Express the Music
Invite your students to engage with orchestral music in personal and meaningful ways. Through writing, visual art, or digital media, they’ll explore what the music sparks in them—and share their voices with the community. Selected works are published by the SLSO, celebrating student expression in all its forms.
Student work
During the 2025/26 pilot year of Express the Music, students at four area middle and high schools created works of creative writing or visual art inspired by SLSO Composer in Residence Kevin Puts’ piece, Contact, “The Call” (Mvt. 1). They were asked to create a self-portrait or write a Netflix-style recommendation in response to the music. The works below were selected through a juried exhibition process led by a diverse panel of musicians, artists, and community members.
Visual Art
Jade Chen
The Answer
9th grade, Parkway Central High School
My drawing is titled The Answer, inspired by the movement that I listened to, “The Call.” I drew myself alone, because the piece gave me a sense of solitude and peace. I was also inspired by Puts’ idea of the piece being a message to otherworldly beings, which I captured by drawing a spaceship.
Louisa Oberkrom
The Muted World
6th grade, Grand Center Arts Academy
In this art piece I feel that you could get lost in this song and its beauty. She is on the ceiling because the music feels like you are floating and like nothing else really matters. The shouting outside the door symbolizes how bad things can be around you, but music can save you temporarily from the real world.
Emelia Lake
A Sea of Emotions
9th grade, Parkway Central High School
I chose to represent my emotions through the ocean. While listening to Contact – Movement 1: “The Call” by Kevin Puts, my emotions brought me through the shining sun, bright sky, and calm ocean to the dark clouds, loud thunder, flashing lightning, and big crashing waves. The piece went back and forth between the glorious, calm sea and the intense, harsh storm.
Legend Evans
Rain at the Wrong Time
6th grade, Grand Center Arts Academy
I felt sad and I showed it by drawing a funeral and putting myself standing there sad in the rain. The reason why I did it was because when my aunt died I went silent for a long, long time and that song made me feel everything I felt when she passed.
Gwyneth Curran
Burning Revelry
12th grade, Hazelwood West High School
Rebirth and Death, Betrayal, Religious, Victorious, Somber, Calm, Grief, Relief, Tears, Doomed, Freedom, Win.
Lauren Bradford
Ye Smartia
8th grade, Grand Center Arts Academy
I felt mixed emotions while drawing so some of my ideas got erased. I felt in love but also scared of this feeling in a way my stomach twisted. The music gave me a wicked but lively feeling. My drawing represents my life turning into a romantic thought while I have a serious face about it because I am afraid of love.
Reagan Smith
Chromatic Emotions
9th grade, Parkway Central High School
The emotions I perceived through the music blended together, and I eventually associated them with different colors as shown with the music notes in the piece. Yellow would symbolize the brightness and mystery felt in the beginning which eventually faded to a more mysterious and somber mood which is symbolized by blue or purple.
Creative Writing
Julia Bucci
7th grade, Villa Duchesne
If you enjoyed the first movement of Kevin Puts’ Contact, you may also enjoy late night walks. To start, Kevin’s music is multidimensional and has deeper meaning, and for me, late night walks can put me in positions of thought and deeper self-reflection. Additionally, late night walks help clear the mind, and what I have experienced with Kevin’s music is the more you listen, the less you worry about problems in your life, allowing you to fully focus on the music. Similarly, just like music can make you fade into memories, late night walks also bring back delicate moments from the past. In the end, they both create a peaceful space where you can think, reflect, and reconnect with your memories. Will you go on walks when you need to reconnect with memories?
Janelle Stoll
7th grade, Villa Duchesne
If you enjoyed the first movement of Kevin Puts’ Contact, you may also enjoy taking a hike with your family. As you start your journey, you will feel at peace, grateful, and connected to your family. You walk through the wilderness, not hearing a single car. Your family starts talking and you’re all having a marvelous time. Even though you’re a little tired, you keep walking, embracing every step, listening close to what each bird sounds like. Then, you make it to the top. You and your whole family wrap your arms around each other, looking in the distance at the incredible, beautiful view. But then it’s a little bittersweet because you know that the memory must come to an end at some point. So, you make your journey down the mountain, grateful you have such a wonderful family.
Natasha Grant
11th grade, Hazelwood West High School
Contact – Movement 1: “The Call” by Kevin Puts is more than music; it’s a frantic, emotional sprint. It feels like the crucial moment in a thriller movie when a discovery is made, but a warning blares at the same time—a mix of awe and worry. The composition’s rapid strings and sudden brass are the equivalent of an epiphany that demands action. It reminds me of a sudden, brilliant thought in the middle of the night when you’re unable to sleep, forces you out of bed, heart pounding and convinced you’ve found the answer to something you haven’t stopped thinking about. Then, there’s a sudden feeling of dread, tragedy. The intense, unhinged music sounds almost as if tragedy has occurred. An adrenaline rush that captures the sense of the unknown, before returning to a serene bliss.
For a feel of serenity to tragedy, “The Call” by Kevin Puts is the best listen. : )
Cadence Mackey
7th grade, Villa Duchesne
If you enjoyed the first movement of Kevin Puts’ Contact, you may also enjoy praying. I walk into a quiet church, few people in sight. I kneel and feel the holy presence wash over me. I am calm, collected, and home. I see familiar faces praying as well. I feel God telling me that it will be okay and that He will fulfill His promises. I know no matter the prayer’s potential, there is nothing God cannot solve. I feel happy that I have such a close relationship with God. I feel joy fly through the air, winding through everyone’s prayers. My focus becomes weaker—but it strengthens again. I think of the intentions in my heart. I feel protected from evil, but outside-world thoughts linger, triggering my curiosity and distracting me. I lose my focus. I’m suddenly thinking about other things. Then, I catch myself and realize what my mind is doing. I need to get back on track. Finally, I reengage my prayer.
Jayla Young
7th grade, Grand Center Arts Academy
If you enjoyed the first movement of Kevin Puts’ Contact, then you may also enjoy stargazing or watching movies snuggled up with a loved one on the couch. This classical piece of music includes strong and soft instruments such as piano, violin, harp, triangles, drums, and oh so much more! If you like classical or strong music to help focus, this is the right music for you. Music like this brings a smile to anyone’s face or makes an old married couple dance and kiss in front of their grandkids that roll their eyes and scoff or gag. Clean your house with this music in the background. Now as you listen to this, make a drum set with pots and pans, sleep under the stars with a soft smile on your face, or even play your new song on the drums with your small band in your dad’s garage, and have a good night.
Vinothan Rengaram
9th grade, Parkway Central High School
If Kevin Puts’ Contact – Movement 1: “The Call” left you feeling lifted, curious, and a little awestruck, then you’ll love the emotional world of John Williams’ Home Alone theme.
Just like Puts builds a sense of anticipation and wonder, the Home Alone theme hits that same place in your chest. That feeling of stepping into something bigger than you, where excitement and nostalgia mix together. When I listened to “The Call,” it reminded me of the first time I watched Home Alone as a kid during winter break. That same rush of emotion came back. The sparkle, the mystery, the sense that something magical is about to happen.
If you want music that gives you that same warm, cinematic, “anything is possible” energy, this is the perfect next listen for you.
A Message for Your Students
In this short video, Composer in Residence Kevin Puts shares what inspired him to compose Contact and encourages students to use the arts to express themselves.
SLSO education programs are presented by:
