UPDATE (April 9, 2019)
A Parable of Choices is a Finalist for The American Prize! More information available on The American Prize blog. Hear the Yale Glee Club premiere performance or check out a perusal score if you have a moment. More information about Parable is available in my journal. Congratulations to my fellow finalists including several MusicSpoke colleagues!
Original Post (January 26, 2019)
I just discovered that The American Prize has named me a semi-finalist in the Professional Choral Composition Division! This is a non-profit, national competition recognizing excellence in the arts, and the judges reviewed All Things New, A Parable of Choices, and Green Is the Color of Its Flame. All three titles are published by MusicSpoke. Finalists will be announced later in the year, but in the meantime, I’m honored to be listed among some of the best and brightest names in the field.
Congratulations to my fellow musicspokers Andrew Bruhn, Jessica French, and Kyle Pederson for also earning a spot among the semi-finalists!
In reflecting on this achievement, I would be remiss not to mention the many friends and ensembles who supported these particular pieces. Nicolas Nickl for commissioning All Things New and Triad: Boston’s Choral Collective for sponsoring its public premiere, the Yale Glee Club for honoring and premiering A Parable of Choices, and the Huntsville Community Chorus Chamber Chorale for commissioning and premiering Green Is the Color of Its Flame. Without these fantastic organizations, their directors, and their members, these pieces and so many others would exist only on my computer’s hard drive.
Finally, I always have reservations about entering competitions and celebrating their results. At the end of the day, art isn’t about competing—it’s about observing and experiencing. Recognition along the way feels good—don’t get me wrong—but it’s certainly not the reason I compose. I expect that most artists would agree. I write music with the hope of sparking conversations and creating experiences for both performers and audiences. Nothing in music can outshine those moments of collective creativity, but to the extent competitions allow for more collaborations to take place, I’m all in!