Elliott’s Song is now available for download, with donations going to the family’s chosen beneficiary, Help the Hopeful.
The world premiere of the special composition took place on May 11 at the Walton Performing Arts Center, featuring young musicians from grades 4 through 12 at Marion Community Schools.
A recording of that performance is now available online from the Sing Me a Story Foundation.
MCS musicians perform the world premiere of Elliott's Song on May 11, 2024, at the Walton Performing Arts Center in Marion.
Elliott Winegardner, a kindergartner at Frances Slocum Elementary, with the assistance of his brother Kaden, a senior at Marion High School, submitted a story to Sing Me a Story. The opportunity was brought to the family’s attention by Elliot’s teacher Courtney Etherington, who had learned of it from McCulloch Junior High School choir director Christina Huff.
Jonathan New, a composition major at Indiana Wesleyan University, took on the commission from Sing Me a Story and created the song.
The music educators at Marion Community Schools then worked with their students to prepare for the special performance, part of the All-City Art Show weekend.
Elliott has spinal muscular atrophy (SMA), a genetic condition that affects the motor neurons, which are nerve cells in the spinal cord that control voluntary muscle movement. Because the muscles cannot respond to signals from the nerves, they atrophy, or weaken and shrink, from inactivity.
Help the Hopeful is a local organization that provides support to families of medically challenged children in Grant County, including to the Windegardner family.