The Sorel Medallion First Annual Choral Composition Contest 2006-2007 The Sorel Medallion Winner's Concert "Choral Gems from the Renaissance to Present" Tuesday, October 9th, 2007 at 7:30 p.m. Zankel Hall at Carnegie Hall 57th Street and 7th Avenue, New York, New York On October 9th, 2007, The Sorel Organization and Voices of Ascension collaborated and celebrated the accomplishments of the 2007 Sorel Medallion Winners. This year's winners were chosen from 79 applicants (5 semi-finalists) by a panel of judges at the performance in Zankel Hall at Carnegie Hall. The winners' pieces were programmed with the greatest composers from the Renaissance to the present. The gala event was followed by a cocktail reception with conductors, producers, choristers, judges, and board members. The SOREL Organization looks forward to repeating its Choral Composition Contest next year with Voices of Ascension. Deadline for new compositions is April 1, 2008. THE WINNERS: 1st place - Leanna Kirchoff - "Meciendo" for a capella chorus Click here for bio 2nd place - Lisa Bielawa - "Lamentation of a City" for chorus and English Horn Click here for bio 3rd Place - Christina Whitten - "Choral de Bete" for a capella chorus Click here for bio Please click here to visit the Voices of Ascension website. Voices of Ascension's 40-voice ensemble rehearsing the contest winners' pieces on the stage at Zankel Hall in Carnegie Hall Voices of Ascension's conductor Dennis Keene with 1st place winner Leanna Kirchoff 2nd place winner Lisa Bielawa, left, and Leanna Kirchoff Christina Whitten with fiance Matt Thomas, left, and parents Richard and Phyllis Whitten, right Leanna Kirchoff A native of rural Colorado, Leanna Kirchoff has written vocal and instrumental chamber music, choral anthems, musicals and opera. Kirchoff's music embraces inquiring and philosophical themes as well as whimsy. Most recently, Kirchoff's instrumental music has been performed at festivals in Vermont, Oregon and London, with several performances of her choral music this year in the Denver area. In collaboration with fellow Denver composer Cherise Leiter, Kirchoff co-wrote the libretto and music for a one-act opera, The Lady or the Tiger. The opera was premiered last April at Metropolitan State College of Denver. Other collaborative projects highlight Kirchoff's catalog. As part of a program sponsored by the American Composers Forum New England Chapter, Kirchoff was composer-in-residence with Temple Emanuel Synagogue and Twelfth Baptist Church of Boston. She has also collaborated on numerous musical theatre projects, composing music and lyrics for seven musicals produced in Minnesota. Two of Kirchoff's chamber works appear on the 2006 recording, Cross Currents and Other New Music for Row Twelve, released by Massachusetts chamber ensemble Row Twelve. Her solo flute piece, Cantus Rosarum was included on the 2004 release Airs to Charm a Lizard, music for solo flute, recorded by flutist Katherine Kleitz. Kirchoff holds a Master of Arts in Composition from the University of Minnesota where she studied with Dominick Argento and Judith Lang Zaimont. A faculty member at Metropolitan State College of Denver, Kirchoff teaches theory and composition. Kirchoff has begun coursework for a Doctorate of Musical Arts in Composition at the University of Colorado. Lisa Bielawa Composer-vocalist Lisa Bielawa often takes inspiration for her work from literary sources and from close artistic collaborations. A graduate of Yale University with a BA summa cum laude in Literature, her music explores the ritual and phenomenological nature of music-making and listening, employing instrumental forces in ways that are both dramatic and intimate in their use of time and space. Bielawa's The Lay of the Love and Death, written for violinist Colin Jacobsen and baritone Jesse Blumberg and based on an epic poem by Rilke, premiered at Alice Tully Hall in March 2006. Hurry, for soprano and chamber ensemble, was commissioned by Carnegie Hall and premiered in 2004 as part of Dawn Upshaw's Perspectives series, and the inaugural season of Zankel Hall included the premiere of The Right Weather by American Composers Orchestra and Van Cliburn prize-winning pianist Andrew Armstrong, prompted by an excerpt from Pushkin's Eugene Onegin. This November she will appear as vocalist in unfinish'd, sent at the inaugural concert of her three-year residency with Boston Modern Orchestra Project. The residency, which will yield several new works and culminate in a recording of her orchestral music, is part of Music Alive, a joint program of Meet The Composer and the American Symphony Orchestra League. She is currently