Thomas Dale students orchestrate Rock 4 Life benefit concert

Jonathan Warren, a junior at Thomas Dale High School's Specialty Center for the Arts, was inspired by the song "Viva La Vida" during a Coldplay concert.

"I listened to it for months and months," he said.

Warren, who plays violin, took that inspiration and arranged the rock song for the school's 60-piece orchestra, and he's also conducting it tonight at the hunger-benefit Rock 4 Life concert.

"It's a rush," he said Wednesday night during a rehearsal. "I'm honored that [orchestra director Christopher Johnson] let me conduct."

Warren's piece sets the tone for the modern music arrangements being performed by the school's orchestra, 30 choir members and the Richmond acoustic rock band Offering.

Warren also represents how students have taken charge of this project to inspire people to get involved in preventing hunger.

This is the third year that students have organized Rock 4 Life, with the proceeds going to cancer and AIDS causes the past two years. This year's concert benefits local food banks. Organizers hope to beat the $5,000 they raised last year; they also have collected 1,000 pounds of canned goods.

"It's great to see the kids being passionate about someone they don't know," said Jeanine Guidry, a member of Offering who is singing at the concert.

As of Wednesday night, the students had sold 400 tickets. The school's auditorium seats close to 800 people.

"For every dollar given to the food bank, it can provide five meals," he said. "Our tickets cost $10. That's 50 meals right there."

Students took charge of the poster and T-shirt designs to advertise the concert. And being technology-savvy, students advertised Rock 4 Life through Twitter, blogs, YouTube videos, podcasts and a Facebook page.

T. J. Kipp, a 10th-grader who plays bass and who was in charge of designing the posters and T-shirts with Warren, said all students have worked together to make the concert come together.

"Most kids here are very helpful," he said. "If you ask them to do something, they do it. No ifs or ands or buts."

Rebecca Disney, a senior violinist, put together five videos with pictures and facts about hunger for YouTube. "They're put together in a way that's very heart-wrenching," she said.

Maya Earls, a sophomore who plays the violin, made a YouTube video about fasting for a day.

"It was definitely hard," she says on the video near the end of her fast. "And I still can't believe it that there are people around the world who can't eat for two or three days at a time."

Christine "Fifi" Adler is the first freshman in the orchestra to create a music arrangement to perform, Guidry said. That means adapting the music piece for the violins, cellos, violas and basses in the 60-member orchestra and writing harmonies for her singing, she said.

"That is an immense amount of work," but she wanted the students to go through the exercise, Guidry said.

"It's the process that makes it worthwhile."