Exploring Joan Szymko’s oeuvre reminds one of strolling through a beautiful garden.
Over here is a gorgeous, fresh, and significant work called “At Such a Dizzy Height.” Scored for choir, solo voices, piano, violin, and cello, it would enrich any concert. Take another step, and you find something completely different, “Blow, Blow, Thou Winter Wind,” a concise, jaunty, rugged setting for treble voices and piano, perfect for winter.
Joan Szymko [SHIM-ko] has something for everyone. Read on to learn more about her thoughts and process, and enjoy strolling through her impressive catalog of choral music!
Many composers discover their voice as a reaction “against” something, or as an embracing “of” something. Would you like to say anything about how you discovered your “voice?”
Even in my childhood, I exhibited a keenly intuitive musicality. And so I did not “find my voice” but found opportunities to develop and express it. For example, as a young conductor/composer, I was compelled to fill the void of quality literature for mature treble voices and composed prolifically for my women’s choruses. I did not have academic training in composition, and so was not influenced by a teacher’s voice or school of thought to either rebel against or embrace. My mentor — my muse if you will — has always been my lifelong search for grace, for a “yearning for good” (Hildegard).
What would you like conductors to know about yourself as a composer?
I aim to create an arc of discovery for singer and listener that is visceral. Because my music is very much informed by my experience as a conductor, I take great care in composing music that “is in the voice” and flows in the conductor’s gesture. I will always remember composer Conrad Susa say in a Chorus America session: “the singer should feel the next note.” Amen to that!
Why do you think conductors should program your music?
My music can serve as a “palate cleanser” in a concert program. The ear can easily tire of vocal textures that are consistently dense and vertically constructed. I approach the setting of a text as if telling a story, and so I frequently vary textures and flow/tempo. Not only does this approach provide greater flexibility in illuminating a text, but it also keeps the listener alert and engaged. I set texts with an emotive musical clarity that both loves the voice and honors the poet.
What aspects of your personal life impact your work as a composer?
I came into my own as a composer during a time in my life when I was fully embracing a feminist perspective and deeply examining alternate beliefs regarding Source/Mystery/God. This has greatly influenced my text selection, which in turn greatly impacts my composing.
SSAA, piano, flute, violin, cello
Perfect for festival chorus, it closes with the question: I am a god of a thousand names, why cannot one of them be ‘woman singing?’
SSAA, taiko drums (2)
Rising to the call for engagement around gender imbalance in matters of education, economics and politics and spiritual leadership.
SATB, chamber ensemble
A mixed chorus setting of mystical poets featuring unconventional accompanying forces.
Eagle Rounding Out the Morning
SSAA, pno, opt. vocal trio
Spacious, sweeping, energetic and appropriate for mature high school or adult women’s chorus.
Anything else you want to share with conductors?
I would love the opportunity to workshop my music with your ensemble, in person or on Zoom. Also, I am one of a few composers to have received permission to set the poetry of beloved American poet Mary Oliver. I invite you to peruse “It is Happiness,” my choral suite on three of her poems. The first movement, The Summer Day, (tell me, what is it you plan to do with your one wild and precious life) is available in all voicings as a stand-alone octavo.
SSA(A) with instrumental chamber ensemble
A twenty-minute choral suite for treble voices and chamber orchestra featuring fresh and lively settings of iconic poetry by Mary Oliver.
SAB, SSA, or TBB with piano and flute
Tell me, what is it you plan to do with your one wild and precious life?
AND… should you program the suite, your singers can have the opportunity to perform it at Carnegie Hall in May 2026 with Mid-America Productions.
About the Composer
Joan Szymko’s embodied approach to sound, dedication to craft, and insistence on quality texts— all relate to her focus as a conductor and are reflected in her choral compositions. Her settings do not have a readily recognizable, “sound” but consistently display a discerning, insightful marriage of words and music. Her primary intention is to always illuminate and magnify the words she sets.
Learn more and explore more of Joan Szymko’s music!
Our Contributing Editor
Jonathan Campbell, BA, MSM, DMA, currently serves as Director of Music at Zion Lutheran Church, Anoka, MN., and is a Contributing Editor for Graphite Publishing. His music publishers include Augsburg Fortress, Concordia, Morningstar, GIA, Sacred Music Press, and Falls House. He won first prize in the Morningside Choral Composition Contest and was also awarded a Faith Partner’s Residency with the American Composer’s Forum. Jonathan has served many churches, conducted the Chorale of the Honors Choirs S.E. MN for eight years, and has served on the faculties of Winona State University, Augsburg University, and Pomona College.
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