Presents:
Music Composition Lab
presented in collaboration with:
Maestro Music
A 16-week course that invites students to explore the art of instrumental music composition. Participants will work with a professional composer to learn valuable skills, tips, and tricks to develop their own compositional voices. Alongside the development of their music writing skills, students will draw inspiration from poetry, making the course an exciting and unique multidisciplinary class not offered anywhere else in Denver. In the program, students will work towards writing a short instrumental piece of music for a chamber orchestra, and will have the chance to have their music performed by a professional chamber orchestra live in March of 2027. A second live performance will be presented in the spring of 2027 for all students who participant in the program.
Music Composition Course Program Details:
16-week course with weekly one-hour small group lessons.
Course schedule (all sessions are held from 5:30PM-6:30PM on Wednesdays):
September 16th (First session)
September 23rd
September 30th
October 7th
October 14th
October 21st
October 28th
November 4th
November 11th
November 18th
December 2nd
December 9th
December 16th
January 6th
January 13th
January 20th (Last session)
$320 tuition includes: group lessons with a professional composer and all necessary supplies.
Class is limited to 12 spots
Located at Maestro Music Arvada, 6478 Ward Rd, Arvada, CO 80004
Contact josh@augustanaarts.org for scholarship opportunities
Music Composition Lab
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The class explores the world of music composition. Your child will first learn how to write music like the great composers of our era and past eras via paper and pencil. Your child will learn how to write music for specific instruments, how to combine instruments to bring musical sounds and moods to life, as well as develop their composition skills via modern music notation software.
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The class will primarily focus on the art of writing for standard instruments heard in a chamber orchestra. This includes:
String family: Violin, viola, cello, bass
Woodwind family: flute, oboe, clarinet, bassoon
Brass family: Horn, trumpet, trombone, tuba
Percussion
Additional instruments: drumset and guitar
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Notation paper, pencil, music notation software and keyboards (for use in class).
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Augustana Arts and Maestro Music does not refund or re-schedule any classes that are missed or canceled. We only cancel classes in unavoidable situations, such as extreme weather or if an instructional substitute is unavailable.
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In March of 2027, a large scale music and poetry event entitled Body of Words will come to the Waymire Dome in Adams county. The event is a collaborative performance including the Stratus Chamber Orchestra (Augustana Arts), Adams county Poet Laureate Aerik Francis, and Adams County Cultural Arts. The event will feature all new music, some of which will be written by professional composers and student composers. Your child will have a chance to have their music performed by the orchestra! Selections will be made via artistic panel leading up to the performance date in early 2027.
About Music Encounters and Augustana Arts
Augustana Arts is a 501c3 nonprofit that presents accessible music programs to adults and children around Denver. Since the late 90’s, our Music Encounters program has brought instrument lessons into schools and community sites around Denver. Each year, our teachers log hundreds of hours in the classroom with classes focused on violin, ukulele or guitar.
About Maestro Music
Maestro Music Institute is a Colorado-based music school offering instrumental and voice lessons in both group, and private lesson settings. Students of all levels and abilities from early beginner to advanced are welcome! Numerous performance opportunities for our students are available throughout the year; nearly all are free events and students are encouraged to sign up for their interests. Our semi-annual recitals are a showcase of talent and an opportunity for our students to perform for their family and friends in a friendly, stress-free atmosphere. For students looking for more performance opportunities, we encourage and prepare them for numerous musical, choral, vocal solo, and instrumental solo competitions, school musicals, school choral competitions, and ensemble groups, with audition preparations and rehearsals for those events
Meet Tim Girard: Composer & Educator
Tim Girard received a B.M. in Composition from the University of Rhode Island in 2001, and between 2001 and 2011 he did a variety of teaching, performing, and composing. Tim taught drums, piano, guitar, and music theory at More Than Music in addition to other private lesson studios throughout Rhode Island, and for a year he was the Classical Percussion Instructor at the Community College of Rhode Island. Tim was the Drumline Instructor for the University of Rhode Island Marching Band for ten years and for two years he was the Percussion Instructor for the Franklin High School Marching Band and Percussion Ensemble. As a percussionist, Tim performed with the Thayer Symphony Orchestra, Atlantic Wind Symphony, Southeastern Massachusetts Wind Symphony, The American Band, Milford Concert Band, Symphony Pro Musica, Rhode Island Philharmonic Community Orchestra, Brown Wind Ensemble and Percussion Ensemble, and Wheaton College Wind Ensemble. Tim also played drum set for musicals at the Prout School, Johnson and Wales University, and Franklin High School, and he played drum set, keyboard, and guitar in various rock bands. As a composer, Tim was commissioned by the Ocean State Chamber Orchestra, the Ocean State Youth Orchestra, the Ocean State Music Collaborative, the URI Concert Band, and the Woonsocket High School Concert Band.
In 2011 Tim moved to Colorado to attend the University of Denver’s Lamont School of Music, and was a Graduate Teaching Assistant for Music Theory II, Aural Skills II, and Orchestration until he received his M.M. in Composition in 2013. Since graduating from DU, Tim has been teaching and composing, with an emphasis on film scoring. For two seasons, Tim was the Composer for Opera Colorado’s Page to Stage program, and for a year he was the Drumline Instructor for Castle View High School’s Marching Band and Indoor Drumline. Tim has had numerous orchestral works performed at the Lamont Symphony Orchestra’s New Music Concerts, and he has also composed music for podcasts, video games, and short films, including LEGO stop-motion animated films, the trailer for a Star Wars fan film, and most recently, a comic book superhero fan series. In September of 2022, Tim received an M.M. in Film Scoring from the Berklee College of Music. Tim’s music can be heard on his website (TheTimGirard.com) and YouTube channel. Currently, Tim tutors college students in music theory, aural skills, musicology, ethnomusicology, and music technology, and he teaches private studio lessons in guitar, ukulele, piano, drums, music theory, and songwriting/composition throughout Colorado at Maestro Music Institute (in Arvada), American Music School (in Lakewood), and Classical Tones (in Broomfield). Tim has written his own method books for snare drum, drum set, guitar, and ukulele which he uses as a part of his teaching curriculum in his lessons.