Henderson's own composer heard alongside the greats

Feb. 13—HENDERSON — The North Carolina Symphony stopped by McGregor Hall last Thursday to teach local kids about what makes music, music. Anthony Kelley, a composer who was born and raised in Henderson, attended the event.

Kelley hasn't lived in Henderson since the 1980s. He's visited family or friends on occasion — but he hadn't seen McGregor Hall until Thursday.

"I was excited to know about it," Kelley said. "It's quite beautiful, it's a pretty impressive place."

He was glad to be back in Henderson and noted that he took a selfie by its iconic clock tower.

"I do write music, that's right," Kelley said.

He started composing back in the 1980s at a boarding school, and began studying it more seriously by the time he was a junior at Duke University. In the course of his learning he studied under composers Olly Wilson, Thomas Oboe Lee, Stephen Jaffe and Robert Ward, a former student of the Dean of American Composers himself, Aaron Copeland.

One of Kelley's first exposures to classical music was a Copeland piece performed by none other than the N.C. Symphony at a performance in Vance County.

"In some ways, I'm a grand-student of Aaron Copeland," Kelley told the crowd.

In composing, Kelley draws upon the aforementioned composers as well as elements of pop and dance music.

Kelley's work includes a piano concerto called Africamerica, various works featured in films such as "Kudzu Vine" and "The Doll." Last Thursday, the NC Symphony performed the third movement of one of his orchestral pieces, "Spirituals of Liberation," to teach kids about texture, or the way melody and harmony are arranged to create a complete sound. He wrote the piece for the symphony for a Juneteenth celebration last year.

"The first movement would have been the work song, and it's kind of rigorous and tough," Kelley said. "The second movement is sort of a lament for the souls lost during slavery. And then [the third movement] is the emergence of freedom."

Now, he's a professor of music at Duke University, teaching alongside Jaffe.

"North Carolina Symphony, every year, does programs around the state for youth about instruments of the orchestra and exposing students to the orchestra," said Andrew Markoch, VCS director of physical education and fine arts.

He noted that it has become tradition for Vance County Schools to expose fourth graders to orchestral music so that they'll be ready for when they first pick up instruments in the next grade.

"So, it's a natural transition... Vance County Schools are strongly supportive of the arts and always have been," he said.

When asked about what value classical music has, he asked, "How much time do you have?"

"There is so much that triggers an adult's brain," Markoch said. "Kids recognize things in the music... There are more things that help students learn that get provided through musical stimulus than they could possibly imagine."

Jozette Broughton, an English Language Arts and social studies teacher at New Hope Elementary, said she "absolutely adored it."

"The exposure for our children is paramount," she continued. "To see them captivated by the different instruments..."

The kids being able to differentiate between instruments has real-world applications, she said. Three of her students "identified culturally with the music" and "enjoyed it, not liked it, they enjoyed it."

Another of her students spoke to Kelly before the show and felt inspired. Now she wants to be the "first Filipino pianist," Broughton said.

The NC Symphony played eight pieces on Thursday:

— Othello Suite, Op. 79, Dance by Samuel Coleridge-Taylor.

— Symphony No. 40 in G Minor, Molto allegro by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart.

— Symphony No. 6 in F Major, Allegro by Ludwig van Beethoven.

— Symphony No. 1, Afro-American Symphony, Scherzo by William Grant Still.

— "Farandole" from L'Arlesienne Suite, No. 2 by Georges Bizet.

— "Spirituals of Liberation" by Anthony Kelley.

— "Lift Every Voice and Sing" by Rosamond Johnson.

— "Conga del Fuego Nuevo" by Arturo Márquez.