A Sharon High School junior who is in the running for a national music composition award will premiere the piece publicly at a concert Sunday.

James Vasconi's "Flights of Fancy," a piano piece for four hands that he plays with Lauren Palmer, a West Middlesex eighth-grader, won second place in the state Junior Composers Contest sponsored by the National Federation of Music Clubs.

That placement sent the piece to the Northeast regional competition, where it won the Ruth M. Geiger Award.

"Flights of Fancy" now is being considered at a national level among the winners from the five regions.

"I was just tickled that he won that," said Lois Tamplin, a member of Sharon Music Club. "He's been writing music for a lot of years."

His piece, "Toccata," was the National Guild of Piano Teachers Award winner in the 2003 International Piano Composition Contest.

James, 17, said he started taking piano lessons at age 9, and after about a year people started telling him he had talent for it.

Within about two or three years, he was starting to write his own pieces.

"I just pick things out and write them down," he said Thursday after playing for an adjudicator at the non-competitive National Piano Guild auditions at St. John's Episcopal Church, Sharon.

"Flights of Fancy" was his first attempt at writing a duet.

"It's a lot longer and has many more measures than anything I've done," he said of the four-minute piece. "A lot of the sounds and chord progressions are similar to concert band music I've played."

"It's very good, very energetic," said his piano teacher of about seven years, Paula Kubik of West Middlesex. "It sounds like it might be the background for a 'Harry Potter' movie."

James, who has enormous hands typical of many world-class pianists, said he and Lauren worked well together when they started rehearsing the piece. "There were a lot of things that needed to be worked out, but it turned out pretty well from the paper to the hands."

James, the son of William and Dixie Vasconi, said he tries to practice the piano for an hour a day, but also sets aside an hour for the French horn, the oboe and the organ.

He has substituted for Ms. Kubik on the organ at St. John's church services, and is a member of his high school marching, concert and jazz bands and orchestra.

James said he is looking into studying music education in college.

Ms. Tamplin, who accompanied James to a scholarship competition last summer, said she is amazed at his poise. "I don't know if he ever gets nervous, but he never shows it," she said.

"If I'm well-prepared, I don't get nervous," he said.

But James admitted he probably will have a few butterflies when he plays "Flights of Fancy" Sunday. "It will be an interesting first-time experience, but I don't think it will be different from any other piece," he said.

Sunday's concert, which will feature more than 20 other area piano students, will start at 7 p.m. in Orr Auditorium, Westminster College, New Wilmington. The concert is presented by the guild.