Lakota teen’s try at musical arrangement wins him title of ‘composer’

A Lakota high school junior has already earned the rare feat of having his musical composition performed publicly. Lang Chen, a junior at Lakota West High School, recently watched his band classmates perform one of his musical pieces during a school concert for the public. To earn the title of composer puts Chen in rarified company, said school officials. CONTRIBUTED

A Lakota high school junior has already earned the rare feat of having his musical composition performed publicly. Lang Chen, a junior at Lakota West High School, recently watched his band classmates perform one of his musical pieces during a school concert for the public. To earn the title of composer puts Chen in rarified company, said school officials. CONTRIBUTED

A Lakota West High School student has already earned the rare feat of having his musical composition performed publicly.

Lang Chen recently watched his band classmates perform one of his musical pieces during a recent school concert for the public.

To earn the title of composer so early puts Chen in rarified company, said school officials.

“It’s something I’ll never forget,” the Lakota West junior said after the school band played his four-minute “Arctic Exploration” piece at the school’s fall concert.

According to Lakota officials, Chen has written hundreds of musical arrangements, but this was the first to be played in a public performance by his music program peers and he was grateful.

For the first time, the band percussionist watched from the audience during the school concert.

“Melodies randomly come into my head and I write them down,” said Lang of his writing process. But, he added, up until now that process of musical creation had always ended with only his own, computer-generated playback of his piece and not a live performance by a full band.

“The first note is really distinct and it blew my mind to hear how cool it sounded in person,” said Chen, recalling the flood of emotions he felt the night of the concert.

Chen said he thanked his classmates and instructors “for taking a chance on me.”

Lakota West Band Director Andrew Carr said it was an easy decision to include Chen’s piece in the fall concert.

When Chen approached Carr with the initial version of his “Artic Exploration” the veteran band director’s reaction was it needed some polishing but overall, it was “already an excellent composition.”

“I have had plenty of students try their hand at (musical) composition while still in high school in the past, which is a real challenge,” said Carr.

But Carr and his Lakota West Band Assistant, Colin Celek, made the process easy and fun, said Chen.

Over the course of several weeks, the directors reserved a few minutes during some classes to play Chen’s piece while the student composer listened from the sidelines. Each time, Chen would return with more revisions and even surveyed his classmates one time to get their feedback.

Even more of a surprise to Chen was the news that his piece would make a public debut at the band’s fall concert.

“We were very impressed with the quality of the music and the arrangement,” said Carr, who added Chen’s “creativity and hard work propelled his work to a level that made it worthy of performance. I had a great time working on the piece and helping bring his vision to life.”

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