Joan Szymko

American choral conductor and composer (born 1957)

Joan Szymko (born 1957) is an American choral conductor, music educator and composer. She was born in Chicago and studied choral conducting and music education at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, graduating in 1978. She settled in Seattle, Washington, and worked as a music teacher, composer and choral conductor.^[1]

In 1993 Szymko took a position directing the Aurora Chorus in Portland, Oregon. She founded the women's choir Viriditas Vocal Ensemble in 1994. Szymko composed the music for the Broadway musical Do Jump! at the New Victory Theater^[2] and Jan Maher's play Most Dangerous Women.^[3]

Works

Szymko composes mainly for theater and choral ensembles. Selected works include:

All Works of Love for the Brock Commission 2010^[4]
Nothing But Mud (text: "The Church, Zillebeke, October 1918" by William Orpen from his An Onlooker in France, 1917–1919 (1921))
The Call
Carpe Diem
Ein grosser Gesang (text: poems by Rainer Maria Rilke)
Entro en la vida (text: by Teresa of Ávila)
The Freshness (text: Rumi)
Hear Me! We Are One
Herbst (text: Rainer Maria Rilke)
How Did the Rose (text: Hafez)
I Lift My Eyes
I Dream a World (text: poem by Langston Hughes)
Illumina la tenebre (text: St Francis of Assisi)
It Takes a Village (text: West African adage)

Her music has been recorded and issued on CD, including:

Openings (CD, 1998) Virga Records
2010 IMEA Honors Chorus & All-State Chorus (CD, March 31, 2010) Mark Records
Texas Music Educators Association 2008: All-State Women's and Men's Choir (CD, April 1, 2008) Mark Records
Consecrate: the Place and Day to Music (CD, October 2, 2007) Mark Records
Faces of a Woman (CD, January 8, 2008) MD&G Records
Cradle of Fire: A Tribute to the Women of World War II (CD, December 14, 2004) Indianapolis Women's Label^[5]^{[better source needed]}

References

^ "Featured Composers – Joan Szymko". newmusicworks.org. Retrieved March 30, 2024.
^
- Lawrence Van Gelder (April 20, 2000). "Theater Review; Take Oohs and Ahs and Mix with Giggles". The New York Times. Retrieved March 30, 2024.
- Martha Ullman West (March 26, 2000). "Dance; Whimsy that Jumps over Categories". The New York Times. Retrieved March 30, 2024.
^ Maher, Jan (2006). Most Dangerous Women: Bringing History to Life Through Readers' Theater. Pearson Education. pp. ix, 63. ISBN 9780325009100.
^ "American Choral Directors Association". Archived from the original on March 8, 2016. Retrieved March 27, 2016.
^ Amazon.com listing