As I type I’m listening to an amazing all-Monteverdi concert from Trinity Church in NY. This performance is great and very moving. Of course, I love music of the Renaissance. As a masters candidate that was one of my areas of study; one of the funest semesters of my college career.
You can also listen to and watch this [...]
Postmark Deadline: February 15, 2008
Graphite Publishing—Call for Scores
Graphite Publishing asks composers to submit unpublished sacred works for voice or chorus (any voicing) with organ for possible publication and promotion at upcoming AGO National Conference. Graphite Publishing is a music publishing company focused on presenting emerging composers and their works to the music industry by offering [...]
Seeks short, original, unpublished, unperformed, and recent compositions for accompanied or unaccompanied choir (sacred or secular, in any language), for 4- to 6-part mixed choir (occasional 8-part divisi is acceptable) from high school students (grades 9-12) and undergraduate college students for their First Annual Choral Composition Contest. Cash awards, performance, recording, and possible publication.
Essentially Choral Call for Scores
Application Deadline: 3/14/2008Seeks scores for the seventh annual Essentially Choral reading session and workshops to be held May 29-31, 2008, in Minneapolis, Minnesota. Up to five composers will be selected to have their work read by VocalEssence. One of those five may receive a $3,500 commission to write a new work.
Details
2008 Brochure (PDF)Deadline: [...]
San Francisco Choral Artists
Application Deadline: 2/4/2008Seeks short, unperformed, SATB choral works from composers under 30 which “honors those who pursue creativity and hope in the midst of despair: music which celebrates light in times of darkness” for their New Voices Competition. Performances in Bay Area, cash awards, and CD recording of performance.
Details
New Voices Competition — [...]
ACF is partnering with GALA Choruses Inc. (an international organization serving the GLBT choral movement) to launch a pilot Community Partners program. This program will result in grants of $6,000 to two GALA-member choruses to commission two composers to create a new work for each of them.
Designed for choruses with limited (or no) commissioning experience [...]
The Esoterics announces an international call for a cappella choral scores, as this Pacific Northwest ensemble announces its annual competition for choral composition, POLYPHONOS (from the Greek word for having many voices or manifold in expression).
The Esoterics is dedicated to performing and perpetuating contemporary a cappella choral settings of poetry, philosophy, and spiritual writings from [...]
Ingo Titze, one of the foremost names in vocal pedagogy – specializing in the scientific study of the voice, has written a wonderful article for Scientific American explaining how The Human Instrument can compete with other instruments in terms of pitch range and loudness.
This excellent article should be of interest to anyone wanting to know more [...]
The American Composers Forum and VocalEssence provide this opportunity:
Essentially Choral Reading Session (click for details and application)
May 29 – 31, 2008
Plymouth Congregational Church, Minneapolis
Up to five composers will be selected to have their works-in-progress read by the VocalEssence Ensemble Singers, a 32-voice professional chorus directed by Philip Brunelle, and professional orchestra musicians. New York composer Daniel Godfrey [...]
For your information (thanks to acapella news for pointing this out):
Yale Glee Club Emerging Composers Competition (2008) Guidelines
Eligibility: Composers should be in the early stages of their musical careers. Yale alumni may participate, but current Yale students are not eligible. Employees of Yale University and previous Yale Glee Club Emerging Composers Competition are not eligible.
Guidelines [...]
“One Foot in Eden Still, I Stand” : Choral music by Nicholas Maw
Review on Opera Today here:
http://www.operatoday.com/content/2008/01/one_foot_in_ede.php
Looks like there is some pretty interesting work on the CD.
I was invited to an informal concert on January 8th of Eric Whitacre’s music performed by the Brigham Young University Singers (the schools most advanced choral group) at the BYU Museum of Art by a Facebook friend (ah, the wonders of the internet). What she didn’t say was, be sure to arrive early if you want to get a seat. In [...]
I just read an article about a director, Lynda Ables, that has served her choir for 30 years. I thought this was kind of cute:
Instead of scolding singers when they over emphasize an “r” sound, Ables affectionately tells them, “There are no pirates allowed in my choir,” Kahl said. When they over emphasize an “s” sound, she [...]
I few months ago I decided to start a new choir. I’d thought about it for a long time and had many reasons for wanting to do it, including:
Since being a member of several advanced choirs when I was younger, I’ve longed to sing that kind of vocal literature. I’ve directed a church choir for [...]
January seems to be the month to focus on health and fitness. We are daily bombarded with news stories on ways to lose pounds or get fit. Being a bit rounder than I’d like to be, I generally listen, but I really perked up when I saw this headline: No sweat – sing yourself to better [...]