Article 5

Hollywood Comes to San Marcos

Movie Music Made for Middle School

By Heather Petrek, Arts & Education Editor

Photography by Dan Clement

For more of Dan’s photos visit his website

www.clearfocusphotography.com

What do you get when you cross the musical talents of a Hollywood composer with the insightful teaching of an experienced conductor? The answer is a band full of lucky middle school students. The Golden Eagle Advanced Band at San Elijo Middle School is comprised of 102 seventh and eighth graders under the direction of Charlie McGhee, who has been teaching music in the San Marcos School District for 12 years. McGhee’s students have won numerous awards at competitions in the southern California region. Thanks to parental support and the dedication of the Band Booster organization that coordinates fundraising events and donations, the program has been growing since McGhee began teaching at San Elijo Middle upon its opening four years ago. San Elijo Bands offer students the benefit of not only learning the language of music, but unique opportunities that transcend traditional musical instruction.

This school year, Mr. McGhee’s Golden Eagle Band will learn and perform Starship Troopers II, a piece by Hollywood composer William Stromberg, from the action/horror film of the same name, originally released in 2005. A composer with credentials too lengthy to list, Stromberg’s accomplishments include Trinity and Beyond, Peter Kuran’s Academy Award winning documentary, and Other Voices starring Rob Morrow, Peter Gallagher, and Campbell Scott.

Stromberg and his colleague, John Morgan, a film composer and score re-constructionist with whom Stromberg studied composition in his earlier years, reconstruct and record the works of composers Max Steiner and Erich Wolfgang Korngold, among others. Their recording of Steiner’s score for King Kong was one of the best top ten soundtrack releases of 1999, and their work on Korngold’s score to The Adventures of Robin Hood was nominated for a 2004 Grammy Award.

Stromberg has conducted for film soundtracks Legally Blonde, Slums of Beverly Hills, Gun Shy, Election, Nurse Betty, and Someone Like You. Stromberg also composed and orchestrated music for Steven Spielberg’s Tiny Toon Adventures, and Batman: The Animated Series, and orchestrated and conducted for the hit TV show Northern Exposure.

Stromberg, his wife, Anna Bonn, and John Morgan have recently launched Tribute Film Classics, a business devoted to recording classic film scores from the past. See the company’s myspace page at http://www.myspace.com/httpwwwmyspacecomwilliamstromberg.

Stromberg was introduced to McGhee’s students through the Band Boosters’ secretary, Dina Newcomb, a former high school classmate of Stromberg’s. At a recent reunion event, Newcomb and Stromberg launched the idea of configuring Starship Troopers II into a piece of music San Elijo band could play. Over several weeks of collaboration with McGhee through email, Stromberg revised the musical score. “It was originally composed for a full symphony orchestra, so I created a template of simpler ranges to accommodate younger musicians,” says Stromberg. “The music is a march, but there’s a section where the bugs are destroying the humans in the movie. That part is rambunctious and I thought it would be fun for the kids to play some of the actual battle music.”

McGhee rehearses the piece in class regularly and has invited Stromberg to visit San Elijo’s band room in April to conduct. The students will perform Starship Troopers II at their annual spring concert at the California Center for the Arts, Escondido, on June 4th, 2008.

Bringing exceptional and extraordinary educational experiences into his classroom is standard practice for McGhee. A few years ago, David Maslanka, a present day classical composer, visited San Elijo’s band students as they were rehearsing his composition, Rollo Takes a Walk. “Having Maslanka conduct my band brought them closer to the music they were playing,” says McGhee. “It makes an impact on the kids when I can link real life to the material we cover in class.”

Besides meeting and working with the special guests who share their talents with his students, McGhee’s bands experience back stage recording sessions at Disneyland, perform at important community events, and compete in Southern California School Band and Orchestra Association festivals each school year. Performing Starship Troopers II, a movie soundtrack commissioned specifically for San Elijo’s instrumentation by a sought after Hollywood composer like Stromberg, is a unique event that few middle school bands are privileged to participate in. A professional percussionist since the age of seventeen, McGhee imparts his love of music to his students with flair and natural creativity. “I try to reach the average student and turn his head around so he says, ‘I’m not just in band, I’m a musician.’ ” says McGhee. “I want music to be a positive and powerful part of my students’ lives.”

For information on William Stromberg see http://profile.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=user.viewprofile&friendid=176746873

For upcoming events and performances, or to make a tax-deductible donation to San Elijo Middle School’s band program visit: www.sanelijomusic.com SMM

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