A West Virginia University alumnus and Emmy Award-winning composer drew on his reaction to the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks in writing a special score in honor of the WVU Marching Bands 100th birthday.
Jay Chattaway, best known for his music on the later Star Trek television series, has written From the Mountains for the nationally renowned”Pride of West Virginia.”The band will perform the piece at an official birthday celebration Saturday, Nov. 3, during halftime of WVU s Homecoming Game against Rutgers.
“What I have written is a blend of familiar West Virginia themes and strong new melodies,”said Chattaway, whose work was commissioned by the Kappa Kappa Psi band fraternity.”This piece was composed during the recent terrorist attacks, and I felt compelled to include some patriotic material as well.”
Its title was inspired by verse from Irving Berlins God Bless America, he added.
Chattaway has won an Emmy Award for his score on the final episode of Star Trek: Voyager. He has also composed music for Star Trek: The Next Generation, Star Trek: Deep Space Nine and 27 motion pictures.
He grew up in Monongahela, Pa., and earned his bachelors degree in music from WVU in 1968. He was a member of the band from 1964-68 and served as a graduate assistant in 1969. Drafted into the military while working on his graduate degree, he joined the Navy Band and served as the units chief arranger and composer-in-residence.
After his discharge from the Navy, Chattaway moved to New York and began writing music for recording artists such as Maynard Ferguson and Carly Simon. A growing interest in composing for film sent him to Los Angeles; his early scores were for
action-adventure films such as Missing in Action, Red Scorpion and Steven Kings Silver Bullet. He eventually moved into television, writing music for the Star Trek series and National Geographic programs.
He was inducted into WVU s Academy of Distinguished Alumni in 1994 and
earned his masters degree in music from the University in 1996.
Chattaway, who lives in Malibu, Calif., remembers his years at WVU as nurturing ones in which he was encouraged to pursue a musical career.
“The best part of my WVU experience was the fact that the faculty was open to
encouraging me to be a composer and actually performed my music,”he said.”I had great teachers and lots of individual attention and nurturing.”
The Homecoming Game festivities will be the highlight of a year-long observance of the bands 100th birthday, said John Hendricks, director.
“It is a great honor forThe Prideto be the first group of musicians to perform a new composition by an alumnus who has accomplished so much in the music industry,”Hendricks said.”That he is composing the piece specifically for the bands anniversary makes it all the more special.”
The WVU Marching Band formed in 1901 as an eight-man ROTC band and has grown over the years to its present size of more than 350 young men and women. In 1997, the unit gained national recognition when it was awarded the John Philip Sousa Foundations Sudler Trophy, considered the Heisman Trophy for marching bands.