Sarah Caleb and "Fanfare" Win Young Composers Contest

Sarah Caleb, a sophomore at Penn Charter and composer of "Fanfare in G Minor," is one of five winners of the 7th Annual Young Composers Project.

The project, a collaboration between the Philadelphia Classical Symphony and the Partners in Distance Learning Classroom Arts Project, is a multistate competition for junior and senior high school students.

This year's challenge: complete the web-based tutorial created by composer Dr. David Berlin called "How to Write a Fanfare," then, compose a fanfare for French horns, trumpets, trombones, tuba, timpani and percussion, with a maximum length of 90 seconds.

Sarah's 70-second fanfare will be performed by the Philadelphia Classical Symphony at its Brass Bonanza concert April 16, at 2 p.m., in the Philadelphia Cathedral, 3723 Chestnut St. The program, which is open to the public, features Sarah's "Fanfare," and the work of one other winning young composer.

Sarah worked on her 70-second piece for one month, writing out the music first by hand, and then on the musical notation program on her computer. Joe Fitzmartin, Penn Charter's choral director and music teacher, and Luis Prado, Sarah’s teacher at the Curtis Institute of Music, helped and encouraged her.