Endless Rainbows - Sundling Junior High

Описание: The Sundling Junior High School Band plays the world premier of "Endless Rainbows" by Brian Balmages.

Endless Rainbows

Sundling band students create musical memorial to late classmate during workshop with composer


Sad news awaited Walter R. Sundling Junior High students and staff when they arrived for the first day of classes this year. A tragic accident during a family reunion at Probst Pond near downstate Effingham had claimed one of their own--13-year-old Ben Stepp--the day before he was supposed to start the eighth grade.

Ben was an honor roll student at Sundling, and he played the trumpet in the school's symphonic band. His presence was so deeply missed by so many of his classmates and teachers that Jeff Zilke, Sundling's band director, commissioned composer Brian Balmages to work with the school's band, orchestra, and chorus students to create an original piece of music in Ben's memory.

Mr. Balmages visited Sundling on March 13, and led the students in a composition workshop in which they wrote and rehearsed their tribute to Ben, which they titled Endless Rainbows.



The title refers to the day of Ben's funeral, when a double rainbow appeared over Probst Pond.

Just a week after the piece's completion, Sundling's symphonic band staged the premiere performance of Endless Rainbows during Sundling's Eighth-Grade March Madness Concert. The piece will also be published by FJH Music Company and made available for purchase and performance by bands around the world later this fall.