Christmas Past, Christmas Future!
A 2015 Christmas Commission Consortium
I know it’s only March, but I’m already looking ahead to Christmas! Christmas Past, Christmas Future is a consortium of choirs who want the opportunity to premiere new Christmas carols in Winter 2015.
I’ll be writing TWO new carols, both for SATB a cappella choir. One piece will set text from Charles Dickens’s A Christmas Carol, and one will set a new poem by contemporary poet Barbara Crooker (hence the name of the consortium!). The Dickens piece will be a jubilant, lively work; the piece setting Barbara Crooker’s text will be a slower, more peaceful composition. Both will be approximately 3 minutes long. (To preview the texts, email .)
How does the consortium work?
The members of the consortium will be the first choruses to premiere these brand new compositions. As a member of this commissioning consortium, you’ll have the exclusive right to perform these two new works with your chorus in Winter 2015, as well as the right to continue programming both pieces whenever you’d like in the years to come.
Will these pieces be a good fit for my choir?
The two new pieces will be a perfect fit for advanced high school groups, college/university choruses, or community choirs. Both pieces will be around the difficulty level of my works Ring Out, Ye Bells! or Where Go the Boats. Again, both will be a cappella.
Why are you writing so many Christmas carols?
I really like Christmas carols! I’ve always loved singing them and playing them on the piano, and I discovered in 2013 that I love composing them, too. I’ve written two carols so far: VocalEssence premiered Ring Out, Ye Bells! in 2013, after it won their Welcome Christmas! carol contest. Last winter, my piece The Christmas Rosewon Tampa Bay Master Chorale’s carol competition. My goal with this new consortium is to create two new a cappella carols that can be sung by a variety of choruses for many Christmases to come.
When will I receive my copy of the new carol?
The score for each piece—licensed for performance by you and your choir—will be emailed to you by August 15, 2015. You’ll be free to program them for 2015, or at any time in the future, as best fits your programming needs. If you only want to perform one of the two pieces this winter, that’s fine, too.
So I get to support new music, premiere two new pieces, and my name + my chorus’s name will be listed on those scores for all eternity—How do I participate?
Sign up here to join the consortium! The commission fee for these two works is $225, and the consortium will close on Friday, April 3, 2015. I can’t wait to share these two new carols with you and your choir!
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