Such a pleasant surprise to hear that my choral work The Chambered Nautilus is one of the nine winners in the 2015 Ortus International New Music Competition, held by the New York-based choir Khorikos, founded and directed by Jesse Peckham.
The Chambered Nautilus is a setting of the uplifting Oliver Wendell Holmes Sr. poem, and was commissioned by the Cathedral Church of St. Paul, Boston. More about the piece on my website here, but do check out a better place to view/hear the whole thing at my page on the MusicSpoke site, right here.
Peckham first went through the more than 600 scores, which came in from around the globe, and whittled them down to 16 finalists. Then he gave those to the choir members, who themselves selected the nine concert winners:
Graham Lack – Four Lullabies (Germany)
Kala Pierson – Sky Sight (USA)
Kile Smith – The Chambered Nautilus (USA)
Zibuokle Martinaityte – The Blue of Distance (Lithuania)
Patrick Larley – A girl for the Blue (UK)
Karen Siegel – Shirei Shira (USA)
Alec Galambos – The Language (USA)
Nathan Jones – I Would Live in your Love (USA)
Vadym Mitryayev -Oj u poli tyhij viter vye (Ukraine)
The concert in New York will be the end of June, 2015; details to follow. Khorikos will showcase each winner with a brief music video about the composition on their website, and will also live-stream the concert. Those who attend the concert, review the videos, or view the concert online will be able to vote for their favorite piece. Right after the performance, Khorikos will tabulate the votes and announce the 1st place winner. Last year several thousand voters took part.
I was fortunate to be selected as a concert winner last year, with Where Flames a Word; the 1st Place winner, the gorgeous Miserere by Frank La Rocca, pretty much swept the field with votes, leaving the rest of us fighting for second place! Frank and I were then fortunate to be included in a second concert at Carnegie Hall later in the year to which Khorikos had been invited to perform. They’re a wonderful choir with a gifted and dedicated director, and I’m so happy to have been thrown into the mix again. Congratulations to all my colleagues, whose pieces I’m looking forward to hearing!