Shelby Cornell’s screen name is “I can kick higher” spelled phonetically.

The Weston Ranch High School freshman has done just that. One of her poems has been set to music and recorded by no less than Chris Brubeck, an artist who first distinguished himself as a jazz musician performing and recording with his father, the legendary Dave Brubeck.

Chris Brubeck will be making a special appearance at the annual Family Concert Series in Manteca on Saturday, March 17, at Calvary Community Church starting at 1 p.m., presented by the Stockton Symphony. At this concert, “Music is my Getaway,” the song featuring the 14-year-old’s poetry will have another opportunity to be heard by a bigger audience. The song will be sung by Yvette Couvson, a vocal performance major at the University of the Pacific, who also sang it during a special performance by Chris Brubeck himself along with his jazz group at Weston Ranch High School in October.

Couvson sang it again at the Symphony Comes to Manteca’s annual fund-raiser, “An Evening With the Maestro” hosted by Delicato Winery in February featuring the Stockton Symphony’s music director and conductor Peter Jaffe.

Symphony challenges

students of six counties

Cornell’s poetry came to the attention of Chris Brubeck via the Stockton Symphony.

Back in the fall of 2006, the Symphony held a Music Alive Program.

“The Symphony challenged the students of six county high schools to write essays that describe ‘how does music make you feel?’ Our goal was to find a way to engage high school students and let them learn a little bit about a composer’s process,” explained Megan E. Rafferty, education coordinator of the Stockton Symphony Association.

Brian Marshall, Weston Ranch High’s music teacher and choir director, said he gave this as an assignment to his students in September.

“They wrote poetry and prose about their feelings about music or theater or dance and I submitted them to the Stockton Symphony,” Marshall said.

“The entire class participated but hers was the only one chosen to be set to music from our high school,” he said of Cornell’s entry.

Rafferty said Brubeck “read through all of the writings of the high school students and picked the most meaningful poems and essays.”

Brubeck then took those selected pieces and put them to music.

In October, Jaffe and Brubeck put together a jazz group comprised of two fellows from the Brubeck Institute, Lucas Pino and Glen Zaleski, both sophomores, along with Brian Kendrick and Ken Cephalo.

The group performed the six music pieces - one from each of the six county high schools - at each of the six campuses during which each student, whose work was picked to be put into music by Brubeck, was recognized.

“I think the good thing about this is it shows the kids the part that they can play in music composition,” said Marshall who is planning to bring his elementary students at Joseph Widmer, Jr. School to the Family Concert Series at Calvary Community Church.

Marshall said he is not taking any credit for the special honor earned by Cornell, saying his wife Lisa should “probably take more credit” for it.

His wife, who is currently on maternity leave, was Cornell’s Language Arts teacher at August Knodt Elementary School.

Cornell concurs with her music teacher.

“She helped me with my writing skills, and in eighth grade we did a poetry folder,” she said recalling what she learned from her eighth-grade Language Arts teacher.

Cornell, of course, did not need much prodding when it came to expressing herself through writing.

“I’ve been writing poetry since I was younger. I’d like to be a poet (someday),” said Cornell whose parents, Tom and Denise, own All-Steel Fence in Lathrop.

Her career goal though is to become a fashion designer and hopes to take that as a major in college.

She is still on cloud nine for having her poem used as the lyrics to a recorded song. She only had one copy of the poem and that was the one she submitted.

“But I have a copy of the CD,” she said of the song recorded by Brubeck and his jazz group.

“He used most of my words, but he added some things here and there to make it more like a song,” the young lyricist said.

“I was so excited I was smiling the whole time,” Cornell added recalling the time Brubeck and his jazz group performed her work at her school.

By ROSE ALBANO RISSO

Staff reporter of the

Manteca (Calif.) Bulletin