at work on a piece for migrating ensembles and soprano Susan Narucki for performance in public spaces, a multi-year project of Creative Capital. A 2001 Copland Award recipient, while in residence at the Copland House Bielawa composed Roam, a work that has been played by the Minnesota Orchestra (2002), ACO (2002), and the New England Conservatory Philharmonia (2003). Other recent performances include: the String Orchestra of New York City at Merkin Concert Hall (2005, 2006) and at Weill Recital Hall (2003); the Bay Atlantic Symphony (2003); the Nouvel Ensemble Moderne at the MATA Festival (2002); and the Miami String Quartet on the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center series (2001). Bielawa has appeared as vocalist in her own work at the Seattle Symphony's Made in America festival (May 2006); Pacific Music Festival in Sapporo, Japan (July 2000); in a music-theatre work with playwright Erik Ehn at the INFANT Festival in Novi Sad, Yugoslavia (June 2000); in several works as composer-in-residence at American Music Week in Sofia, Bulgaria (November 2000); at the 1999 Bang On A Can Festival; and at the 1998 Lincoln Center Festival and the World Financial Center Winter Garden in the Electric Ordo Virtutum. In 1997, her chamber opera Phrenic Crush, librettist Erik Ehn, received its premiere production in San Francisco through the Haas Foundation Creative Work Fund. Bielawa has received grants, fellowships and awards from the Alpert-Ucross Foundation, the Civitella Ranieri Foundation in Italy, the Fund for U.S. Artists at International Festivals, the New York State Council on the Arts, the New York Foundation for the Arts, the Joyce Dutka Arts Foundation, ASCAP, and the Fondation Royaumont in France. An enthusiastic advocate for the field, Bielawa is Artistic Director of the MATA Festival, serves on the Board of the American Music Center, and is Assistant Director and teaches composition through the New York Youth Symphony Making Score program. As a vocalist, she has premiered and recorded countless works by her composer colleagues. Christina Whitten Christina Whitten's music has been described as "intimate," "uplifting," and "an intoxicating blend of the sensual and the spiritual." Having grown up in New England, her music is greatly influenced by the natural beauty and serenity of the Northeast. She also draws from the excitement of city life and the vibrant arts community of her current home in Los Angeles, California. Reflective of her life experiences, her compositions are an intricate fusion of the traditional and innovative, of the contemplative and dynamic. Ms. Whitten received her Bachelor of Arts degree in music from Middlebury College in 2002 and her Master of Music degree in composition from the University of Southern California's Thornton School of Music in 2005. She has studied with composers Su Lian Tan, Morten Lauridsen, Donald Crockett, and Erica Muhl. Her works have been performed and commissioned by such organizations as the Middlebury College Orchestra and Chamber Singers, the USC Thornton Symphony, the USC Chamber Singers, the Ann Arbor Cantata Singers, and the First Baptist Church of Worcester, Massachusetts. Her choral work Take Peace was recently featured as part of a memorial mass for Pope John Paul II at the Los Angeles Cathedral. She was a finalist for the 2006 National Association of Teachers of Singing Art Song Composition Award, winner of the 2005 USC New Music for Orchestra competition, and the recipient of a commission for choir and organ by the First Baptist Church of Worcester to launch their annual competition for new sacred music in 2006. An activist in the promotion of new works by emerging composers, she frequently hosts salon performances featuring works by local composers. In addition to her composition, Ms. Whitten is an active vocal performer. She has given two solo recitals and has toured with the Middlebury College Chamber Singers in London, Oxford, Paris, and throughout New England. In Los Angeles, she has sung with the Angeles Choral, the USC Concert Choir, and the USC Choral Artists in collaboration with the LA Philharmonic. Ms. Whitten has recently collaborated with other Los Angeles based singers to perform a series of benefit concerts featuring solos and ensemble pieces from the operatic repertoire. She is currently employed as staff soloist at Mount Olive Lutheran Church in Santa Monica. When she is not composing or singing, she is teaching her piano and voice students or hiking in the Santa Monica mountains. This website and all content copyright 2006-2008 The Sorel Organization  •  Site Design: Canfield Design Studios, Inc.