2024 STEPHEN PAULUS EMERGING COMPOSERS COMPETITION PREMIERE
This November 22-24, 2024, we are proud to present the World Premiere of the winning work resulting from our annual Stephen Paulus Emerging Composers Competition!
The winning composer is Carlos Cordero, who will set the poem sleeping magic (excerpted) by Enrique Garcia (“Q”), to music.
The new work will be paired in concert with the Southwest U.S. premiere of Timothy C. Takach’s Unfashioned Creature, a choral ballet based on Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein, featuring the James Sewell Ballet, and Brahms’s Neue Liebeslieder Waltzes, Op. 65.
sleeping magic (excerpted) by Enrique Garcia “Q”
I believe in the setting sun behind mountain.
I believe in the surface beneath me.
I believe in the roots of an ocotillo, tangled
to the core. I believe in brooks and streams,
even as they dry. I believe in small hands,
which try to cup everything possible
before it drips away. I believe in dust devils
and their unison with sandstorms.
I believe in footprints left behind
like gravestones.
Night stars bending into cursive,
writing the music of the desert;
a tempo of solitude
Una melodia for the day to come.
I believe in the desert and her beauty,
I believe in the shadows that follow our every move,
I believe there will always be a song being born
in our chests.
I believe in the sanctity and sorrow of this land,
I believe in the holy cacti that watch
over las casitas of Tucson.
I believe in all of the sleeping magic of the desert.
Carlos Cordero, composer
Carlos (b. 1992, pronouns he/him/his) is a gay Latinx immigrant artist who promotes social change through choral music. He is a composer, new choral music advocate, and the founder of The Happy Choir, The New Choral Music Society, and Un/Heard, organizations where he advocates for the LGBTQ+ and immigrant community. His mission is to create moments where people discuss how to be kinder with each other and themselves. He holds an M.M. in Composition from the University of Houston where he got to work with Dr. David Ashley White and Dr. Betsy Cook Weber, and has worked with EXIGENCE, Conspirare, and Chorus Austin, among others. Carlos is the Music Director at Austin’s Central Presbyterian Church and founder of the New Choral Music Society, a non-profit advocating for opportunities for new choral music composers and poets. Carlos is Chorus America’s Alice Parker Fund Award 2024 recipient, recognizing the exemplary work of a Black or Latinx composer who respectfully and authentically presents works incorporating these traditions and experiences. He is originally from Venezuela, where he was a choral conductor and music educator at El Sistema; he currently resides in Austin, Texas, with his two Chiweenies, Sweet Pea and Olive. People visiting Austin should reach out to him to have some Venezuelan food!
Congratulations to the winners of past competitions!
2023-24: Nicholas Ryan Kelly
Kelly’s composition, “A World that Shimmers” was premiered by True Concord in October 2023 in “Songs of America,” a program of folk songs and spirituals.
2021-22: Marybeth Kurnat
Kurnat’s composition, “I, Lover,” was premiered by True Concord in January 2023 alongside Jocelyn Hagen’s “multimedia symphony,” Here I Am, Mozart’s Exsultate, jubilate and music by or inspired by African Americans and Native Americans.
2020-21: Ethan Soledad
Soledad’s composition, “When I Rise Up,” was performed by True Concord in April 2021 in “The Trailblazers,” a program celebrating women creators and game changers.
2019-20: Tom Peterson
Peterson’s composition, “Being Many, Seeming One,” was performed by True Concord in October 2019 in four concerts of music based on Shakespearean texts. His piece sets the text from Sonnet VIII (“Music to hear”), which is the insipiration for True Concord’s name.
2018-19: Martin Sedek
Sedek’s winning work, “The Beauty of Cosmic Things,” was performed by True Concord in November 2018, in three concerts of American music that honored veterans and commemorated the centenary of Armistice Day.
2017-18: Matthew Lyon Hazzard
Hazzard’s winning work, “Look Back on Time,” was performed by True Concord in March, 2018, in four concerts of American music based on the poetry of Emily Dickinson.
