News
JOHN MUEHLEISEN’S WWI ORATORIO,
“A KIPLING PASSION,”
WINS THE 2020 AMERICAN PRIZE FOR PROFESSIONAL CHORAL COMPOSERS:
MAJOR WORKS DIVISION
I’m honored to announce that my second oratorio, But Who Shall Return Us Our Children – A Kipling Passion, has been awarded the 2020 American Prize for Professional Choral Composers: Major Works Division.
Conceived as a WWI commemorative oratorio, the work was premiered in March 2017 during the centenary of WWI and has received nearly a dozen performances since its premiere.
A recording of the work has been released worldwide and is available in a variety of formats: physical CD, digital download, and on various streaming services. Please consider purchasing the CD from one of the following organizations, without which this recording would not have been possible.
If you’d like to read more details about the work, please download the beautifully designed digital CD booklet here, with insightful program notes by Dr. Gary D. Cannon.
For a perusal score of the full work, please contact the composer via the Contact page on this website.
Featured Works
SONGS to SEE US THROUGH:
Choral works of HUMOR, HEALING, and HOPE
Looking for upbeat and positive choral works to dispel the clouds of COVID? Here’s a newly curated set of my choral works designed to bring some light and hope into our world as we emerge from the darkness of the past year. In that spirit, I offer the works below for your consideration. Keep the faith, my choral brothers and sisters, and continue your ministry of mercy by singing beauty, hope, and resilience into the world to heal wounded souls and to gladden human hearts.
HUMOR
Welcome relief in troubled times
Eat Your Vegetables! – Set One
(Joanne Gunnerson)
SATB choir and Bb clarinet
Eat Your Vegetables! – Set Two
(Joanne Gunnerson)
SATB choir, trumpet, and percussion
HEALING
Singing and gathering together in community
Life has Loveliness to Sell
(Sara Teasdale)
SATB a cappella
Sing to Me!
(Ella Wheeler Wilcox)
SATB div. a cappella
Singing Together
(Jill Clymer)
SATB div. a cappella
That Music Always Round Me
(Walt Whitman)
SATB div. a cappella
The Gathering (“Come in”)
(Robert Bode)
SATB choir, Audience, and Piano
with optional percussion played by singers
(tambourine, triangle, low hand drum)
HOPE
Finding hope and peace in the midst of adversity
A Psalm of Life
(Henry Wadsworth Longfellow)
SATB div, trumpet, and piano
Hope
(Emily Dickinson)
SSA a cappella
Love Is
(Rabi’a of Basra)
SATB div. and trumpet
Making Peace
(Denise Levertov)
SATB div., soprano + tenor saxophone (one player), and piano
The Stars Still Shine
(Charles Anthony Silvestri)
SATB div. a cappella
Tides of Peace
(Henry van Dyke)
SATB div. a cappella
Performances
2021 Performances
- March 5, 2021 – Kyrie in Angustiis (Kyrie for Troubled Times – “Orbis Factor”) – Dordt University Concert Choir, Ryan Smit, cond. (Sioux Center, IA)
- March 21, 2021 (Live Stream Concert) – Hope – Vox Musica, Sacramento, CA
- March 30, 2021 – “RAH!” from Eat Your Vegetables! – Set One, Pensacola Christian College Recital Choir, Chan Kim, cond. (Pensacola, FL)
- April 2021 (Digital Video Concert) – The Lark Above the Trenches, Inversion Ensemble’s IEX (Inversion Experimental), Trevor Shaw, cond. with line upon line Percussion Ensemble (Austin, TX) – Release date TBD
- April 22, 2021 (Digital Video Concert) – The Soul’s Expression, Baylor University Chamber Choir, Brian Schmidt, cond. (Waco, TX)
- May 1, 2021 Eat Your Vegetables! – Set One– Dordt University Concert Choir, Ryan Smit, cond. (Sioux Center, IA)
- May 9–16, 2021 (Video Concert) – “Aversion to Carrots” from Eat Your Vegetables! – Set One – Master Chorus Eastside, Linda Gingrich, cond. (Issaquah, WA)
- December 17, 2021 – The Great “O” Antiphons – St. Stephen’s Episcopal Church Sanctuary Choir, Brent te Velde, cond. (Richmond, VA)
2022 Performances
- Feb. 12, 2022 – The Gathering – newVoices Choir, Phillip Swan, cond. (Appleton, WI)
- March 10, 2022 – Eat Your Vegetables! – Set One – Cleveland Statue University Chorale, Brian Bailey, cond. (Cleveland, OH)
- June 12, 2022 – Imagination! (poem by Phillis Wheatley) for SATB choir a cappella (WORLD PREMIERE) – Commissioned by The Donald Brinegar Singers in honor of the conductor’s 70th birthday, The Donald Brinegar Singers, Donald Brinegar, cond. (Pasadena, CA)
- July 6, 2022 (2 performances) – Cantata Caffeinata (libretto by Charles Anthony Silvestri) for Soprano + Baritone Soloists, SATB choir, Soprano Saxophone, Percussion, and Organ (WORLD PREMIERE) – Commissioned by the American Guild of Organists for the Biennial National Convention in Seattle, WA, Performers + Conductor TBD. (Seattle, WA)
- Oct, 2022 – The Gathering – newVoices Choir, Phillip Swan, cond. (Appleton, WI)
Commissions & Premieres
Upcoming Premieres
- June12, 2022 – Imagination! (poem by Phillis Wheatley) for SATB choir a cappella (WORLD PREMIERE) – Commissioned by The Donald Brinegar Singers in honor of the conductor’s 70th birthday, The Donald Brinegar Singers, Donald Brinegar, cond. (Pasadena, CA)
- July 6, 2022 (2 performances) – Cantata Caffeinata (libretto by Charles Anthony Silvestri) for Soprano + Baritone Soloists, SATB choir, Soprano Saxophone, Percussion, and Organ (WORLD PREMIERE) – Commissioned by the American Guild of Organists for the Biennial National Convention in Seattle, WA, Performers + Conductor TBD. (Seattle, WA)
- Multiple dates TBD – Borders, (WORLD PREMIERE of Complete Version) – Commissioned by Matthew Melendez and the Great Bend Center for Music in collaboration with the Distinguished Concerts International New York Premiere Project, with support from the Mason County Washington Historic Preservation Commission and Sierra Pacific Industries – Great Bend Chorale and Youth Chorale; Tess Altiveros, sop; Matthew Melendez, cond.
- Date TBD – And Music Shall Untune the Sky for choir and soprano saxophone (WORLD PREMIERE) – Commissioned by Brian Gorelick. Performing ensemble TBD.
* Please contact composer for perusal scores of works listed above.