It can be hard for a student to leave a legacy when they graduate from high school, but class of 2014 graduate Fred Harris has done just that as he composes his own music with current students, creating an ensemble to perform his works.

“I am very glad that I’ve left this legacy at the school,” Harris said. “I had actually created my own brass ensemble the year before I graduated. My secret goal when I created it was for it to continue after I was gone and I was overjoyed to hear that had succeeded.”

The students who formed the ensemble did so because they saw it as a chance for improvement.

“I started the ensemble because I love music,” senior Thomas Bowen said. “It was a great opportunity to explore an area of music I hadn’t yet, and so far it’s been a wonderful experience. I am more in tuned with other instruments and I feel as though this will make me a better musician than I am now.”

Other members joined the ensemble for a chance to play something different.

“I joined it to help my friend Thomas Bowen out,” sophomore Elizabeth Howell said. “The fact that my friend Fred wrote the music was definitely a swaying factor. So far the ensemble has been amazing. I am so used to marching and concert band but this allows me to work in a new setting with different people. Overall, it’s making me a better player.”

For the band directors, the formation of an ensemble looks promising.

“It is encouraging to see some of our students taking the time to learn and put together a brass ensemble outside their normal school schedule,” symphonic band director Daniel King said. “Playing music in a small ensemble setting, like a brass sextet, will further their development of the balance and intonation skills that we work on each day in class.”

The creation of the brass ensemble on campus is the first step towards Harris fulfilling his career ambitions.

“Having my music played will hopefully affect my long term goals because, in some multiple decades, I plan to professionally conduct my own creations,” Harris said.

The experience of having others pick up where he left off is part of what Harris loves about making music.

“I compose my own music because I find that there is no greater satisfaction than that obtained through immortalizing my own thoughts and emotions on the staff,” Harris said. “I find the knowledge that someone else can hear or experience who I am through my own creation thrilling.”