I’m honored to have won Chorus Austin’s Young Composer Competition, which means that my winning piece “Rough Country” will be performed on their Southwest Voices concerts:

• Saturday, May 4 8PM – University Presbyterian Church, 2203 San Antonio St, Austin, TX 78705

• Sunday, May 5 4PM – Austin Scottish Rite Theater,  207 W 18th St, Austin, TX 78701

Many thanks to the judges and to conductor Ryan Heller for all of their hard work! Looking forward to spending time with the choir in Austin (and going to Torchy’s Tacos).

I enjoyed setting “Rough Country” and the other three texts very much indeed. Like many of Dana Gioia’s poems, they paint beautiful pictures of wild landscapes, alongside more internal thoughts and spiritual questioning.

This will be the US premiere of Rough Country (Kantos gave the world premiere performance last year). The other movements, “Interrogations at Noon” and “The Angel with the Broken Wing,” will continue to be performed in Ensemble Companio’s run of their Failed Saints performances.