Sikeston student speaks the language of music

SIKESTON -- For 16-year-old Jon Ginder, having his music heard by a crowd at his school's fall concert was a dream come true.

"That was the most amazing thing -- that people enjoyed what I had to express," Ginder said.

The Sikeston High School junior wrote "Autumn" over the summer, and when school started, he asked his teacher, Gay French, if it could be played at the fall concert.

"I told him, 'You get your players' and he asked the ones he wanted to perform it, and they've been practicing a little over a month," said French, who has been the Sikeston R-6 orchestra director and department chair for 22 years.

So Ginder gathered his peers - a quartet comprised of Eryn Pritchett, violist; Kelly Davis, cellist; Brittney Kelley, violinist; and Andrew Wallace, pianist. The students practiced at least once a week for about a month before the Oct. 16 concert.

Before the fall concert, Ginder said he was was extremely nervous.

"I wanted everything to be perfect -- and it went very well," Ginder said. The quartet members also agreed the night went well.

"It's pretty neat to play music one of my peers wrote because you see a different side to music," Pritchett said. "Usually when you think of composers, you think of old, boring people, and that's not the case with this."

French said she was impressed with Ginder's piece, which lasts four minutes and 34 seconds.

"Everybody was just astounded. They couldn't believe a kid could write something like that," French said.

"It is simple yet complex, and I did that by repeating a motif a lot and also included other things," Ginder said about his work.

One woman even approached Ginder after the concert, saying she had to check and make sure he wrote the music, he said.

Pritchett and Wallace said the song is a reflection of what's going on in Ginder's head.

"It was complex in a way but it was easy to understand," Pritchett said. Wallace said he was a bit skeptical about the piece at first, but once he heard the rest of the music, it seemed to fit together, he said.

"It's pretty sweet," Wallace said. "It's something different (playing for a friend)."

French said it's not unusual to have a student write something, but it's unusual to have somebody follow through with playing it, French said.

"Also, as well as it's constructed, that's unusual," French said. "It's a really nice piece of music. It sounds like the leaves falling."

French said she could only remember one other student, Bill Ed Huff, who composed a song for a concert years ago. He is a still a composer and a church musician today, she said.

"Jon is an exceptional student and at the top of his class but he's got these notes in him, and they just keep coming out. They've been coming out for a long time now."

When Ginder was in the sixth grade, he started teaching himself to write music through a computer program.

"My first (piece) was horrible because I had no idea what I was doing," Ginder said.

Ginder, who is the son of Billie and Jason Ginder of Sikeston, prefers conducting music over playing it.

"It's a lot less stressful to conduct," Ginder said. "With a small ensemble, there's a lot of pressure to not mess up."

Ideally, Ginder would make a career out of composing music, he said, but "it wouldn't put money in my pocket."

Ginder said he plans to double-major in psychology and music when he goes to college.

For now, composing music has become second nature to Ginder. Currently, he's working on a piano concerto, which has a very different style compared to the quartet he wrote. He added he would love for one of his pieces to be played at another concert.

"Music is a language and most can only hear and appreciate it," Ginder said. "But I can speak it."