By Nicolas Henderson

Staff Writer

@happenstance98

Numerous students at Coppell High School take part in fine arts programs such as choir and band, many of whom have an array of musical skills, but one choir student is taking his abilities a step further.

Senior Matthew Thomas is not only a vital part of the choir program for his vocal talents but for his composition skills as well. He used this to his advantage and thought of a way to get his piece performed by his fellow classmates, and hopefully help him achieve his college goals.

“I’m applying to be a composition major in college and I need to get my pieces performed so that I can submit them for college,” Thomas said.

After proposing the idea, performing a piece titled “The Bird of the Wilderness”, is just what his fifth period choir class did last week.

“It wasn’t my idea [to perform the piece],” CHS choir director Josh Brown said. “He brought the piece to me along with a couple of others and asked if we could use one of them to record.”

Not only was this an exciting opportunity for Thomas, but for his fellow choir members as well.

“I remember last year that he told me he was composing a song that we might sing so I had been anticipating it since then,” senior Evana Flores said. “It was really cool to see the stages that went behind the composition and see them finalized in one piece.”

Although this particular piece was written for his choir class, composing vocal pieces is not his only area of writing expertise.

“I’m actually more of an instrumentalist,” Thomas said. “I just decided that a choir piece would be something different to do, and since

I’m in the choir I thought that Mr. Brown would be more likely to want to record it.”

While this is Thomas’ first choir piece to be performed, he is no stranger to composing and having people perform his own music. What is truly remarkable about his talents is that not only does he write the music, he conducts it.

“I recorded an orchestral piece at Booker T. Washington High School in Dallas earlier this year and [got the chance to watch] myself conduct the piece, and it was really cool,” Thomas said. “It’s one thing to write the piece and hear it, but it’s another thing to actually conduct it, which I also did with the choir piece.”

Though the main purpose of recording and performing the piece is to help get him into his college of choice, the University of Southern California where he hopes to pursue film scoring and eventually get a degree in composition, he also may very well get the chance to show off his work to CHS students at some point.

“The plan right now is to record [the piece] and see how that goes, and if it goes well then we may use it at an upcoming show, or maybe when we go on tour later this year,” Brown said.

Along with achieving his personal goals, Thomas’ work is also serving as an inspiration for his fellow choir students.

“The fact that our friend who is the same age as the rest of the choir composed it, it kind of shows the choir that we are capable of more than we think,” Flores added. “It’s really awesome to see a friend make full use of their talents.”

For now, only time will tell what is next for Thomas’ already successful musical career. Family and friends very well may see his name under songwriting credits for a film soundtrack in the near future.