Blog Archives - California Choral Directors Association

Honoring our 2020 and 2021 CCDA/HEUSSENSTAMM Composition Contest Winners

8/6/2022

The award winning composers received complimentary registration for the 2022 ECCO Conference, where their works were presented and lauded in a reading session with the full body of conference attendees.

2020 Award Winner: Three Songs from Twelfth Night by Greg Lapp 
After teaching vocal music and music theory for 36 years in public high schools, Greg A. Lapp retired in 2020 from University High School in Fresno, California. Mr. Lapp received his Bachelor’s in Music Education in 1983 from California State University, Fullerton where he studied with David Thorsen and Dr. Harold Decker. He started composing and arranging for his own high school choirs and other choral programs in 1987 and received his Master’s in Composition in 1990 from Fresno State University. Mr. Lapp’s wife Deborah has written lyrics for several of his pieces. They live on the Kings River in Central California. His music is available at GregLappMusic.com.

2021 Award Winner: Home Thoughts from Abroad by Kate Crellin
Kate Crellin (she/her) is the Choir Director at Mira Costa High School and Manhattan Beach Middle School. She has years of experience as a vocalist, conductor, composer/arranger, educator, and researcher. Kate holds degrees from the University of Cambridge in England (Masters in Choral Conducting) and the University of Southern California (BA in Choral Music & BA in Law, History, and Culture). Kate has taught pre-K through 12th-grade choir in public and private schools across Los Angeles. She has toured across eight countries, sang in the professional a cappella group Cape Harmony, and currently is on staff at A Cappella Academy. For more information, please visit katecrellin.com and @katecrellinmusician

2021 Award Winner: The Prow by Matthew Lyon Hazzard
Matthew Lyon Hazzard is an award-winning Filipino-American composer, conductor, and singer. Praised for his “exquisite text-setting” and for creating “stunning landscapes of sound,” Hazzard’s music has garnered numerous accolades. He was named the winner of the 2020-2022 Young New Yorkers Chorus Composition Competition, the 2017 American Choral Directors Association Raymond W. Brock Student Composition Competition, True Concord’s inaugural Stephen Paulus Emerging Composers Competition, and several others. His music is performed by collegiate and professional ensembles around the world, including the Bob Cole Chamber Choir, the Metropolitan Chorus of Tokyo, the Choral Project, the Portland State Chamber Choir, The University of Washington Chorale, and more.

7th Annual CCDA/Heussenstamm Composition CONTEST at ECCO

8/6/2022

After a hiatus in 2022, The CCDA/George Heussenstamm Choral Composition Contest at ECCO now moves into its seventh year! The winners from 2021 were Matthew Lyon Hazzard and Kate Crellin. We now add their names to the growing list of wonderfully talented previous winners Greg Lapp, Townsend Losey, Mark Growden, Jasper Randall and Nancy Reeves.

Winning composers are invited to attend ECCO for FREE! Could you be next? Find that piece that you have been developing, or start fresh, and get ready to submit your composition with the chance to have it distributed to and read by choral directors from all around the state.

Please visit www.GeorgeHeussenstamm.com to learn more about our talented and generous benefactor.

THE CONTEST

Composers: CCDA members who plan to attend the Summer Conference at ECCO 2023 are invited to submit a single, original composition. We are looking for single, stand-alone compositions, not sets and not arrangements. Shorter works (3-5 minutes) are preferred. (Previous winners are not eligible to apply.)

Scores: Please submit your anonymous, unpublished score, a cappella or with piano accompaniment (no obbligato instruments), any voicing, along with an anonymous demo recording (MIDI is OK but voices are preferred) to znrobles@gmail.com. Please use this link to enter all composition and composer information via Google Form.

NOTE: Please be sure to remove composer’s name ANYWHERE that it might appear: title page, copyright notice, headers/footers, etc. and even on audio file information.

Format: All scores must be submitted in PDF format AND all audio files must be in MP3 format.

Date: Submissions will be accepted from Feb. 15, 2023 through Mar. 15, 2023, 11:59PM PST.

Submissions that do not meet the above requirements WILL NOT BE CONSIDERED. Compositions will be judged on the following seven criteria: Overall Effect, Overall Craft, Harmonic Interest, Rhythmic Interest, Melodic Interest, Text Usage, Originality, Cosmetics of Score, and Marketability. As we are interested in finding works that might considered for inclusion in the CCDA Choral Series with Pavane Publishing, we will consider the composition’s marketability.

Winner: The winning composition will be chosen by a committee of three CCDA members and will be announced on the CCDA website at the end of April 2023. The winning composer will receive a scholarship for tuition, room, and board at ECCO 2023, and will have their composition copied, distributed and read at the summer conference. NEW THIS YEAR: The winning composer will also receive a $500 cash prize. The winning score may be given consideration for inclusion in the CCDA Choral Series on Pavane Publishing. [NOTE: CCDA reserves the right to declare “no winner” if it is deemed appropriate.]

Contact Zanaida Robles at znrobles@gmail.com for more information.

Honor Choir Commission for 2021/2022

8/6/2022

Andrea Ramsey was commissioned by CCDA to write a new piece for the SATB All-State Honor Choir in 2021. Due to the Covid 19 pandemic, the premiere of the work was postponed until 2022. Andrea's new work Imaginary Creatures was finally premiered during the California State Music Educators Conference in Fresno, CA on Saturday, February 19, 2022.

In her notes contained in the score, Andrea says, "Imaginary Creatures is a lighthearted set of miniatures - each movement presents a child's description of the title creature. With 2020 and 2021 being such challenging years, I found myself with a greater need for joy and laughter in my own world and guessed that others might feel similarly."

Dr. Andrea Ramsey enjoys an international presence as a composer, conductor, scholar and music educator. Before leaping into full time composing and guest conducting, Andrea held positions at The Ohio State University and the University of Colorado Boulder, respectively. An award-winning composer with approximately 100 works to date, she believes strongly in the creation of new music. A native of Arkansas, Andrea has experienced in her own life the power of music to provide a sense of community, better understanding of our humanity and rich opportunities for self-discovery.