Student wins PMEA composition contest

Graduation served as his inspiration

Garrett Hoffman has been writing songs since he was in elementary school. Next month, one of his compositions, which won a statewide contest, will be performed by a college choir.

The 18-year-old Bethel Park High School senior won the Pennsylvania Music Educators Association’s annual composition contest. His work, titled “Where Will I Go?” will be performed by the Lebanon Valley College Choir at the PMEA state conference, April 19-21 in Lancaster.

Garrett used the poem “Leaving” by children’s author and writing teacher Amy Ludwig VanDerwater of New York for the composition’s lyrics.

In sixth grade, Garrett wrote a Christmas medley called “Santa’s Rockin’ Holiday Mix” where he rearranged versions of popular Christmas songs like “Up on the Housetop.”

“That was the first thing I ever really wrote,” Garrett said. “I’ve always had an interest in creating things.”

Last year, Garrett composed a song called “Sea of Green” that he submitted to the PMEA composition contest. That song was performed by high school students during the Washington County Chorus Festival at Chartiers Houston High School last month.

Garrett said he knew he wanted to write a song about leaving since he is graduating high school in the spring. “I just Googled poems about leaving,” he said and found “Leaving.”

“This poem is very, very dark,” he said.

Garrett said composing takes a long time, and he credits his independent study class for allowing him to work on the composition. He said he wrote out a lot of the music with paper and pencil and used MuseScore, a composition software to complete the process, which took more than two months.

He found out he won the competition while returning home from district chorus at East Allegheny High School. Garrett said when he got in the car with his parents, Craig and Laura Hoffman, he sawthe email from PMEA.

“I’d like to say I was very mature about it, but there was a lot of screaming in the car,” said Garrett, who plans to attend next month’s performance in Lancaster.

After graduation, Garrett said he wants to attend college and study music education.

Garrett plays piano in his high school’s jazz ensemble and flute in concert band. He also performs in a barbershop quartet.