Composer's Note

Reflections is the capstone of six months of musical creation, exploration, and innovation. Three rewrites, countless hours of frustration, and explosive creativity: the piece takes the listener through four years of étudian thinking, high school drama, competition, and the emotions relating to family stresses.

The first movement represents freshman year and the student attempting to understand and cope with the new world thrust upon them. As the second movement comes around, the student has an understanding of what is happening. The third movement, the student is growing, learning, and changing. The fourth movement, senior year, the student has new found stresses that they are pushing through. The fifth and final movement, Toccata, brings a close to the student’s trip through high school and the stresses of learning how to cope with life and understanding what is best for them and ending high school through a blaze of emotions. The combination of this will result in the listener reflecting on their experiences in school, and what they went through to grow.  

Performance

Click the Image Below to Listen to the Entire Symphony

About the Composer

Étude High School Senior, Caleb Klinzing, has been playing piano since he was 2 years old. Over time, he has added more instruments, genres, composition, and teaching music to his wide repertoire. For his final project as an Étude student, he wanted to do something big. To challenge himself. To share his passion with as many community members as possible. He wanted to "go out with a bang" as he graduates from Étude and begins his undergraduate studies in music performance and secondary education at Ripon College next fall.