Winner of the ACDA 2020 Raymond W. Brock Competition for Professional Composers Chosen

From the ACDA Composition Initiatives Standing Committee

On August 23, 2020, the winners of the Raymond W. Brock Competition for Professional Composers were chosen:

1^st place: Elaine Hagenberg – I Am the Wind
2^nd place: John Muehleisen – Sing to Me!
3^rd place: Joseph Gregorio – Go Out With Joy
4^th place: Ellen Gilson Voth – Across the Empty Square
5^th place: Carlos Cordero – Ayúdame

The first place winning competition, I Am the Wind, by Elaine Hagenberg, will receive a special performance at the upcoming national conference of the American Choral Directors Association. Details of this virtual performance are being determined.

The Raymond W. Brock Competition for Professional Composers was established in 2018 in an effort to further the mission of ACDA to promote choral music and ensure its future. It is an outgrowth of the Raymond W. Brock Memorial Choral Commission fund, and its objectives are three-fold:

1. To acknowledge and reward outstanding composers in early, mid, or late career
2. To encourage choral composition of the highest caliber
3. To further promote composer activity at ACDA regional and national conferences

Elaine Hagenberg’s music “soars with eloquence and ingenuity” (ACDA Choral Journal). Her compositions are performed worldwide and frequently featured at national and regional ACDA conferences, All-State festivals, Carnegie Hall, and other distinguished international concert halls from Australia to South America and throughout Europe. In addition to composing full-time, Elaine actively engages in bringing her music to life as the guest artist and featured clinician for professional conferences and festivals both in the U.S. and abroad as a composer, conductor, and accompanist of her work. With over fifty commissioned works, she has composed new music for ACDA, professional choirs, colleges and universities, community choirs, high schools, and churches. Elaine has music in print with various publishers including Oxford University Press, Hal Leonard, G. Schirmer, Hinshaw Music, and Beckenhorst Press, and she currently publishes her concert music independently through Elaine Hagenberg Music.

Contact:
Susan LaBarr
Member, ACDA Composition Initiatives Standing Committee