Deadline extended for choral setting competition

By Jerry Hames July 11, 2008 [Episcopal Life] The deadline for entries to an international competition for choral anthem settings, based on texts or tunes by women found in the hymnal supplement "Voices Found," has been extended to December 31, Lisa Neufeld Thomas, director of the Women's Sacred Music Project, announced this month.

A total of $6,000 in prizes may be awarded for the top entries. The winning compositions will be performed November 14, 2009, at a Voices Found symposium at Daylesford Abbey in Paoli, Philadelphia. The venue will be an ecumenical event sponsored by the Philadelphia-based Women's Sacred Music Project and the Roman Catholic Daylesford Abbey.

Inspired by the 12th-century abbess and composer Hildegard of Bingen, the project's mission is to support, develop and perform sacred music by, for and about women at the highest standard of excellence, said Neufeld Thomas of Philadelphia, president of the organization since its 1996 inception. It sponsors a small ensemble of singers, the Lady Chapel Singers, because it first began to sing in the Lady Chapel of St. Mark's Episcopal Church in Philadelphia. The group has recorded two CDs.

"Our vision includes education, performance, composition, promotion and spirituality, all focusing on women. What we are doing now is launching a competition that will promote use of Voices Found," she said. "We ask composers to submit scores for anthems that are based on material found in texts from ‘Voices Found' and do a musical setting, or take a hymn text and tune from the book and make an arrangement from it."

The compositions also will be sung next year during a symposium of the Royal School of Church Music at Princeton University Chapel, Thomas said. Scores must be choral works, ideally three to five minutes long, and may be set for a cappella choir, with keyboard accompaniment and/or with one or two optional instruments.

The text or tune from the hymnal must have been written by a woman, but the anthem competition is open to both men and women. For a complete set of rules for the competition and application forms, see www.voicesfound.org or write to the Women's Sacred Music Project, 1819 John F. Kennedy Blvd., Suite 303, Philadelphia PA 19103.