Philip Spencer of Naperville, Illinois has been named winner of the 2022 Illinois-ACDA Choral Composition Contest for his submission “That Would Be the Day!” for SATB choir. The announcement was made at the recent IL-ACDA Summer Retreat and was accompanied by a $1,000 prize and a recording of the new work sung by all of the attendees. IL-ACDA has held this contest for more than 35 years, with a distinguished list of past winners. This year’s judging committee, chaired by composer Donald Fraser, was a panel of composers and conductors who made Spencer’s piece their unanimous choice.
Philip Spencer is a Professor Emeritus of Music at Joliet Junior College, and Founding Conductor of the new ensemble NaperVoice, a philanthropic choir of professional and amateur singers with the mission “Sing well. Do good.” He is a graduate of Wittenberg University and the Yale University School of Music, with an additional academic year of study in Berlin, Germany and doctoral work in choral conducting at the University of Iowa. His composition teachers include Jan Bender and Heinz Werner Zimmermann. Spencer won the Illinois contest once previously in 2014, has also won First Prize in the prestigious Roger Wagner International Choral Composition Competition at the University of Southern California, Los Angeles, and was a finalist in the Ithaca College Choral Composition Contest. His compositions have been published by Augsburg Fortress Press and Choristers Guild
For more information regarding the Illinois ACDA Choral Composition Contest visit:
Donald Fraser. Board Chair Composition Contest ILACDA
7/18/2022
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