The IL-ACDA Composer Award
The 2025 IL-ACDA Choral Composition Contest is now open for entries. The winner will receive a $1,000 prize and will have their commissioned new work performed by the William Ferris Chorale in Chicago.
Eligibility
Composers within ACDA’s Midwestern Region (including Illinois, Iowa, Indiana, Michigan, Minnesota, Nebraska, North Dakota, Ohio, South Dakota, Wisconsin) with a creative voice and clear compositional ability are invited to enter the annual IL-ACDA Composer Contest. Composers are invited to apply for the IL-ACDA Composition Award, a commission in collaboration with the William Ferris Chorale and MusicSpoke.
Submission Information
All applications must include:
- PDF of at least two scores (each as individual documents). At least one must be a composition for voice(s)/
- Name/any identifying information should be removed – only list your name on the submission FORM
- Any additional documentation (text/translation, etc)
- (Optional) audio recording of any/all submitted work
- Live, studio, or midi acceptable (if submitting live recordings, make sure to remove any introduction or portion of the performance that may indicate the composer’s name)
Applicants must be:
- 18 years of age or older
- A resident of a state within the Midwestern Region of ACDA (including Illinois, Iowa, Indiana, Michigan, Minnesota, Nebraska, North Dakota, Ohio, South Dakota, Wisconsin)
Contest Timeline
- Submissions open: March 1, 2025
- Submissions due: August 1, 2025
- Winner announced: October 1, 2025
- Finished score due: January 1, 2026
- Premiere: TBF Winter 2026
To submit your application, please fill out this online form: https://tinyurl.com/composeraward25
A reminder that all submitted materials (PDFs, MP3s, WAVs, etc) must be free of markings or speaking that identify the composer.
Please send questions to cwindle@williamferrischorale.org
Ready, Bright!
2024 IL-ACDA Composer Award Winner Performance Debut, and more!
This year, IL-ACDA and WFC showcased our Composer Award Winner, Ed Frazier Davis, on February 22nd, 2025 at the St. Charles Cathedral.
Ed Frazier Davis (b. 1989) is an English-American composer, baritone, conductor, and “musical alchemist” (KC Independent), living and working in Chicago. He is the founder and artistic director of Vox Venti, a semi-professional chorus which focuses largely on works by living composers and is proudly dedicated to commissioning new works from LGBTQ+ composers, women composers, and composers of color on every concert.
Past Recipients of the IL-ACDA Composition Contest
| 2024 | ~ Ed Frazier Davis | I Will Ride | efdavis.com |
| 2020 | ~ Cole Reyes | Oh Lord, Support Us (SATB) | colereyes.com |
| 2019 | ~ William V. Malpede | Due (SATB) | Hear “Duet” See the score |
| 2018 | ~ Robert Applebaum | Rain Music (SSAA) | bobapplebaum.com |
| 2017 | ~ Andrew Bruhn | Magnificat and Nunc Dimittis (SATB) | Parcelete Press 1940M Listen here! |
| 2016 | ~ Deanna Witkowski | Where Shadow Chases Light (SSAA) | See the premiere! |
| 2015 | ~ Richard Rossi | O Sacrum Convivium (SATB) | See and hear the score! |
| 2014 | ~ Philip Spencer | Tune Thy Music to Thy Heart (SSA) | |
| 2013 | ~ Tim Blickhan | Life Has Loveliness to Sell (SATB) | |
| 2012 | ~ | On Wings of Prayer (SSAA, piano) | |
| 2011 | ~ Wayland Rogers | When Daisies Pied (SATB) | |
| 2010 | ~ Donald Frasier | In Moonlight (TTB) | |
| 2009 | ~ Karen Ball | A Light Exists In Spring (SATB, piano) | |
| 2008 | ~ Edwin Childs | Peace (SSA, piano) | |
| 2007 | ~ Paul Carey | Thou Art the Sky (SATB, piano) | Roger Dean 15/2430R |
| 2006 | ~ Christopher Walters | Weary with Toil (SATB, unaccompanied) | Colla Voce 15-96040 |
| 1999 | ~ Anne Heider | Jesous Ahatonnia: A Huron carol (TTBB, piano) | |
| 1998 | ~ Edwin Childs | Three Poems from the Chinese | Mark Foster Music 3066 |
| 1997 | ~ Paul Steg | Vocalise (SATB) | |
| 1996 | ~ Bart Bradfield | To The Thawing Wind (SATB, piano) | |
| 1995 | ~ Clyde Thompson | Three Dickinson Poems (SSA, piano, flute) | |
| 1994 | ~ Joel Ross | Sweet Was the Virgin Song (TTBB, harp) | |
| 1993 | ~ Mark Ray Hollman | Hope is a Thing with Feathers (SAB, piano) | |
| 1990 | ~ Ellen Keating | Ave Maria (SSA) | Mark Foster MF922 |
| 1985 | ~ Lee Kesselman | Two Meditations on Yeats (SATB) | |
| 1984 | ~ Michael Kosch | spring! may… (SATB, divisi) |