Rosephanye Powell has been awarded the 2025 Brock Commission to premiere at the American Choral Directors Assocation’s 2025 National Conference in Dallas, Texas.
Rosephanye Powell has been hailed as one of America’s premier women composers of solo vocal and choral music. She has an impressive catalogue of works published by some of the nation’s leading publishers, including the Hal Leonard Corporation, Gentry Publications, Oxford University Press, Alliance Music Publications, and Shawnee Press. Dr. Powell’s works have been conducted and premiered by nationally and internationally renowned conductors and have been premiered at distinguished halls around the country, including Carnegie Hall, the Lincoln Center, and Spivey Hall, to name a few. Dr. Powell’s works have been commissioned by professional choral ensembles, including Cantus and the Grammy award-winning men’s vocal ensemble Chanticleer. Dr. Powell is commissioned yearly to compose for university choruses, professional ensembles, community and church choirs, as well as secondary school choruses. Her work has been auctioned by Chorus America and her compositions are in great demand at choral festivals around the country, frequently appearing on the regional and national conventions of the American Choral Directors Association, as well as Honor Choir festivals. Dr. Powell’s compositions include sacred and secular works for mixed chorus, treble voices, TTBB voices, and children’s voices.
Selected commissions, and premiere highlights include Hold Fast to Dreams (SATB) commissioned by Choirs of America 2024 National for Top Choirs to be premiered at Carnegie Hall in May 2025; Celebrate Us! (SSAA) commissioned for The Women’s Chorus of Dallas; Harriet Tubman: Journey to Freedom, an eight-movement work for narrator, mezzo-soprano,SATB chorus, four-hands piano, brass ensemble and percussion ensemble, commissioned by California State University, Dominguez Hills. Quiet Revolutionary, a three-movement work for SATB chorus and piano commissioned by Harvard University choirs; Love Will Make A Way (SATB) commissioned by the Metropolitan Youth Chorale of New York at Lincoln Center, NY; Three Spanish Songs for Men’s Choir commissioned by the Gay Men’s Chorus of Los Angeles; A Christmas Medley (SATB), commissioned by Chanticleer; I Want to Die While You Love Me (SSAA), composed for the ACDA Women’s Choirs Commission Consortium; Gospel Trinity (SATB), a four-movement work for narrator, chorus, piano and orchestra, commissioned by the Brehm Center for Worship, Theology and the Arts/Fuller Theological Seminary (CA) and premiered at the Lincoln Center; With What Shall I Come (SATB), composed for Anton Armstrong and the St. Olaf Choir; The Cry of Jeremiah, a four-movement sacred work for narrator, SATB chorus, organ and orchestra, commissioned by the American Guild of Organists, performed at the Lincoln Center; When We Sing commissioned by Cantus; and Ev’ry Time I Feel the Spirit, an SSAA spiritual arranged for The Sofia Chamber Choir of Bulgaria, Southeastern Europe.
Dr. Powell serves as Professor of Voice at Auburn University. She holds degrees from The Florida State University (D.M. in vocal performance, University Fellow), Westminster Choir College (M.M. in vocal performance and pedagogy, with distinction), and Alabama State University (B.M.E., summa cum laude). Dr. Powell served on the faculties of Philander Smith College (AR) and Georgia Southern University prior to her arrival at Auburn University in 2001. An accomplished singer and voice professor, Dr. Powell’s research focuses on the art of the African-American spiritual and voice care concerns for voice professionals (specifically, music educators, choral directors, and choral singers). She travels the country and internationally presenting lectures, song demonstrations, and serving as a workshop clinician, conductor, and adjudicator for solo vocal competitions/auditions, honor choirs, choral workshops and festivals.
Powell has received numerous awards and honors which include being named an Honorary Life Member of the National Collegiate Choral Organization (2023), receiving the National Vanguard Award from the National Association of Negro Musicians, Inc. (2023), the Luise Vosgerchian Teaching Award presented by Harvard University Office for the Arts (2022). Additionally, she was honored with the “Living Legend Award” presented by California State University African Diaspora Sacred Music Festival in Los Angeles; and was awarded the Marquis Who’s Who “Lifetime Achievement Award. Powell was listed in the first edition of the international publication Who Is Who in Choral Music. And, she has been included in Who’s Who Among America’s Teachers .
Dr. Powell is a member of the American Society of Composers, Authors, and Publishers (ASCAP), the American Choral Directors Association (ACDA), Chorus America, the National Association of Teachers of Singing (NATS), the National Association of Negro Musicians (NANM), and the National Collegiate Choral Organization (NCCO).
The Raymond W. Brock Memorial Choral Series was established in 1991 to honor the life and contributions of Raymond W. Brock, who served as administrative assistant for ACDA from 1987 until his untimely death in 1991. Annually, the ACDA Composition Initiatives National Standing Committee recommends, to the ACDA Executive Committee, a composer to receive the annual commission. Funds for this commission are paid from the Raymond W. Brock Memorial Endowment.
Previous Brock Memorial Commissions include works by Jennifer Higdon (2023), Ēriks Ešenvalds (2022), Bob Chilcott (2021), and Ivo Antognini (2020). Theron Kirk is considered to have written the first Brock Commission in 1991. Most recently, Andre Thomas’ (2024) work “In the Time of Silver Rain” premiered at the 2024 ACDA Region Conferences. See the complete list of commissions and information on premieres here.
About ACDA: As the leading voice and ally of choral music in the United States, the American Choral Directors Association (ACDA) is dedicated to serving teachers and directors of choral music through education, performance, composition, and advocacy. ACDA is a 65-year-old membership association of over 13,000 choral professionals and industry partners worldwide. ACDA supports the choral profession through programming, festivals, workshops, symposia, choral program exchanges, international efforts, publications, peer networking, professional development, and conferences. ACDA’s mission is to inspire excellence and nurture lifelong involvement in choral music for everyone through education, performance, composition and advocacy. With chapters in every state in the U.S. and Costa Rica, over 1 million choral participants are impacted by the work of ACDA members every year.
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