This is a piece for orchestra I wrote back in the second half of high school (2004 approximately). Back then I was in this sort of Disney/John Williams/Aram Khatchaturian phase. Looking back at this from a much more advanced perspective I can clearly see the influences of these composers.

This piece I wrote for Lil' Lightning from 101 Dalmatians 2 because I thought he was a fun and cute character that deserved more attention, so I wrote him this John Williams style theme.

This is the second of two orchestra pieces from high school that I'm uploading. I went through a timeline of my music, and started from my most recent pieces back down to the earliest ones I still have saved. My pieces still go back further but there comes a point where they're so bad they're just not worth it anymore. However, these two pieces that I am uploading have a lot of value to my life that I only just now began to realize. Normally I'd look at this and sort of accept the fact that it was a step in my development to become a composer, and that this piece is no longer any good for anything but a stepping stone to where I am now, but there is something striking I didn't realize.

This music was sort of my escape from my life in high school, which was one of the darkest times of my life. Without getting into too much detail, I was on a path that would have led me to become another street criminal in LA. I was with the wrong crowd, I did not have my values set, and was an angry and troublesome teen. Around the third year of high school, the school concert band hired a new director who really made us sound good, and thanks to this professor as well as support from my French professor, and my elders who turned me toward my culture, I started to turn away from drugs and being a wannabe gangster. I also took on composing. My time spent composing music like this was time I was not spending on the streets, which helped me to improve my life. This music was also a real escape for me, because turning away from everything I was would not be easy socially. I would still continue to be ridiculed and from time to time pushed around and beaten by those who were formerly my fellow wannabe gang brothers. While I look at this now and can laugh at it, at the time, writing music like this was a way to imagine a place that didn't exist in my world, a safe haven full of cute animals who would support me in this transition. This is why this piece is relevant to my life, and now I can see it. I now have many friends to rely on, and my teachers, my elders, and many support groups I have gained along the way. My music has sort of inverted itself, and now that things have gotten better for me, I write music about the difficulties of that past lifestyle. I see this positively, its the story of my life, and I was writing it without even realizing it. Enjoy everyone!

Instrumentation:
3 Flutes
3 Oboes
3 Clarinets
3 Bassons

4 Horns
3 Trumpets
3 Trombones
1 Tuba

Timpani

Percussion: Bass Drum, Crash Cymbals, Suspended Cymbal, Snare Drum, Bells, Vibraphone, Chimes

Harp

Violins I
Violins II
Violas
Cellos
Contrabasses