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Merry Questmas!

Santa visits the Composer Quest studios to kick off this special Christmas episode. You'll get to hear music from the past three quests. First, we travel out to rural Minnesota for KMS Elementary's heartwarming performance of our collaborative Christmas musical Elfluenza. Ms. Hamann's 1st-3rd graders also give us composers some advice. Next, I reveal which orchestral carol arrangements were chosen and performed by the Amadeus Chamber Symphony. Finally, we get to experience J. Wilson's epic journey to find a fortune cookie in Taiwan for the fortune cookie songwriting quest.

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Quest 4: Elfluenza, the Christmas Musical

I hereby challenge you to the 4th Composer Quest quest! We will be writing songs for a new Christmas musical, to be performed by the first, second, and third graders at KMS Elementary (in the rural Minnesota town of Murdock, MN). I wrote music for their Christmas musical last year, and it was a blast hearing my songs performed by these kids, who were so excited about it. Maia Hamann, from episode 10, teaches music at KMS, and she'll direct the musical. Her mom, Zita Hamann, taught at KMS Elementary for many years, and she has just written a fun story called Elfluenza.

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Songwriting Inspiration with Paul Spring

Paul Spring was destined to be a poet, being raised in a family of English professor parents, and now having six brothers and sisters who are also English teachers. In this episode of Composer Quest, we get to hear live renditions of four new story songs Paul has been working on, from the hilarious "Type II Diabetes" and "St. Cloud Traffic" to an edgy but thoughtful song trying to make sense of the tragic Newtown, Connecticut school shooting. We also talk about Paul's self-titled album and the very personal stories behind it. I think it's the most moving talk we've had on the show, so a special thanks to Paul for sharing his music and stories.

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Teaching Kids to Compose with Maia Hamann

In this episode, I talk with my girlfriend, Maia Hamann, about how she teaches her young students to compose music. She explains her strategy of breaking music down into individual elements, something all composers could benefit from. Maia also shares tips on composing for bassoon. And we get to hear about her unique experience studying Somali music.

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