Antheil Elementary School’s fifth grade assembled for a photo on June 23, 2014 in advance of their June 4 end of year concert. All student in the fifth grade — about 120 total — will perform in the show. (Staff photo by Bill Sanservino.)
The Antheil 5th grade choir is working with composer Hank Fellows on songs for its June 4 concert. Antheil Elementary School 5th grade chorus collaborates with composer Hank Fellows By Scott Morgan Once in a while, two creative people meet at random and form a certain kind of bond. You know — that click people talk about whenever things go right, right from the get-go. It happened like that for Anita Davidson and Hank Fellows, and although they share a whole lot of kids, don’t get the wrong idea. This is a creative friendship story, not a romance story; a story of mutual professional respect and admiration between music teacher and musical composer. Davidson will lead her 5th grade singers from Antheil Elementary School through a concert featuring Fellows’ music on June 4 at 7 p.m., at the school. She will get a little help from Westminster Choir College student teachers Jamison Barrett and Julia Carter, who are helping the children learn about music and work on their technique. The show itself will feature a mix of American folk songs and a few sung in Spanish, in addition to the three pieces by Fellows. The show is the latest incarnation of the teacher-composer friendship that started, of all places, at a Holocaust symposium. About five years ago, Davidson attended a Holocaust teacher education event that featured a vocal piece written by Fellows called “6,000,000.” The piece is a reflection on the Holocaust, as well as more recent examples of genocide around the world that was first performed at the State House in 2006. Davidson, who first heard the piece in Northern New Jersey, was floored. “I went up to him afterwards and told him I would really like my church choir to sing it,” she said. “And my kids.” Davidson, in addition to her role as the music teacher at Antheil, is the choir director at Bridgewater United Methodist Church. And her interest in having her church choir and her school vocalists sing “6,000,000” came as no surprise to Fellows, who said that much of his contemporary work appeals to churches, schools, and community groups for their inspirational nature. A trust and estates lawyer by day, Fellow was born and raised in New York City, where he still lives and still finds inspiration for his music everywhere from the streets to the subways. Back in the 1960s and ’70s, “I was kind of folky,” Fellows said. He later wrote musical revues including, An Open Stage,” “Crosstown Rhythms” and “Late City Express,” which were performed at Lincoln Center and at leading New York City cabarets. These musical revues also brought Fellows professional recognition in the form of four Popular Music Awards from the American Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers. He also received a Special Achievement Award from the Unisong International Song Contest. As the years passed, though, Fellow’s dream of hearing his songs performed across America started to fade. “I had given it my best shot,” he said, “but I guess I wasn’t destined to be the next Irving Berlin.” Then came Sept. 11, 2001. Fellows was living in Guttenberg, across the Hudson River, and was an eyewitness to the immediate aftermath of the destruction of the World Trade Center. Searching for a way to express his sorrow, Fellows turned back to songwriting and wrote “The Spirit of America,” a love song to his grief-stricken country. His song “Halfway to Heaven” followed soon after, as Fellows tried to comprehend the terrible loss of innocent lives. “Halfway to Heaven” was first performed at the Bronx County Courthouse on Sept. 11, 2003 at a memorial service honoring the 143 residents of Bronx, who died in the Twin Towers on 9-11-01. “After the performance,” says Hank, “9/11 family members came over to me. We all hugged and cried together.” Since that first performance, his songs have been performed all across America. In addition, his 9/11 songs have been performed at official ceremonies in all five boroughs of New York City, as well as at ceremonies in Shanksville, Pennsylvania, and in Arlington, Virginia. Fellows also has written a 9/11 children’s book, “
”, which introduces elementary and middle school children to the issues and themes surrounding the terrorist attacks. The book is currently part of the New Jersey state-wide curriculum on 9/11 education, and the state Department of Education has created 9-11 teacher lesson plans for grades 3-5, 4-6, and 6-8 based on the book. Today, Fellows says he has the luxury of writing songs that he loves to write. “I want to write about friendships and overcoming obstacles. It’s a more gentle message,” he said. It’s the kind of message that — no pun intended — strikes exactly the right chord for a choir director who’s also charged with shaping young minds. Davidson said she wanted to give the kids something a lot of choirs never get, which is the chance to play a piece for the person who wrote it and learn about the creative process. “I didn’t just want to give the kids one genre of music,” Davidson said. “I want them to hear everything.” The mix of songs for the June 4 concert, she said, will be a bit of a grab bag. Certainly, “6,000,000” is a more longing piece than some of the snappier upbeat tunes the kids will do. And the mix will keep the young singers on their toes, as it were. These kids, by the way, are no strangers to performance or challenging musical sets. Davidson starts her mentoring while the kids are in kindergarten and immediately exposes them to as many styles of music as befit a group of elementary school students. By the time they get to fifth grade, the kids have a working knowledge of several musical genres from classical to contemporary that they get to show off in twice-yearly concerts like the one they’re prepping for. The eclecticism of it all mirrors Davidson’s personal taste for all types of music. “I go all over the place,” she said. “It depends on the mood I’m in. Some days I want nothing but opera; the next day it’s ‘don’t put on any opera.’” This year’s closing concert is a somewhat unusual affair. It’s one of the few times the kids will sing with a band backing them up. Davidson will play the keyboard and there will be a drummer, Bob Manger, and a swing bassist, Roni Sawin. Fellows will not conduct (he doesn’t really do that), but his presence, Davidson said, will give the kids yet another level of creative insight and growth that they’d not normally be able to get. Davidson herself started her musical sojourn at the ripe old age of 4, when she took piano lessons, and never looked back. She earned her bachelor’s in music education from the College of New Jersey, but didn’t get to do as much with music as she wanted. She was, she said, not one of the college kids lucky enough to have all her bills paid for her, and had to work. Her post-collegiate life, of course, has also been work, but she still manages to devote time to her church group and sing at weddings on the side. Whatever she’s doing, Fellows approves and gives Davidson his utmost respect as a professional. “I cannot praise Anita highly enough,” he said. “I’m glad I can sit down and write these songs, but you really need a gifted musical director to make them work.” The symbiosis between Davidson and Fellows lies in this mutual respect. Where as Davidson thinks Fellows is genuinely incredible, Fellows finds her one of those rare creative professionals who manage to work equally well with children and adults, plus one of the ones who manage to surprise him with his own music. “I have solo recordings [of my songs] on my website (americassongwriter.com), but I always find surprises when voices blend,” Fellows said. “I’ve been very lucky to work with professional people who can bring their gifts to the piece. I can sit and write, but without gifted people, it’s just sitting there on paper. Anita brings out the best.” Part of what he said works so well about Davidson, and why he is so looking forward to hearing her 5th graders (all 112 of them) sing his work, is that she is so good with people; that she sees the human connections in music, which he said “is a matter of the ear and the heart.” And part of what Davidson wants everyone to walk away with from the spring concert, adults and children alike, is a greater sense of what musicians actually do, she said. “I want them to see where the inspiration comes from. These songs don’t just come out of thin air. People don’t see that creative process unless they’re part of it, so I want them to have that.”
