Bridgehampton - The Hayground Creative Orchestra and Artistic Director Bruce Wolosoff present "(Not Just) Another Night at the Movies" on Thursday, April 14, 2011 at 6 p.m. at Bay Street Theatre, Long Wharf, Sag Harbor. Join us for a night of original movie scores written and performed by Hayground Student. Everyone welcome! Suggested donation $10.

The Hayground Creative Orchestra performance is the culmination of a one-month residency program with composer Wolosoff. The principle is simple: a student (even one with little or no previous musical training) imagines how their music might sound, figures out how to make those sounds, gets to hear their material played in rehearsal, and refines those ideas in rehearsal with their fellow composers until they are satisfied with how the piece sounds. Then the composer conducts the Creative Orchestra in a public performance of their work.

Some of the different points of departure that have been used in the group process so far have been musical responses to paintings, haiku, a contemporary pop song, the concept of "metamorphosis," and silent film. An exciting new addition to this year's program, are students who will be performing original scores for movies that were also written, directed and produced by Hayground students.

"I am a composer, and I learned my profession the old school way, through years of serious study and discipline, music lessons, conservatories, arcane theory books, etc. Yet I began to notice that every time I sat down to compose a new work, I would really never be using any of the methods or theories that I'd learned. The process of creating a new work was always about starting fresh, clearing the mind and waiting for the music to start playing in my head. Then I'd write down and refine what I heard. I began to wonder if music composition might be taught that way, the way that composers actually compose, beginning with the musical "vision" itself as the point of departure?

At the Hayground School, we began a set of workshops exploring the idea of how one might encourage the process of musical dreaming. As students were hearing their own works rehearsed, these workshops quickly transformed into the Creative Orchestra project, which is now in its seventh year. Each year that we've done this work together, I've been amazed by the musical imagination, creativity, power, and beauty of the students' compositions. Nobody has told these kids that they can't compose music. On the contrary, they've been told that they CAN do it, so they just do it. Composing music? No big deal! I now believe that, given the proper coaching and conditions, almost anyone can create music." Wolosoff's reflection on the composing process and how the Hayground Creative Orchestra came to be.