All works below were composed/arranged, recorded, produced, and edited completely by the students.

Strings Composition​

Composed by Grade 10 Strings Student: Chelsea​

"I chose to make a stop-motion video titled “Alone?”. My video tells the story of an astronaut trapped in space. There she finds another lost soul, an astronaut. They are both human, and throughout the video, we see the two travel to see new things. But, an asteroid flying right past them throws the two off course. The astronaut must find their grounding in a place where there is none.  

I chose to do a stop-motion video because it is something of interest to me. I enjoyed creating my figures and laying out the project. The setting of the story is space, an unfamiliar and mysterious place to be. It is similar to today, where we are facing a pandemic. The world seems to fall apart just as the astronauts are stranded in space. During the pandemic, we have to find something or someone to bond with to make it by; that is what the purple astronaut depicts. When another wave, a loss family member or friend, hits us, it can throw us off course (the asteroid). And finally, the title of the piece is “Alone?”. It states whether we are alone or how we need to find some kind of stability."

Teacher: Daniela Gassi

Strings Composition 

Composed by Grade 12 Strings Student: Emily​

"Astellae was composed by Emily Choi when she was in grade 10 for the second ever Carter Creates Festival in 2019. It was originally a collaboration with the grade 10 Dance class at the time. Once the score was written it went through many revisions in collaboration with the Dancers to adapt to the students’ choreographic and musical needs.  It was a true fusion of the arts and it met with its first audience in the Cardinal Carter Theatre.   

When Covid hit, the students you see in this video here were among the first to learn the recording process as they started to record this piece one by one and then layered it with the help of Ms Gassi. This project continued into the summer of 2020. You will see Josephine on violin 1, Emily on violin 2, Justine on viola, and Ashley on cello.  

All four students are very excited to be sharing this performance in a virtual setting for the first Virtual Edition of Carter Creates.  Please enjoy!" 

Teacher: Daniela Gassi

Strings Composition​

"Avenoir" by Grade 11 Strings Students: Regina, Chloe, Emma

  "The theme of our composition is Avenoir: the desire that memories could flow backwards - more specifically, one’s childhood memories. For our composition, we decided to incorporate Asian elements, both musically and visually for aesthetic purposes. Moreover, we felt that the peaceful tone traditional Asian music carries would fit our theme. It would make the mood of our composition feel like a distant memory which one would want to experience again. Such is the life of a child, simple; with little thought, unforgettable, yet unattainable due to the reality of growing up and experiencing real life. We showed this by making the piece start off slow and steady, but as the piece progresses, it begins to pick up, the sound slightly melancholy - yet powerful. At the very beginning of our piece, we show an image of cherry blossoms reflecting in the water to introduce our title. We decided to show this as our introduction because cherry blossoms themselves represent a time of renewal, spring, and the fleeting nature of life - since their lifespan is very short, similar to the time of one’s childhood. 

The overall tonality of the piece is minor (A-minor). Throughout the piece, major pentatonic scales are heard which are commonly used in traditional Chinese music. In addition, the synthesized harp was used to emulate the guzheng in our piece using various chords, which is why the notes of the chords in our piece are not played all together in unison, but rolled, as if they would be plucked on a guzheng.     

 We also decided to incorporate a section of the piece to be played backwards (bar 29-32 is played backwards) which corresponds to and represents our theme of the desire that memories could flow backwards - where one could wish to go back to the simple life of a child. This segment of the piece also represents the flow of time itself, where time can flow either forwards or backwards - it solely depends on the perspective of the individual. The animations were done by Emma." 

