GPO Names 2nd Magic Baton Melody Contest Winner

Greeley Philharmonic Orchestra (GPO) Composer-in-Residence Dylan Fixmer launched the Magic Baton Melody Contest in the fall of 2022 with middle school students from the Greeley-Evans School District 6 who competed for a chance to have their original music orchestrated and played by the GPO at the Poinsettia Pops concert in December 2022. Now in its second semester, high school students from the district have submitted their entries and a winner has been selected.

Alex Sewell, a sophomore violinist from Greeley West High School won the GPO Magic Baton Melody Contest with her melody "Fleurs dans les nuages (Flowers in the Clouds)” which was written during and after a composition workshop with Fixmer. The composition has been orchestrated by Fixmer and will be premiered at the GPO’s final concert of the season, Sounds of Cinema. Sewell is excited to hear her melody played by the GPO since it will be able to bring out the "splashes of color" and the "beauty of the French language" that she wants to capture in her piece. She is looking forward to bringing her mom and friend to the show.

Fully narrated, Sounds of Cinema on May 20th brings the sounds of the screen, including Jurassic Park, A Clockwork Orange, and War Horse, to the Union Colony Civic Center stage. Student tickets are $5 with the code “EXPERIENCE,” and educator tickets are $10 with the code “CONNECT.” Tickets are available at www.greeleyphil.org/tickets.

Sounds of Cinema is sponsored in part by the High Plains Library District.