"One of the Purposes of the American Choral Directors Association is "to foster and encourage choral composition of superior quality." Each spring, the Wisconsin Choral Directors Association supports this important work with our annual Student Choral Composition Contest. Wisconsin high school and college students are eligible to submit their newly written compositions for consideration and feedback by the May 1st deadline. The winning composers and their works are then recognized at our summer conference, Refresh!, and their scores are made available to our membership for performance the following year.



 

 

Announcing the 2025

Student Choral Composition Contest
Win cash for your choral composition!!

Wisconsin student composers are invited to submit works for beginning to intermediate choirs to the WCDA’s Student Choral Composition Contest. There will be two divisions: High School, with one $300 prize, and Collegiate, with one $500 prize. The winning composition in each division will also be made available to our WCDA members for one year, for the purpose of giving live performances by their ensembles.

High School division students are eligible if they are currently enrolled in any Wisconsin high school. Collegiate division students are eligible if they are currently pursuing an undergraduate degree at any Wisconsin college or university, or if they are a Wisconsin high school graduate currently pursuing an undergraduate degree at an out-of-state college or university. There is no age limit, and no entry fee!

Entries for the 2025 WCDA Student Choral Composition Contest will be accepted from now until May 2nd, 2025. The compositions should be scored for 2 to 4 voices in any combination (2 part, SAB, SATB, SSA, TBB, etc.), with no divisi. The piece can be a cappella, accompanied with piano, or accompanied by a unique backing track recording created specifically for your composition. The difficulty level should be appropriate for a beginning to intermediate level high school choir.

Full Contest Requirements can be found at:
2025 Composition Contest REQUIREMENTS

Contest Entry Form can be found at:
2025 Composition Contest ENTRY FORM

Questions? Contact our Wisconsin Composition Chair, Brad Burrill, at:
rrwicomposition@wischoral.org

Good luck!

Announcing the 2024 WCDA
Student Choral Composition Contest Winner

2024 WCDA Student Composition Contest Winner:
Congratulations to Evy Dyanchand! Her piece "Home" is the winner of the 2024 Student Composition Contest, in the high school division!

Evy is a recent graduate of Lancaster High School. She has had an ardent interest in music fever since she was young, and it has influenced her school experiences significantly. She took advantage of all opportunities to sing in choirs, as well as small ensembles and solos. In addition, she was a valued member of the band, playing flute for the last six years. Though she only began composing and songwriting last year, it has quickly become a passion of hers. Evy plans on attending UW-Madison as a Music Composition major, and auditioning for choir in the coming year.

“Home” is one of the pieces Evy composed as she assembled her composition portfolio for her college auditions. Though applicable to many different scenarios in life, she wrote “Home” with thoughts of her upcoming graduation in mind. She hopes that this piece can bring comfort to those nearing the end of chapters in their own lives, as writing it has for her. Evy would like to thank the Wisconsin Choral Directors Association for this incredible honor. She would also like to thank her past music educators, especially band director Mrs. Rebekah Vogelsberg and choir director Mr. David Murphy, for their love and support in helping her become the musician she is today.