just a few weeks ago at our chamber music concert.

Jake Safirstein tells a similar story.  He’d participated in OMEA All-State on percussion last year and hopes to again, but when his band director, Brian McFadden, showed him the composing program Sibelius, he discovered a new dimension of music: “For the last year and a half I’ve spent a huge majority of my time studying music and discovering the incredible processes that go into writing music.  This year was the first I’ve really begun to compose on my own.” Since then, in addition to encouraging Jake’s growth as an instrumentalist, Mr. McFadden has had Grant musicians perform Jake’s work live and has given him conducting opportunities in class and school concerts.

Along with Jake’s work at Grant, playing snare in last year’s PYCO’s performance of Shostakovich’s Tenth Symphony was “one of the most moving experiences I’ve ever had”, introducing him to a deeper relationship with classical music.  PYWE’s theory classes also introduced Jake to Kenji Bunch, a PYP alumnus nationally-recognized composer; Jake now studies with Kenji privately.

In yet another dynamic combination of musical experiences, Jake wrote “Concertpiece No. 1” for a fellow Grant student, trumpet player Michail Thompson, who is active in Grant ensembles and as PYP principal trumpet.  Jake wrote that Michail “pushed me to join PYP last year, so I really have him to thank for all of the success I’m having right now.”

“Synergy” is an overused word but we’ll use it unabashedly here, because Jake’s and Koharu’s stories show how the combined power of PYP experience and school music education by licensed teachers create even stronger outcomes together than they could by themselves.  Congratulations again to these young composers for their creativity and accomplishments!