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My name is David Lussier and I offer you a selection of acapella and accompanied anthems for your adult and/or youth church choir. They are suitable for Christmas and general Sundays. Encourage your instrumentalists of C instruments/keyboard/guitar to worship with you and add percussion too. Many could be used as introits. David Lussier Marketplace
Enjoy Stephanie Martin’s “Rise Up My Love”. One of the most beautiful poems from the Song of Solomon. Singers will love the interesting lines.
In 2018, on the occasion of its 50th Anniversary, the Sant Yago University Choir of Valencia ran the first edition of a Choral Music Composition Contest, which was very successful in terms of participation. This year the Sant Yago University Choir is announcing the second edition, once again aiming at the creation of new repertoire by national or international composers. Participation in the competition is open to composers of any nationality and age. Entry compositions must be original and unpublished, harmonisations and arrangements being excluded. Entries must be written for a regular mixed choir SATB a cappella with a reasonable use of divisi. Compositions must be at a technical level that makes its performance possible by an amateur choir, and will have a maximum duration of 5 minutes. Only texts with a Christmas theme will be considered, written preferably in Valencian, Spanish, Latin or English. Further information:
https://www.corosantyago.org/Concurso
Excelcia Music Publishing Releases New Choral Music with Innovative Digital Catalog
Edited by the publisher’s highly-skilled Choral Editor, Jamey Ray, educator, and successful singer and arranger in the popular group, Voctave, Excelcia Music Publishing’s 2020 Choral Music release comprises 22 new and inspiring choir pieces. The release includes pieces by favorite veteran composers as well as talented, up-and-coming composers and Voctave pieces.
Recognizing these challenging times for music education with school closures and remote learning, the publisher has released an innovative digital catalog for 2020 Choral music, complete with pop-up Score Videos and composer insights as well as free professional recordings on all major streaming platforms such as Spotify and Google Play. These tools provide unprecedented assistance to educators for imagining the future and planning for when their choirs can come back together. Explore the new Choral Digital Catalog: https://excelciamusic.com/choral-music-promo/
“I am honored to share our exceptional new choral music from a highly-talented and passionate group of composers and arrangers,” said Jamey Ray, Choral Music Editor. “Our 2020 releases include pieces with messages of hope, compassion, beauty and courage, themes that will truly resonate with choirs everywhere, particularly during these challenging times. My heart is with all the music educators, choirs, students and parents as we navigate the weeks and months ahead, and we hope that these pieces will provide a source of inspiration to all.”
Following its successful 2019 release, the publisher’s 2020 Choral music release includes pieces from composers Yani Araujo, Tyler Arcari, Patti Drennan, Greg Gilpin, Brandon Martell, Brandon Martin, Steve Parsons, Jamey Ray, Russell Robinson, Steven L. Rosenhaus, John Maclane Schirard, Ruth Elaine Schram, Connor Warren Smith, Kara Stacy, Bruce W. Tippette and Marshall Webb.
Each new octavo is meticulously edited and beautifully set for ease of reading. Published in Excelcia Music Publishing’s color-coded voicing series, these works vary from unison/two-part up to SATB divisi. The professional recordings of each piece, by The Trade Singers, conducted by Jamey Ray, are available on all streaming platforms and can be used as a tool with students for remote learning and in the classroom.
Excelcia Music Publishing’s 2020 Choral music will be available from music retailers everywhere and from the publisher.
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Excelcia Music Publishing is based in Lakeland, Florida, and publishes and sells music internationally. Composers, educators, and retailers are invited to contact Excelcia Music Publishing to be a part of creating, learning, and performing music that inspires.
Canadian-born Matthew Whittall (b. 1975) has been living in Helsinki, Finland since the beginning of the century. His focus as a composer is in orchestral music, but as a choral singer he has a love in composing choral pieces.
Love is Little (2009) is a modern motet which uses a Shaker hymn as cantus firmus. The original melody is gradually slowed down, looped and fragmented, forming a quiet, ambient soundscape in which each singer performs their own part freely. The piece is suitable for larger choirs but also works with 20 singers.
The work is available from Fennica Gehrman. Please notice also the other Whittall choir pieces. https://webshop.fennicagehrman.fi/page/product/9790550115903
American-Finnish composer Alex Freeman (b. 1972) studied in the Eastman School of Music, Boston University and Juillard School of Music before completing his doctoral degree in the Sibelius Academy in Helsinki. Choir music forms a notable part of Freeman’s list of work.
Cathedral of Spring for chamber choir (2019) is set to poems of e.e. cummings and Robert Frost. It 
was commissioned and premiered by Helsinki based Somnium Ensemble. The composer tells: ”I was commissioned to write a piece with spring as a central theme. While contemplating that and perusing appropriate poetry, I was inspired by memories of the night-time sky in early spring – the warm air, the teeming, buzzing energy of life all around, and an expansive dome of stars overhead. I then imagined that moment in time as a kind of sacred space; this is the point where the “cathedral” notion came to mind.
The frenetic and joyous poetry of e.e. cummings, from his Epithalamion, gives an exclamatory introduction to the set, followed by his vision of spring from the point of view of giddy children in his iconic poem, [in Just-]. We then take a moment to contemplate the ephemerality of all this beauty (spring giveth and spring taketh away, i.e. an offertorium of sorts); Robert Frost’s Blue-Butterfly Day places us in a moment where, by chance, we find ourselves enveloped by a delicately fluttering swarm of butterflies. Peaceful and still, yet in constant flux, we spend a some time taking that phenomenon in, while also experiencing a twinge of the realisation that this is truly fleeting. The final movement, returning to a later stanza from Epithalamion, cummings’s sparkling paean to May is set as a kind of final anthem.”
The sheet music is available from Fennica Gehrman:
https://webshop.fennicagehrman.fi/page/product/9790550115675