This brick and stone arch shown in Calumet in 2007 is all that remains of the Italian Hall, where 73 people died on Christmas Eve in 1913 during a party for children of striking copper miners. On Dec. 30, a 10th anniversary read-through of “A Child’s Requiem” will be held at St. Paul’s Episcopal Church from 2-5 p.m. (AP file photo)

MARQUETTE — Music can be tied to memories — both wonderful and tragic.

One Upper Peninsula composer is memorialyzing a tragedy that changed the face of the Copper Country more than 100 years ago.

On Christmas Eve in 1913 in Calumet, a Christmas party was held on the second floor of the Italian Hall for the children of the families belonging to the Western Federation of Miners, many being recent immigrants to the country.

The event was meant to be a time of joy, as it was in the middle of the Copper Country strike of 1913-14. However, this joy was cut short when a man yelled “Fire!” causing a stampede that would leave 73 people dead, many children under the age of 10, on the stairs leading down to the street.

The man was never positively identified or made to pay for his actions.

The Italian Hall Disaster, over 100 years later, is now being remembered through Thomas LaVoy’s five-movement score, “A Child’s Requiem.”

According to LaVoy’s website, although the score follows the emotional journey of the victims and families involved, the work is not an exact historical account of the event.

“Instead, the music is informed by local history to give a context for the broader subject of the death of a child,” he said on his website. “From the beginning of the compositional process it has been our goal to elevate the victims out of the catastrophe itself, to celebrate them as human beings who once walked the earth and not as a statistic used to apportion blame.”

LaVoy was commissioned by the Marquette Symphony Orchestra over a decade ago to compose a piece on the Italian Hall Disaster.

He said given the historical context of what happened, he was intimidated when he first began composing the piece. As a Marquette native, LaVoy felt a personal connection to the story but wanted to avoid going in the direction of “disaster tourism.”

“I really wanted to stay away from that and do something very respectful of the victims of the Italian Hall Disaster. Not only because I’m from here but because I just think that’s a very important thing to do,” he said. “Not to drop in and write some dramatic work about this thing just to sort of make a splash. I felt a great deal of responsibility to do it in a way that was very respectful and honoring the dead.”

In a nonhistorical way, LaVoy said composing the piece was “incredible.”

When he first began composing the piece he was 21, and was 23 when the piece first premiered.

“It was a remarkable opportunity that I did not take lightly, and I still don’t,” LaVoy said.

But composing came with challenges. LaVoy said on an emotional level, writing was very difficult because of the historical context. His mother, local poet Esther Margaret Ayers, wrote the libretto and found it difficult on an emotional level as well.

“I remember waking up in the middle of the night from these horrible nightmares about being there at the actual disaster and being in a pile of bodies,” he said.

On a technical level, LaVoy said composing “A Child’s Requiem” was his first “real test” of his orchestration skills.

“So that was probably the most difficult thing, by far, was just sort of trial by fire learning these instruments and what they can do,” he said.

His favorite part about composing the piece was getting a grasp of “what it was going to be.”

The piece was originally only supposed to have five movements but was eventually expanded to seven. LaVoy said when he did “Brahms Requiem” with the Philadelphia Orchestra, it had a “huge impact.”

“When you have the core concept down for each movement and the full arc of the piece becomes apparent, it’s a really special moment and that’s kind of that over-the-(top) moment,” he said. “Through all the planning, you’re well into the running and now everything is downhill from there in a good way. Downhill in terms of finishing the piece.”

GlenEllen Lehmberg, one of the original Marquette Senior High School Chorale members who sang in the 2013 premiere, said singing it felt “surreal.”

“Especially because it’s a seven-movement work and it has 906 measures, which is truly special because 906 is the telephone area code for the Upper Peninsula,” she said. “And I just thought that was a really neat coincidence and just diving into the music was special because an alum of the choir that I was in wrote in and taught it to us, which made it all the more special.”

She said the premise of the work itself was a challenge she faced when preparing for the 2013 premiere.

“The fact that so many children had passed away in the disaster broke everyone’s heart,” Lehmberg said. “It made us want to do our very best work to ensure that we did our very best work, performed the work to the very best of our ability.”

Now, a decade later, LaVoy and Lehmberg will join other original chorale members and community members in a read-through of “A Child’s Requiem” on Saturday, Dec. 30.

The event is open to the public with the option to listen or participate in the readthrough at St. Paul’s Episcopal Church from 2-5 p.m. Those interested in participating will have until Dec. 15 to purchase a vocal score.

A vocal score is mandatory for those wishing to sing and costs $20. Those interested in listening or observing do not have to purchase a score.

The vocal score can be purchased online at thomaslavoy.com/scores/requiem.

For more information, visit thomaslavoy.com/a-childs-requiem.