Student of Springfield Music Teacher Wins 1st Prize

Nancy Modell of Springfield has a very apt pupil in Ben Gelber.

The Cranford student nabbed the 2013 First Place Winner of the Eric Steiner Piano Composition Competition, sponsored by the Music Educators Association of New Jersey. Gelber performed his winning composition, Blancheur, at New Jersey City University on March 17 and received an honorarium for it.  Gelber is fifteen years old and attends Cranford High School.  

Modell, a certified Suzuki Method Instructor and a graduate of Ithaca College’s School of Music, instruted Gelber in piano for six years.

“Music Inspired by Nature” was the theme that Modell suggested to her piano students in the fall when she challenged them to compose their own pieces.  Blancheur was inspired by the “whiteness” of snow, and was composed over the course of a few wintry days.  

Last year, in response to Modell’s suggestion to write a composition inspired by art, Gelber rendered an original oil painting Swamp, and composed a piano piece with the same name as an aural companion to his visual artwork. 

In addition to piano and composition, Gelber enjoys playing electric bass and participates in the Men’s Chorus at Cranford High School.  

Gelber's interest in composition and digital music will be taking him to Summer College for High School Students at Ithaca College in Ithaca, New York, where he will learn about Digital Music Production using their state-of-the-art facility and equipment.

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