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

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

2020 Performances

  • January 21,  2020 – Consolation: Requiem for Parkland (Version for SSAA, piano, and chimes), Company West Treble Chorus, Arvada West High School, Chris Maunu, cond. (Arvada, CO)
  • January 23,  2020 – Consolation: Requiem for Parkland (Version for SSAA, piano, and chimes), Company West Treble Chorus, Arvada West High School, Chris Maunu, cond. (Colorado Music Educators Assoc. Conference: Colorado Springs, CO)
  • Feb 2, 2020 – Pietà excerpts, Connor Koppin, cond., Michigan State University (East Lansing, MI)
  • Feb 22-23, 2020 – The Gathering: “Come In”, Kirkland Choral Society, Glenn Gregg, cond.
  • Feb 22-23, 2020 – Love is… (West Coast PREMIERE of choir and trumpet version), Kirkland Choral Society, Glenn Gregg, cond.
  • March 1, 2020 – Eat Your Vegetables! – Set One, University of Wisconsin – Milwaukee Concert Chorale, Zachary Durlam, cond., Milwaukee, WI
  • March 5, 2020 – Consolation: Requiem for Parkland (Arkansas PREMIERE of version for SSAA, piano, and chimes at SW ACDA Conference) – Commissioned by Company West Treble Chorus, Arvada West High School, Chris Maunu, cond. (Little Rock, AR)
  • March 5, 2020 – from Eat Your Vegetables! – Set One: Aversion to Carrots, RAH!, University of Wisconsin – Milwaukee Concert Chorale, Zachary Durlam, cond. (North Central ACDA Conference, Milwaukee, WI)
  • December 18, 2020 – “O Clavis David” from The Great ‘O’ Anitphons, Ember Vocal Ensemble, Deborah Simpkin King, cond. (Live-stream from NYC)

2021 Performances

View Event Calendar + Archive…

Commissions / Premieres

2020 Premieres

  • January 23, 2020 – Consolation: Requiem for Parkland (WORLD PREMIERE of version for SSAA, piano, and chimes at Colorado Music Educators Association Conference, Colorado Springs) – Commissioned by Company West Treble Chorus, Arvada West High School, Chris Maunu, cond.
  • Feb 22-23, 2020 – The Gathering: “Come In” – Poem by Robert Bode. (WORLD PREMIERE) – Commissioned by Kirkland Choral Society, Glenn Gregg, cond.
  • Feb 22-23, 2020 – Love is… (West Coast PREMIERE of choir and trumpet version) – Kirkland Choral Society, Glenn Gregg, cond. (Kenmore, WA)
  • March 5, 2020 – Consolation: Requiem for Parkland (SouthEast US PREMIERE of version for SSAA, piano, and chimes at SW ACDA Conference) – Commissioned by Company West Treble Chorus, Arvada West High School, Chris Maunu, cond. (Little Rock, AR)

Please contact composer for perusal scores of works listed here.

Upcoming Premieres

  • Date TBD – Imagination! 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)
  • Date TBD – And Music Shall Untune the Sky for choir and soprano saxophone (WORLD PREMIERE) – Commissioned by Brian Gorelick for the Wake Forest University Concert Choir, Brian Gorelick, cond.
  • Date 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.