Young composer earns top scholarship honors

Hutchinson High School senior Paul Cravens may be the first local student to be a National Merit Scholarship finalist — at least no one in the district can recall another student going that far in the competition.

The scholarship will be an award of up to $1,000 for four years, which is on top of the $50,000 Presidential Distinction Award Cravens received from his college of choice, Concordia College in Moorhead. The college scholarship is given to only 50 incoming freshmen and pays a sizable portion of tuition, which made his parents, Forrest and Bobbi Cravens certainly happy.

“They were excited,” Paul Cravens said.

Cravens plans to study music composition while attending Concordia and that comes as no surprise to those who know him.

In another first, the high school senior has already tried his hand at composing a full band piece. And just in time. The Hutchinson High School symphonic band featured the piece, “Overture in Bb” at last night’s band concert. Band director Steve Pasche was handed the last two pages yesterday morning.

The more than 10-minute composition took the 18-year-old more than one month to finish — a little longer than the jazz piece he wrote in less than a week.

“It tends to favor the brass a lot,” said Cravens, who plays the trumpet. “And when you’re writing parts that aren’t in the melody, it’s hard to fit it in.”

For the full story, check out the Thursday, May 29 print edition of the Leader.

(Lesley Christianson is a staff writer for the Hutchinson Leader.)
christianson@hutchinsonleader.com