Live Oak grad Robert Alexander will be attending USC
By Staff Report
Robert Alexander composed “As the Tree Grows…”
Audience members of the South Valley Symphony’s season-closing Music at the Mission concert were witness to the debut of a musical piece titled “As the Tree Grows…” composed by 18-year-old Live Oak High School senior Robert Alexander to celebrate the symphony’s 40th year anniversary. The May 11 “A Ruby Celebration” concert was performed at the Mission San Juan Bautista.
Always looking for ways to mentor and nurture aspiring young musicians, when the symphony’s Music Director Tony Quartuccio learned of Alexander’s composition talent through orchestra member Martin Groen, he was impressed enough to set up a meeting with the graduating student to have a piece specially commissioned for the final concert of the symphony season.
“It’s an incredible undertaking,” Quartuccio said. “The piece is mature. It’s fully orchestrated, totally professional in its execution. What impresses me the most is the professional approach that this young man has and his knowledge of the instruments and the orchestration.”
“He’s got an intuitive sense of a sound, and then he knows how to use the instruments to make it happen,” Quartuccio said. “Unbelievable! Unbelievable!”
Alexander will study music at the University of Southern California. At Live Oak, he plays saxophone in several bands and served as drum major for the marching band in 2013.
The Morgan Hill resident realized his passion for music when it first occurred to him that a person had to write out notes for an orchestra to play for concerts and movies, he said. “Maestro John Williams’s score for ‘Star Wars’ was the main catalyst that brought this epiphany about and this passion for composing has held fast,” he said.
In June 2013, the Interlochen Center for the Arts chose Alexander as the winner of its inaugural Interlochen Summer Arts Camp Fanfare Competition for the world premiere of his piece “Sparks” performed by the World Youth Wind Symphony. He has entered into the Santa Clara County Band Directors’ Association Composition Competition twice and participated with the county’s honor band in 2013 as well as a member of the California Band Directors’ Association all-state honor band in 2012.
At the Ruby Celebration concert, the audience also heard Handel’s “Music for the Royal Fireworks” and the Tchaikovsky’s crowd-pleaser “1812 Overture.”
