Old Lyme - From the beginning until that near-to-last moment when the space boy in his space suit pressed the red button - almost as large as his 7-year-old self - it must have been clear to anyone in the audience that this beeping, whirring and at times melodiously discordant performance was not your typical high school winter choral concert.

The Choruses of Lyme-Old Lyme High School performed "Anthony's Cosmic Adventures" Wednesday in the auditorium of the high school as part of their winter concert program titled "Out Of This World." The piece was one of several performed under the direction of Kristine Pekar, chairwoman and choral director at the school.

The evening was a night of firsts. The performance included the premiere of "Anthony's Cosmic Adventures," with music by Waterford's John Metz. "Cosmic Adventures" itself is one of Metz's first actual compositions.

Pekar said it was the first time she had her students perform something so modern, the first time they ever did a world premiere and the first time they worked with the composer of what they were performing.

"Cosmic Adventures" is based on poet Frederick Winsor's collection of children's verse called "A Space Child's Mother Goose." Winsor's work provides a science fiction take on stories culled from Mother Goose rhymes.

"Oh, they did a great job," said Metz, seated in the front row as the high school choruses joined with alumni to sing Handel's "Hallelujah Chorus," as is tradition at the winter concert.

"They really worked so hard," he said.

An otherworldly feeling permeated the performance and "kind of helped us through," said senior Abigail Cipparone, 17, who soloed in one of the pieces. She attributed the feeling in part to the use of blue lighting that had not been used during rehearsals.

The chorus warmed up the audience before starting "Cosmic Adventures" with more traditional high school concert fare, including some seasonal songs and some flight- and space-themed pieces. The first section of the concert was followed by a pause before performance of Metz's work began.

The seven-part "Cosmic Adventures" began with a movement titled "A Space Child," in which the work's main character, Anthony Rowley, embarks upon a galactic journey driven by his own curiosity.

Metz, rather than view the performance from the audience, was on stage to turn pages for accompanist Molly Sturges. He rose at intermittent periods during the last movement to narrate parts of the performance.

"This is the theory Jack built," Metz stood to say at points. At other points, he rose to say something about cybernetics.

It was during the last movement that Josh Judy, 7, younger brother of one of the singers - portraying Rowley - arrived on stage in a space suit. Standing next to a large poster board displaying a trigonometric-looking formula, he pressed the giant red button. The chorus explained, amid spurts of discord and chaotic rabble, that the red button started "the machine."

"It's so unusual that a choral piece has got theatrical elements in it, but I couldn't help it," the composer had said prior to the start of the performance.

It was a night of firsts. The performance comprised the premiere of Metz's new piece, which itself is one of Metz's first actual compositions.

The 71-year-old pianist/harpsichordist and Arizona State University music professor emeritus, who for several years was the director of the Connecticut Early Music Festival in New London, did not begin composing on his own until he retired from the university.

The enthusiasm of the performance was made poignant by a somber backdrop. This past summer, after the high school committed to performing "Cosmic Adventures," Metz was diagnosed with stage-four prostate cancer that has metastasized to the bone.

"This is the hardest thing I think I've ever done," Pekar said to her students in the chorus room before leading them through vocal scales and a few last-minute reviews of musical selections.

She told her students that the performance might also be one of the most challenging experiences of their lives.

The concert drew not just the families of high school students, but friends, family, colleagues and students of Metz and his wife Barbara, who both teach private music lessons. Barbara Metz is a cellist.

She said in the lobby of the high school after the concert she was thrilled to see the excitement of the students performing the piece.

"That's what it's all about - that they loved it as much as he loved it, I think," she said.

A few yards away from her, her husband sat in a swivel chair chatting and shaking the hands of members of the chorus and others who had attended. Barbara Metz described how she could tell from her husband's body movements at the piano bench during the concert that he was having a good time.

"He was having fun on stage," she said.

t.townsend@theday.com

Twitter: @ConnecticuTess