Conrad Crutchley, 10, of Fenton secretly composed music for a few years.
But, the fourth-grader’s talent for creating original piano pieces is no longer a secret.
Conrad took first place in the Elementary School Instrumental category in the University of Missouri’s annual Creating Original Music Project, which began in 2005.
A video of Conrad playing the song, titled “Infiltration,” will be shown during the COMP Festival online showcase that begins at 10:30 a.m. Saturday, April 24, on the University of Missouri School of Music’s YouTube channel and the Mizzou New Music Facebook page.
“My mom (Jennifer Crutchley) told me I won after she got an email,” Conrad said. “I made a high-pitched squeal.”
Conrad is not the only musician in the Crutchley household to be recognized for his musical endeavors.
Nathan Crutchley, 13, received an honorable mention in COMP’s Middle School Fine Art category for his work, “Dance with a Bandit.”
“This is the first song I have ever written,” said Nathan, a seventh-grader at Ridgewood Middle School. “I didn’t expect it to do well. I was excited that the first song I wrote got an honorable mention.”
Dr. Jacob Gotlib, director of COMP and the Mizzou New Music Initiative, said 69 musicians from across the state entered this year’s festival competition.
He said Conrad’s piece received good comments from the judges, who said, “Colorful use of non-diatonic tones and chromaticism,” and “At (the 50-second mark), the change in tone provides effective contrast to the opening section while still maintaining continuity,” as well as, “Great contrasting sections and use of different volumes.”
Hidden talent
Jennifer, 47, said she discovered her youngest child’s penchant for creating original music in 2020.
“For a few weeks when I would tell him he needed to sit down and practice piano, he would sit down and play some songs,” she said. “There was one song my husband (Jamie Crutchley, 46) and I assumed was from the lesson book, and I said, ‘Why don’t you play that song for me? I really like it.’ He was like, ‘What song?’
“It turns out he had created it. I said, ‘You wrote that song?’ He said, ‘I write songs all the time in my head.’ I was very surprised he had written this song.”
The song Conrad composed in 2020 is titled “Moon Crossing,” and with the help of Meramec Heights Elementary School music teacher Kathy Hann, he entered it into COMP.
Conrad earned an honorable mention in his age group in 2020, and he was inspired to submit another piece for this year’s contest.
“I figured I could do it better the second time,” said Conrad, who started taking piano lessons when he was 6 because he wanted to follow in his older brother’s footsteps.
Jennifer said Conrad, who takes piano lessons from Cynthia Graeler, has been home schooled this school year because of concerns about COVID-19. She said he plans to return to Meramec Heights Elementary for his fifth-grade year.
The song “Infiltration” was not directly inspired by the pandemic, but Conrad said the piece fits the mood of the past year because it starts out with a steady, jumpy beat, crescendos into an interlude and smooths out and then returns to a steady, jumpy beat before concluding in a higher octave to give the sense of triumphant victory.
“I wasn’t necessarily thinking of the pandemic when I wrote it, yet the intense nature of the song might be a musical way to describe how this past year felt for many people,” Conrad said.
Graeler said she helped Conrad arrange “Infiltration” and has been working with him on writing music so he and others can play his original compositions.
“He is a very creative musician,” said Graeler, who began working with Conrad near the start of the 2020-2021 school year. “Whenever he has a piece he likes, he automatically takes pieces of that and comes up with his own thing.”
Musical journeys
Jennifer said her father, David Condren, a big Blue Grass fan who can play nearly every stringed instrument, deserves part of the credit for her children’s musical talent.
“They have been exposed to a lot of music through my father,” she said.
Jennifer said she wanted to find a challenge for Nathan that would improve his motor skills, and he chose to play the piano, so she signed him up for lessons at Tower Music. The store at 360 Biltmore Drive in Fenton also is where Conrad first took piano lessons.
“The instructors at Tower Music are amazing, and they deserve a lot of credit for my kids’ interest in music,” Jennifer said. “Tower Music gave them a good foundation, and now they are ready to do other things.”
Nathan also has been playing the guitar over the past two years. He said he still plays the piano and is a member of Ridgewood Middle’s jazz band.
“By starting with the piano, I know about music, and now I’m just learning how to play on something different,” he said.
Jennifer said when her sons first started playing, she had to keep on them to practice and each day would set a 10-minute timer and tell them they had to practice for at least that much time.
After they became more proficient at the keys, the timer went by the way side, and now piano music is regularly heard throughout the Crutchley home.
“They will walk by a piano, play a song and walk away,” Jennifer said. “Then they will come back and play again. It went from you have to practice for 10 minutes to stop playing all of those songs.”
Inspiration
Conrad said he creates music to depict the stories he dreams up.
“It is like a movie in my head,” Conrad said. “I make a song to match it to the story.”
Conrad said his stories range from science fiction to medieval fantasy epics to tales about wizards or heists.
“I like to make stories in my head,” he said. “I have trouble putting them in words, but they are good in my imagination. I match the song with my stories. I want to make them books.”
Nathan said he was partially inspired to write his first song after his younger brother’s COMP honorable mention award.
“I couldn’t let him beat me,” Nathan joked.
Of course, Conrad did one-up his older brother with a first-place showing, but Nathan said he is proud of his brother.
“I like his music,” Nathan said. “It is very different than what I would do, but it sounds good. I am happy he won.”