Joan Szymko’s music is regularly performed across North America and abroad including performances at national and international choral festivals and competitions. Notably, her music has been presented on stage or in session at every National Conference of the American Choral Directors Association since 2003. The ACDA recognized Szymko’s lasting impact on the choral arts in North America by selecting her as a recipient of the prestigious Raymond W. Brock Memorial Commission (2010).
She has been commissioned by all manner of choral ensemble: professional, community, church, academic and childrens choirs. A sampling of commissioning organizations include Chorus America Consortium, New Dublin Voices, the Greater Seattle Choral Consortium, GALA Choruses, Phoenix Chorale, Tampa Bay Master Chorale, San Francisco Girls Choir, and the ACDA Women’s Choir Consortium. The Eugene Concert Choir (Oregon) commissioned a major new addition to the choral repertoire, “Shadow and Light, an Alzheimer’s Journey,” for SATB chorus, soli, and orchestra, for which ECC’s recorded premiere won a 2017 America Prize.
Utilizing a familiar musical vocabulary, Szymko composes works that are nonetheless fresh and engaging. As resident composer with Portland, Oregon, based Do Jump! Movement Theater (1995-2012), Szymko created vocal underscoring for several major touring productions, earning praise from the New York Times for her “ethereal vocal music.” Viriditas Vocal Ensemble, a select vocal ensemble Szymko founded and directed made critically acclaimed appearances with Do Jump! and is featured on Szymko’s CD recording, OPENINGS. Her decades of experience as a professional choral director inform her writing— a passion for the art of singing, an embodied approach to sound, dedication to storytelling and an insistence on quality, relevant texts all relate to her predilections as a conductor and are reflected in her diverse, distinctive compositions.
Szymko has lived and worked in the Pacific Northwest for over four decades. She retired from her position as Artistic Director of Portland’s Aurora Chorus after 27 years of service. A dynamic conductor, she has workshopped her compositions with numerous choirs as a visiting artist in a variety of educational settings across the country, and abroad in the Netherlands. Her catalog of over 100 choral works is published by Santa Barbara Music Publishing, Roger Dean Music Publishing, Oxford University Press, Walton Music, earthsongs, and Joan Szymko Music.
Visit the Composer’s Website
