Commissions

A Mentoring Program for Young Composers

WomenSing is proud to introduce the 2012 Youth Inspiring Youth Composer Competition winners, Anastasia Pahos and Dale Trumbore. Each has been commissioned to write a new choral work based on the same River of Words poem, Reflections, by Lindsay Ryder to be premiered in June 2012. The composers will work with American composer Libby Larsen and Australian composer Sandra Milliken, as they create new music for WomenSing. This collaboration will culminate in a public workshop* held in May, 2012 where the composers, their mentors, and the singers of WomenSing will work together on the music, experimenting with and fine-tuning the compositions in preparation for the premieres in June, 2012.

Anastasia PahosAustralian composer Anastasia Pahos is a student at the Sydney Conservatorium of Music working on an undergraduate degree in music composition. An accomplished musician (piano/flute) and choral singer, Anastasia has been composing music since high school and has already received recognition, including the Matthew Hindson Composition Award (2009), the Australian Music Centre Composition Award (2007) and the Reverend Kenneth Cornwall Award for Outstanding Work in Composition (2006). This year, Anastasia is also a participant in the Halcyon First Stones Composer Project, an emerging composer program similar to YIY that focuses on chamber music for voice. Anastasia’s long term professional goal is to score and conduct music for the media industry. Visit Anastasia’s YouTube channel to hear her music. In particular, don’t miss Parthene Mitir, an a cappella piece for women’s voices and Ouzo, an instrumental work that she herself conducts.

Dale TrumboreDale Trumbore has won numerous awards for her compositions, including 2011’s Sadye J. Moss Endowed Musical Composition Prize (at USC) and the Chanticleer Student Composition Competition in 2006. This past spring, the San Francisco Bay Area Chapter of American Composers Forum awarded Dale a Subito grant. Her choral and instrumental compositions have been performed on both coasts by many well-regarded ensembles, including the Kronos Quartet. The Orange County Women’s Chorus recently commissioned her to write the a cappella piece, Tribute.

Dale grew up in New Jersey and received a double major in Music Composition and English Language and Literature from the University of Maryland. This past spring she graduated from USC with a master’s degree in Composition. Her dual interest in text and music often leads her to write music for voice, collaborating frequently with contemporary poets. She is currently recording a CD of art-songs with soprano Gillian Hollis, featuring three of Dale’s song cycles and highlighting texts by ten contemporary poets. Learn more about this project on Dale’s Facebook page. You can also check out Dale’s YouTube channel for a June 2011 performance of Love is a Sickness (the Chanticleer winner), among other compositions.

Lindsay Ryder Lindsay Ryder Perez wrote her poem Reflections when she was in middle school, while growing up in Bend, Oregon. She later earned a Master’s Degree in Special Education, now lives in Phoenix, AZ with her husband and is the Life Skills Coordinator at a private special education school. She has always enjoyed the arts, especially music, and has played the piano her whole life. Lindsay has a life-long love of the beauty she finds in the mountains and nature that inspired the writing of Reflection. “I think it is a beautiful thing how the world takes care of itself – the snow on the mountains becomes the rivers and streams that support our lives”.

Youth Inspiring Youth Commissions

Since the program began in 2008, WomenSing has commissioned the following compositions through the Youth Inspiring Youth program:

*WomenSing gratefully acknowledges Meet The Composer’s MetLife Creative Connections program for having funded in part the Youth Inspiring Youth Composers Public Workshop and Reception.