By Nicole Falco
When the 100-student choir isn't auditioning for the Mets, it's either rehearsing for the school's upcoming holiday concert, entering a competition or getting ready to debut a three-part choral piece with piano accompaniment that was written by an accomplished concert pianist specifically for the choir.
Jeffrey Biegel, a Lynbrook resident and pianist who has performed with the Boston Pops and around the world, was asked by the choir's director to compose a piece. Greg Hart, the choir's director, received a $300 grant, which he used to commission Biegel to write the original work. Biegel said he had heard the choir sing and was amazed at their ability.
"He had always wanted to write a piece for the Wheeler Concert Choir," Hart said of Biegel. "Why don't you write something...challenging. Something they can really sink their teeth into."
Biegel accepted the challenge. "It took just two days," Biegel said. "I think I was very inspired by the conductor, Greg Hart."
Though he had composed choral pieces without accompaniment - most recently a piece written with his son, Craig, titled, " The World In Our Hands" - Biegel had never written a three-part piece with piano accompaniment.
"It came very naturally, which I was happy about," Biegel said. "It was just a by chance kind of project to do...I'm thrilled that they are going to do it.
Biegel is used to being asked to debut the work of renowned composers, not being asked to compose a piece himself. The Julliard alum is looking forward to debuting a new composition by American composer Richard Danielpour and another by Lowell Liebermann.
"I'm really a concert pianist. It's not often a concert pianist would be asked to write a piece of music for a concert choir."
As soon as the holiday concerts are through, Hart, who has taught at the school five years, said the choir will begin rehearsing Biegel's "Hey, Ho, The Wind and the Rain."
"The piece is nice and challenging," Hart said. "It has a lot of mixed-meter, it changes a lot and has a nice blend between voice and piano."
The piece is based on William Shakespeare's play "Twelfth Night." The choir will premier the piece at the school's spring concert on April 29. Once the piece has had its debut, The Hal Leonard Corporation has already agreed to publish it.
"The piece will be etched in history in terms of music so the kids can stake claim to that," Hart said.
Between now and the debut, Hart said the choir will be working as hard as they usually do.
"If they give me 110 percent I'm proud of them," Hart said. "There are about 100 kids in the choir with 100 different instruments. To get them to sound like one is a pretty hard task, but they work hard for me."
Because students can choose choir, either band or orchestra and music theory, Wheeler students can receive as many as six hours of musical training at school each week, Hart said. Their musical training sometimes includes rehearsals before school.
"People are always asking us how we do it," Hart said. "I think it's the close communication in the [music] department that we have here."
To be eligible for the choir, a student must be in the fifth or sixth grade and must have spent at least one year as a member of the junior concert choir.
