Vocal director Shoemaker winner in composition competition

    HARLAN – Harlan Community High School Vocal Director Chase Shoemaker recently was announced as a winner in the 2019 Composition Competition by the Iowa Choral Directors Association and the Iowa Composers Forum.
    Shoemaker was commissioned at the beginning of the school year by Tanner Stutzman to write a winter, four-part treble choir piece for his Roland-Story High School treble chorus.  The unaccompanied piece is set to the poem Love Came Down at Christmas, by Christina Rossetti, a 19th century poet.
    “It was performed by the Roland-Story Treble Clef Chorus for their winter program this last December and I decided to submit it, along with Roland-Story’s recording,” Shoemaker said.  “Thirty-two pieces were submitted by Iowa composers and two were selected by the organization as winners of the competition.”
    Shoemaker said the pieces will be performed in July at the Iowa Choral Directors Summer Symposium by a selected high school choir, and then will be available to all Iowa choral directors to use for free for their 2019-20 year or choral season.