Singing City Prize for Young Composers

Download the 2010 SC Prize Brochure and Application Form.

The Singing City Prize for Young Composers is a national choral music competition for talented young musicians between the ages of 15 and 30. The overall goal is to maximize the involvement of students in the creative process and to be a valuable music education resource for the entire community. This competition may be the impetus and encouragement that a young composer would need to continue on his or her creative journey. The Prize gives students access to a professional mentor who, acting as a role model, guides them and open doors for them along this difficult career path. The Singing City community of singers and listeners is also enriched by a yearly infusion of fresh, diverse choral music. 

Singing City invites young musicians to submit original choral compositions arranged for SATB, 3-5 minutes in length. Submitted works undergo a rigorous jury process, after which winners and runners up are chosen in each of two categories:

Ages 15-18 (High School)
Ages 19-30

Cash prizes are awarded for a winner and a runner up in each age group. The First Prize compositions will be performed by Singing City Choir at a concert event where the young composers are honored and presented with cash awards.

For more information, call (215) 569-9067.

2009 Winners

Prizes for the 2009 competition were awarded to the young composers at Singing City’s Winter Concert Voices of the Future. 

The first prize in the college–age category went to Edward Poll for his composition Hymn, based on texts by Edgar Allen Poe. A resident of Haverford and student at Columbia University, Teddy received the 2007 first prize in the high school age group while a student at Germantown Friends School. The panel commented that Teddy’s composition “brilliantly captures the spirit of the Poe text and is exactly the right length.” The panel went on to say that Hymn “is one of the very, very best pieces we have seen since the launching of the Singing City Prize for Young Composers.” It will be performed at the Winter Concert on February 28.

As an undergraduate at Columbia University in New York City, Teddy is also pursuing graduate coursework in music, studying with Philip Lasser of the Juilliard School and Fabien Lévy at Columbia. In the past, he has studied orchestral conducting with Jonathan Sternberg, classical piano with Marcantonio Barone, voice with Perry Brisbon, and composition with Benjamin C.S. Boyle.

As a composer, Poll has won numerous prizes, including an ASCAP Morton Gould Award, and has had works performed by distinguished performers and ensembles—in April of 2008, pianist Beth Levin performed Poll's "Sonatine" at Steinway Hall in New York City. In past summers, Poll has attended the Walden School in Dublin, NH, and the summer music program in Paris sponsored by the European American Musical Alliance, where he studied with Michel Merlet of the Paris Conservatory and Narcis Bonet of the Ecole Normale de Musique de Paris. There, he was awarded special mentions for his work both in harmony and in counterpoint.

Poll is currently working with orchestral musicians and vocalists to form the Morningside Chamber Orchestra and Chorus, which will dedicate itself to performing staples of the symphonic, operatic, and choral repertoire, and to bringing classical music into the Morningside Heights community at large.

The second prize in the college–age category went to Stephen Caldwell, a resident of Bensalem and a student at Temple University, for his composition Ave Maria based on the texts of a 12th century Gregorian Chant. The panel felt that Stephen really has contributed something of significance with this setting of Ave Maria. The panel also saw the climax of the work as stunning.

The 2008 second prize in the high school age category went to Jason Wilber, a student from Downingtown West High School, Downingtown, PA. Jason is currently a junior at Downingtown West High School, where he is a member of the swim team and the Generation for Africa Club. He loves to ski, kick back with his family, and, of course, sing, play and write music. His enthusiasm and excitement for music began measurably at age six, when he started taking piano lessons. He has continued lessons for over ten years, and currently studies with accomplished pianist, Dr. Ori Steinberg. He also began teaching himself guitar three years ago, and enjoys jamming with his friends. A new work, The Heartbeat of Change, will be performed at the Winter Concert on February 28.