The Esoterics

For Immediate Release: September 6, 2008

SEATTLE -- For fifteen years, The Esoterics has performed and recorded a cappella choral music that expands the boundaries of choral traditions. As part of its mission to perpetuate choral music, the organization sponsors an annual choral composition competition: POLYPHONOS. Begun in 2006, the competition draws applications from choral composers from around the world. Every year The Esoterics grants three commissions: one for an American composer, one for an international composer, and one for a young composer (under age 30). Each winner receives $1,000 for his/her piece as well as funding to travel to Seattle to hear the work performed.

The Esoterics received 128 submissions for the 2009 competition, yielding a highly competitive applicant pool. The competition judges, including composers, singers, and The Esoterics' founding director, Eric Banks, struggled to select just three winners. The winners received notification of their awards in July 2008; The Esoterics now proudly presents these three deserving awardees.

The national award winner, Shawn Brogan Allison (ASCAP member) is both a composer and saxophone player who received degrees from St. Olaf College (B.M.) and Ithaca College (M.M.) and is currently working on his composition Ph.D. at the University of Chicago as a Javits Fellow. His primary composition teachers have been Shulamit Ran, Marta Ptaszynska, Dana Wilson, Timothy Mahr, and Peter Hamlin. Allison has been commissioned by a variety of groups, including the American Composers Forum, Cantus, the Cornell Chorale, the Ithaca College Men's Chorus, and the St. Olaf Band. As a result of winning the 2004 American Composers Forum Jerome Commissioning Contest, he will be teaming up with librettist David Pisa to write a chamber opera dealing with the intersection between lying, storytelling, and quests for authenticity in the 21st Century, to be premiered by the Nautilus Music Theater in Minneapolis, MN in 2009. He has also been involved in the administration of many new music groups, recently serving on the steering committee of the Chicago Composers Forum and currently serving as New Music Advisor for the Sapphire Chamber Consort in Minneapolis.

Born in Santa Fe, Argentina, Eduardo Andrés Malachevsky is the international POLYPHONOS winner. Malachevsky studied flute, conducting, and composition as a young man, then decided at the age of 24 to become a Cistercian (Trappist) monk. After living a contemplative, monastic life for fourteen year, he left the order in 1998 to pursue a career in choral conducting an composition. As a conductor Malachevsky has worked with choirs in the U.S., Argentina and France and in 2008 launched a new choral ensemble, in San Carlos de Bariloche, the "Coro de Camara Patagonia," which is primarily dedicated to performing contemporary choral music. As a composer, Malachevsky's works have accumulated numerous awards and have been performed as part of both national and international composition competitions. His music has been sung by choirs such as Berliner Domkantorei (Berlin Cathedral Choir, Germany); Goeyvaersts Consort (Belgium); Sangita Choir (Universal Sacred Music Foundation, USA); and Cantemus Mixed Choir (Hungary). Most recently, Malachevsky was named a winner of the 35th annual Concorso Internazionale di Composizione Guide D'Arezzo, an international choral composition sponsored by the Fondazione Guide D'Arrezzo.

Nilo Alcala from Lucena City, Philippines, is the young composer awardee. As an undergraduate, Alcala studied with Jonas Baes, Christine Muyco, Ramon Pagayon Santos, and Josefino Chino Toledo at University of the Philippines' Diliman College of Music. He is currently a graduate student in composition at Syracuse University Setnor School of Music (New York State) and recipient of the Billy Joel Fellowship. Among his teachers are Nicholas Scherzinger, Gregory Mertl, Andrew Waggoner, and Daniel Godfrey. An active chorister, he was member and composer-in-residence of the Philippine Madrigal Singers, who premiered his works in concert tours in the United States as well as several countries in Asia and Europe. In October 2004, Alcala was 2nd prize winner of the Asian Composers League (ACL) Young Composers Competition held in Jerusalem, Israel. He was also the Philippine delegate to and featured composer in the 1st I'mPULSE International Music Camp organized by the Asia Europe Foundation (ASEF) in February 2005. More information can be found on his website: www.freewebs.com/nilo_alcala2.

Each of these three winners will select text and compose a piece to fit with The Estoerics' 2009 Season. The group will rehearse and perform all three commissions as part of the regular season, and will invite the composers to attend the concerts in Seattle. Members of the group look forward to seeing these new works with great anticipation.

"It has become a highlight of our concert season for me," says Whitney Wishart, alto, "I just think it's really exciting to think that these pieces have been written for us and that, in our own way, we have become a part of choral music history."

Please see The Esoterics' web site: www.TheEsoterics.org for more information about the POLYPHONOS competition and the 2009 winners.

The Esoterics has presented dozens of local and international premieres, and has tackled the most challenging works of 20th and 21st century choral repertoire. Now celebrating its fifteenth anniversary season with founding director Eric Banks, the ensemble has drawn national and international praise for presenting the many styles that comprise contemporary choral music. In 2001, 2003, 2006, and 2008 The Esoterics' commitment to innovative concert repertoire was nationally recognized when ASCAP and Chorus America granted the ensemble its coveted Award for Adventurous Programming of Contemporary Music. The ensemble was also honored to be selected as the only North American chorus to compete at the 2000 International Choral Festival in Cork, Ireland, the 2001 International Choral Festival in Tolosa, Spain, and the 2006 Harald Andersén International Choir Competition in Helsinki, Finland.

If you have additional questions about Polyphonos or The Esoterics (media contact only), please contact Bayta Maring ()