The IL-ACDA Choral 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
  • PDF of the scores (each as individual documents)
  • Name/any identifying information should be removed – only list your name on the submission FORM
  • Any additional documentation (text/translation, etc)
  • 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)
  • (Optional) audio recording of any/all submitted work
  • 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

Email your scores and form to:
Donald Fraser, IL-ACDA Composer Award Chair, donald@donaldfraser.com


Ready, Bright!

2024 IL-ACDA Composition Contest Winner Performance Debut, and more!

Join IL-ACDA and WFC on February 22nd, 2025 at 7:30pm at the St. Charles Cathedral to hear our 2024 Award Winner Ed Frazier Davis’s work, I Will Ride, shared alongside work by Stacy Garrop, Tawnie Olson, Derrick Skye and many more!

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.

Click the link to purchase your tickets. Use code “WFCIMEC50” for 50% off tickets!


Past Recipients of the IL-ACDA Composition Contest

2024~ Ed Frazier DavisI Will Rideefdavis.com
2020~ Cole ReyesOh Lord, Support Us (SATB)colereyes.com
2019~ William V. MalpedeDue (SATB)Hear “Duet”
See the score
2018~ Robert ApplebaumRain Music (SSAA)bobapplebaum.com
2017~ Andrew BruhnMagnificat and Nunc Dimittis (SATB)Parcelete Press 1940M
Listen here!
2016~ Deanna WitkowskiWhere Shadow Chases Light (SSAA)See the premiere!
2015~ Richard RossiO Sacrum Convivium (SATB)See and hear the score!
2014~ Philip SpencerTune Thy Music to Thy Heart (SSA) 
2013~ Tim BlickhanLife Has Loveliness to Sell (SATB) 
2012~On Wings of Prayer (SSAA, piano) 
2011~ Wayland RogersWhen Daisies Pied (SATB) 
2010~ Donald FrasierIn Moonlight (TTB) 
2009~ Karen BallA Light Exists In Spring (SATB, piano) 
2008~ Edwin ChildsPeace (SSA, piano) 
2007~ Paul CareyThou Art the Sky (SATB, piano)Roger Dean 15/2430R
2006~ Christopher WaltersWeary with Toil (SATB, unaccompanied)Colla Voce 15-96040
1999~ Anne HeiderJesous Ahatonnia: A Huron carol (TTBB, piano) 
1998~ Edwin ChildsThree Poems from the ChineseMark Foster Music 3066
1997~ Paul StegVocalise (SATB) 
1996~ Bart BradfieldTo The Thawing Wind (SATB, piano) 
1995~ Clyde ThompsonThree Dickinson Poems (SSA, piano, flute) 
1994~ Joel RossSweet Was the Virgin Song (TTBB, harp) 
1993~ Mark Ray HollmanHope is a Thing with Feathers (SAB, piano) 
1990~ Ellen KeatingAve Maria (SSA)Mark Foster MF922
1985~ Lee KesselmanTwo Meditations on Yeats (SATB) 
1984~ Michael Koschspring! may… (SATB, divisi)