Teacher: Daniela Gassi

Strings Composition​

Composed by The Major 6 - Massimo, Charles, Aryan, Marija, Anita, Ashley 

Grade 11 Strings Students

Teacher: Daniela Gassi

Strings Composition​

Composed by Grade 10 Strings Student: Timothy 

"My main inspiration for this piece were the negative mental health effects brought on by the Covid-19 quarantine. The piece starts and ends with a single, dispiriting, and unaccompanied melody to signify the loneliness many of us felt during the quarantine. There is also a repetition of a descending scale every so often that represents how many are forced to follow a constant schedule, as there is not much you can do in isolation. Another aspect I included in order to emphasize the feeling of loneliness during isolation was a suspense within the melodies. During the solemn melodies at the beginning and end of the piece, one lonely voice calls out but is not answered, leaving a long pause. ​

For the video aspect, I decided to represent the fact that we need to isolate ourselves from others during the pandemic by filming myself wandering around my empty street. Originally, I planned on going out to a larger area to film, such as a lake or a mall parking lot to express the emptiness, but obviously Covid guidelines became more strict, so I was not able to do that. However I was able to present my point in a different, yet similar way. In the video, I do not travel a large distance before eventually returning home. This was done to emphasize our confinement to our homes, thus being separated from the outside world." 

Teacher: Daniela Gassi

Strings Composition​

Composed by Grade 12 Strings Student: Lea​

"The idea of composing a sad piece came to me while I was listening to music while studying. The music was very slow and relaxing. It reminded me of a nature walk on a rainy day, and it gave me this idea. The main melody represents the girl walking in the rain, while the accompaniment represents the noise of the rain and other noises one might hear when taking a walk in nature. The only colour in the video is the umbrella. This is because it is the only thing that protects her from the rain, which represents sadness and unhappiness. At the end of the piece, the main melody comes back, but now the first violin and viola play it instead of just the first violin, and with slightly different accompaniment. In the last scene of the short film, the girl is overlooking the city. This represents the fact that the girl has now gained a new perspective on her life and those feelings of unhappiness, since she is looking at things from a different point of view."​

Teacher: Daniela Gassi

1st Place at Kiwanis Virtual Festival 2021 

Composed by Grade 9 Strings Students: Irene and Ella 

Strings Composition 

Teacher: Daniela Gassi

Composed by Thelonius Monk, 

Arranged by Grade 9 Strings Student: Evita​

"I did a blues arrangement of the song “Straight, no Chaser” by Thelonius Monk. Instead of playing it in the original swing feel, I decided to play it in a blues feel. My performance is six audio tracks in total. I programmed a drum beat to substitute for drums and I am playing accompanying chords on the piano. In one bass track, I am playing a background line to set the foundation. In the second bass track, I am playing the written melody of Thelonius Monk, and in another one, I arranged a harmony line. In the last track, I am playing a twenty four bar solo that I wrote over the chord changes.  

Thanks for listening.​

Teacher: Daniela Gassi

Strings Composition

Composed by Grade 11 Strings Student: Michael​

"When I wrote this piece, I thought of a bassline that I wanted to incorporate into the song: a repetitive figure consisting of six notes. When I played this line out loud, the repetitive and accented sound reminded me of the sound made by helicopter blades. This part of the song combined with the serious-sounding key of the piece made me think of a helicopter shakily flying through a thunderstorm, hence the name of the piece, "The Thunderhead". Also, special thanks to Aryan for playing cello on this arrangement! Please enjoy!" 

Teacher: Daniela Gassi

Strings Composition​

Composed by Grade 9 Strings Student: Melinda 

"I composed this originally for the creators workshop called “The Word” however I ended up using this composition for the ISP. I decided to use the word “time” as I felt that out of all the other words given to us, this was one that was more vocal and relatable. 

I gave this song more of a somber tone, representing the feelings one may have when wishing for time to pass. Being in a state of helplessness and feeling that the only thing you can do to alleviate the situation is to just wait it out. 

The narrative of this composition is the process of unleashing the frustration and anger bottled up for such a long time of having to pass time. 

I feel that everybody will encounter this phenomenon at some point in their life. An example would be the pandemic that is going on right now. Our lives have changed drastically from what they were before this situation. However, for now there’s nothing that we can do other than to wait. We’ve spent our time living like this for nearly a year, and there is bound to be feelings of frustration towards this virus for existing and taking so many opportunities and experiences away from us. But for now, we simply need to try our best to be patient and let time pass." 

Teacher: Daniela Gassi

Michael performs "Gigue" from Partita No. 3 by J.S. Bach