Wilbraham & Monson Academy's Basem Hernandez '19 composed a song that will be performed by the school's Chamber Ensemble at the spring concert on April 27 in the Alumni Memorial Chapel. It is the first time in seven years at the Academy for a student to compose a song for the Chamber Ensemble.
The song, "The Journey," has received a lot of positive feedback from the music teacher and director of the Chamber Ensemble, Mr. Thad Wheeler. Basem shared that the song was not intentionally composed, claiming that the piece was born as a result of a mistake that Basem made while trying to learn another composition. After, Basem thought that what he played "did not sound so bad" and went on creating.
Basem is a self-taught pianist who started playing the instrument one year ago. Although Basem hasn't yet learned how to read notes, he still managed to create a musical piece through recording the video of him playing the song. Mr. Wheeler assisted Basem in writing the notes for every instrument in the Chamber Ensemble.
Mr. Wheeler commented that Basem has "a higher level of conceptual thinking when it comes to music." He also said, "I'm proud of Basem, he did great."
- By ELIZAVETA BIRYUKOVA '19