Hadley Junior High Orchestra performs world premiere by Grammy Award-winning composer
Glen Ellyn Elementary District 41's Hadley Junior High Orchestra performed a world premiere piece at their spring orchestra concert entitled, "A Walk Through a Birch Forest."
This commissioned piece was written specifically for Hadley students by two-time Grammy Award winning record producer and composer Ian Fitchuk.
The Wheaton native has produced and written songs for multi Grammy Award winning country singer Kacey Musgraves. He joined the concert via Google Meets from Nashville, Tennessee, to celebrate this piece with the Glen Ellyn community.
The eighth-grade orchestra, under the direction of Hadley Orchestra director Georgia Alemis, prepared the piece with great enthusiasm for many months prior.
The guest conductor of this piece was Ian's father, John Fitchuk, retired orchestra director from Wheaton Warrenville North and South high schools.
At the concert, John Fitchuk explained to the audience that Ian's piece was inspired by John's memories, walking through the birch forest with his grandmother in Ukraine, observing the beautiful white birch trees, the colorful green grass and the endless bright blue skies.
This portrayed a vision of joy, tranquility and hope.
This piece was to commemorate the resilience of people fighting oppression and war, to see the bright light of hope and freedom.
In addition, this commissioned piece was written to promote peace throughout the world and to join together, as a united front for all mankind.
At the performance, Ian Fitchuk stated "I am honored and thankful that I was able to work on this special project; to work alongside my dad that I am super proud of. It was great getting to know Ms. Alemis, and all the excellent things that she is doing for the community and working with these young musicians. I am honored to be a part of this process; it has been such a fun journey."
This collaboration and commissioned piece was generously funded by the JCS Fund and Young People's Music Initiative Grant of DuPage Foundation.
DuPage Foundation is DuPage County's philanthropic leader.