The weeklong stint at the magnet school first produced a 2006 performance at the Artsplosure city festival featuring Raleigh native Martin and the Enloe Jazz Ensemble.

That association led in turn to the world premiere Sunday of Martin's "Requiem for Peace," which drew more than 700 people to Meymandi Concert Hall downtown. About 140 Enloe musicians and singers joined pianist-composer Martin in a full program of his work.

"It's a pretty serious work," Martin said of the requiem.

"It takes in old folk songs, Gregorian chants, marches -- it's really about music, the kind of music you remember."

Martin also got permission from poet Maya Angelou to set her poem "I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings" to music as one of the requiem's movements.

Performances by Martin and Enloe's chorus, wind ensemble, symphony strings and jazz trio won a standing ovation from what amounted to a hometown crowd.

Martin, 40, was born at Wake Memorial Hospital, though by the time he started his classical music studies at age 7, the family had moved on. He now lives in Massachusetts.

For Enloe musicians like violinist Julie Ma and French horn player Carlie Huberman, weeks of work with Martin for the concert meant new exposure to the angular contours and ear-catching dissonance of jazz.

"It sounded all distorted at first, but it made sense after he explained every single detail and chord," Ma said. "It's jazz," Huberman added, "it wasn't what we are normally used to."

Martin, 40, has a long resume in music, from a performance with the New York Philharmonic to work as musical director of the Cab Calloway Orchestra. Time with Enloe's accomplished student musicians has brought inspiration for dozens of new works, Martin said.

For the composer's music-educator parents, Margaret and the Rev. Kenneth A. Martin, who live in Wilson, the homecoming was a moment of pure pride.

"The musicianship, the love and passion with which Joel is able to paint pictures with sound is simply miraculous and glorious," the senior Martin said. "We're so pleased that he decided to come home to premiere his requiem."