TEMPE, AZ — Turning a child's wild imagination into a song is no easy task, but Addison Hill, a young composer at ASU’s School of Music, was up for the challenge.
“It’s like I want this to be theatrical and I think a lot of time with theatrical stuff, it ends up feeling very childlike,” said Addison.
Addison volunteered to collaborate with the Sing Me a Story Foundation, an organization giving a four-year-old cancer survivor named Mack the opportunity to write and illustrate a story about whatever he wanted.
“It’s about four people, their parents are gone, they’re on a rocket ship to Mars and all these crazy magical things keep happening,” described Addison.
Mack and his siblings devised a wild story called The Dinosaur Disaster. It's filled with adventures, potions, spells and of course dinosaurs. It was Addison’s job to turn it into a song.
“I hope that the hook stays in his head that if something crazy comes up, something hard and scary, in the back of his head he’s like well 'anything can happen at Mack's magical mansion', I can get through this,” said Addison.
Once Addison completed the composition from the story, it was handed over to the Arizona Conservatory of Art and Academics concert choir to bring to life.
“There’s barking that goes on and roaring that goes on and some really cool effects that they do vocally that wouldn’t normally be in a choral piece, just to amp up the fun factor,” said Adam Berger, the choir's artistic director.
He says next week, the group will have the opportunity to perform the song for Mack and his family inside the school's auditorium. A meaningful tribute to a courageous little boy they hope continues to fight, create and live his dreams.
“Kind of lift his spirits and make him feel happy and better,” said one choir member.
“It’s an incredible story for such an imaginative mind and I really hope we’re doing it justice,” said another.