2025 Rising Choral Composer
Competition

The applicant must be a high school (9–12) music student under the direction of an active member of FVA.

Composition must be an SATB (opt. divisi) choral arrangement of traditional choral style.

All completed submission materials must be sent by email to the Music Committee Chair by the deadline (music@fva.net).

• Must be submitted in PDF format, using music notation software
• Must be legible and marked for complete understanding
  • Printed with one staff for each voice part. If a voice part divides, the two may remain on the same staff.
• The time duration of the composition must be at least two minutes and long enough to be consistent with good form and taste.
• The accompaniment must be on two staves below the voice parts.
  • If the composition is a cappella, a piano reduction accompaniment must be provided for rehearsal.
• Make sure that the text you are using, if not original, is in the public domain and you have the right to set the text to music. Our panel of judges recommends selecting a poem/text that has already been published, as opposed to writing your own text. This is only a suggestion, enabling you to focus more on musical aspects if your text is already solid.

Entries shall be evaluated by 3–5 judges.

Rubric

• Dr. Julian David Bryson conducts music that draws opposites into conversation: sacred and secular, ancient and contemporary, classical and popular, individual and collective. Named runner-up for the National Dale Warland Award for Choral Conducting, Julian has taught musicians in elementary classrooms and university concert halls across Florida, Alabama, Kentucky, Massachusetts, and most recently in Virginia, where he serves as Director of Choral Activities at Radford University. There, he leads three choral ensembles and teaches courses in conducting, education, and music theory.
  Julian holds a doctorate in Choral Conducting from the University of Kentucky, where his dissertation examined how choral collectives challenge the traditional boundaries between composer, conductor, and ensemble. He also holds degrees in conducting and composition from the University of Tennessee and previously served on the faculties of Jacksonville University and Curry College.
• Dr. Cristian Grases — Venezuelan native Cristian Grases joined the University of Southern California faculty in the Fall 2010 semester, and is currently a professor of choral music, conductor of the USC Thornton Chamber Singers, and Chair of the Department of Choral and Sacred Music, after serving as the Vice Dean for the Classical Performance and Composition Division for three years. As a sought-after conductor, clinician, academic, and adjudicator, he has traveled to Europe, North and South America, Asia, and Australia, conducting in prestigious halls such as
  Carnegie Hall, and presenting at numerous international conventions and symposia. Grases is also an award-winning composer whose works have been commissioned and sung by numerous prestigious ensembles around the world. Grases served as the Vice-President for Latin America of the International Federation for Choral Music until December 2020, and was the chair of the Ethnic Music Repertoire and Resources Committee for the Western Division of the American Choral Directors Association (2009-2018). He has served in many
  international committees, including the artistic committee for the World Youth Choir and the World Symposium on Choral Music.

• Dr. Erynn M. Millard is the Director of Choral Activities at the Wertheim School of Music & Performing Arts at Florida International University. She oversees all choral activities, including the Concert Choir and the University Singers. She holds a Ph.D. in choral music education and conducting with a college teaching certificate from The Florida State University, where she studied conducting with André Thomas and Kevin Fenton. She also earned a Master of Science in Secondary Music Education and a Bachelor of Music in Vocal Music Education from Old Dominion University in Norfolk, Virginia. Her research interests include the role of competition in choral music education, choral music preferences, and honor choir audition procedures.

• Dr. Skip Stradtman is an American composer, arranger, conductor, and music educator. Skip’s choral pieces are regularly performed by academic, community, and church choirs across the Southeastern United States. His works have been featured at multiple regional and national conferences, most recently including the 2024 Florida Music Educators Conference, the 2023 Louisiana All-State Mixed Chorus, and the 2023 Montreat Music and Worship Conference. Skip received Editor’s Choice from J.W.Pepper for his arrangement of “Be Thou My Vision” (Gentry Publications) in 2023. Skip holds a DMA from the University of Alabama, a Master of Music Degree in Choral Conducting from UA and a Bachelor of Music Education from Florida State University.
  

Items to submit by email to Music Committee Chair, by September 25, 2026:

• A signed copy of the completed Entry Form (PDF)
• Picture of the composer
• A PDF copy of the music manuscript
• An MP3 recording of the composition.
  • may be an electronic recording via Finale or similar composition app

• 2022: Nothing Gold Can Stay, Elizabeth Weber (Niceville HS)
• 2021: Sanctus, Lazaro Alonso (Miami Arts Studio 6–12 at Zelda Glazer)