We love when our fans are inspired by our work, so when a group of high schoolers orchestrated a live performance of the Audiomachine track “Ice of Phoenix” for their end of year performance, we were thrilled. The exceptionally talented Silver Creek High School orchestra in Longmont, Colorado even went as far as to create new lyrics for the choral element, having had none of the original translation to work from!

Wunderkind student, Gigi Notario spearheaded the effort and the arrangement after having discovered Audiomachine a few years back via YouTube. She said the idea stemmed from her love for instrumental and orchestral music. The decision to choose “Ice of Phoenix” grew from its level of difficulty, a challenge perfectly suited for the high school orchestra, choir, and band without too much rearrangement.

“The major hurdle we had to overcome while arranging this song was actually the choral part. For the string orchestra, I was able to pick out the individual parts pretty easily and when needed fill in gaps within the scope of the piece, and the brass and percussion were loud enough that it was clear where those parts belonged. However, for the choral part, we had no lyrics to work off of, so although we had the melody written, we needed something that would convey the meaning of the piece and work inside of the amazing ideas that were already there. Myself and our choir director worked together for a period of time developing lyrics in Latin that stayed true to the feel of the piece while imparting meaning on the piece. Translated into English, the lyrics roughly read: ‘Rise, rise life, eternal light / From the shadow shone a great sun, risen / In misery comes the fire bird! Tears fall on snowy ashes, yet darkness is cast out, broken / Light banishes darkness, from the embers, a bird.'”

Ultimately, the piece came together beautifully! Congratulations and our deep thanks to the entire group for this beautiful performance of “Ice of Phoenix.”