World Debuts At A Willets Road Concert

As it is every year at this time, the entire Willets Road gymatorium was overflowing with families coming to enjoy and listen to the annual Willets Road Grade 6 & 7 Spring Concert.
Congratulations to the student-musicians of the Willets Road Honors Chamber Orchestra, Willets Road Jazz Band, Willets Road Concert Orchestra, Willets Road Broadway Stars and Willets Road Concert Band, and their terrific music teachers Denise Giuliano, Scott Hoefling and Karen Brandine.
In addition to the performances, last night brought a special treat for the audience and for our Willets Road student-musicians. Through the generosity of the Willets Road PTO, professional composer and musician Dan Cooper was commissioned to compose two works for our student-musicians. At the concert on June 9, the student-musicians in the Jazz Band and Concert Band premiered both of these new works, Yud Yud Yud and Midheaven.
Cooper was born and raised in Manhattan and educated at Columbia, New England Conservatory and Princeton. A recipient of an Aaron Copland Fellowship to Tanglewood, he has received many awards, commissions, residencies and premieres. He is a multi-instrumentalist who has performed at venues including the Berlin Philharmonic Hall, Bunkamura Orchard Hall, Rockefeller Center, Royal Albert Hall, Sydney Opera House, The Blue Note and town hall. He is a music professor at SUNY-FIT and a director of Composers Concordance.
Cooper was in attendance at the Willets Road concert. How exciting it was for the students to perform his original music in front of him, for the first public performance. Cooper took the stage to thank our Willets Road teachers and students and families who came together to listen to and celebrate music together. He congratulated our students, families, staff and school district and said that he hoped more schools would follow East Williston’s leadership in musical celebration and community.