Bach Choir Family Concert To Feature Young Local Composers

The Bach Choir of Bethlehem has announced the winners of its first Young Composer Competition in connection with its annual Family Concert – The Write Stuff – Meet our Young Composers on January 27, 2013 at 3pm. The concert takes place at Baker Hall, Zoellner Arts Center, Lehigh University. All works to be performed by The Bach Choir and Bach Festival Orchestra in this concert were written by composers under the age of 25, including the young Bach. The centerpiece will be a group of new choral works by the winners of The Bach Choir’s second Young Composer Competition. The Bach Choir invited talented young composers from the Lehigh Valley region to submit original choral works for consideration in three categories: Elementary school; Middle & High school; and College. 

The panel of judges included: Greg Funfgeld, artistic director and conductor of The Bach Choir of Bethlehem, Dr. Larry Lipkis, composer-in-residence and professor of music at Moravian College, Joy Ondra Hirokawa, artistic director of the Bel Canto Children’s Chorus, Dr. Douglas Ovens, composer and professor of music at Muhlenberg College, and Jeanne Anne Shafferman, member of The Bach Choir of Bethlehem and managing editor, sacred choral music, The Lorenz Corporation.

The panel reviewed pieces submitted by ten students in grades 5-12 and college (junior- senior). Scores and musical samples were reviewed with judges knowing only the title of the piece and the grade level of the student. The judges picked three winners:

 Michael Battipaglia (Moravian College senior) Prayer “Nos Vero Unum” Settings of a traditional text “Nos Vero Unum” (We become one again). Scored for chorus (SATB) – A Cappella

Michael McAndrew (Moravian College sophomore) Midnight Setting of a poem by Richard Le Gallienne (1892). Scored for chorus (SATB) – A Cappella

Christopher Ostertag (9^th Grade – home schooled) The Light of Zion has Come! Setting of a text from Bach’s Cantata 140 (translated into English by Ellis Finger). Scored for chorus (SATB) and The Bach Festival Orchestra    

Each of the three winners will have their composition performed by The Bach Choir and Bach Festival Orchestra at the Family Concert on Sunday, January 27, 2013 and will be interviewed about their composition on stage by Greg Funfgeld. Winners will also receive a personal one-hour composition lesson from panelist Larry Lipkis. All ten contestants will receive copies of the judges’ comments and suggestions and four complimentary tickets to the Family Concert.

 The Family Concert is a wonderful way to share your love of classical music with the entire family. The hour-long performance, designed with young concert-goers in mind, includes engaging audience interaction. One composition game, facilitated by composer Larry Lipkis, is called “Composing from the Ground Up”, and will involve young instrumentalists improvising melodic variations over a repeated chord progression or “ground bass.”  Another game involves the audience in learning and clapping along to repeated rhythmic patterns in a well-known classical composition. A program book includes activities introducing the “Tool Kit of a Composer.” All of these elements of the Family Concert will help audiences to be inspired by famous classical composers as well today’s young composers, who will be available to autograph programs after the concert.

Tickets for the Family Concert are $17 for adults and $6 for students up to age 22. For information and ticket reservations call 610.866.4382, ext. 10 or 15 or visit The Choir’s website: www.bach.org