Emerging Composers Competition

Guidelines

Online submissions of one PDF copy of the composition and a brief resume outlining prior musical experience and education received no later than May 1, are preferred. Only one composition per entrant may be submitted. Please send submissions to sean.maher@yale.edu

OR

• Five (5) copies of the submitted score and a brief resume outlining prior musical experience and education must be postmarked no later than May 1. Only one composition per entrant may be submitted.

• Names must not appear on the score

• The winning score will be reproduced solely for performance by the Yale Glee Club. Copies will be destroyed in the event of future publication.

• The Yale Glee Club will have a non-exclusive, world-wide perpetual license to perform the winning score. The Yale Glee Club shall have the right to record the inaugural performance for archival and other purposes, including distribution and sale of such recording. 

• No scores will be returned.

If electronic submissions are not possible please use the following address(es)

U.S. Mail address:

Jeffrey Douma, Director

Yale Glee Club Emerging Composers Competition

PO Box 201929

New Haven, CT 06520-1929

Fedex address:

Jeffrey Douma, Director

Yale Glee Club Emerging Composers Competition

165 Elm Street, Room 201

New Haven, CT  06511

• Mixed choir (SATB, divisi possible)
• Unaccompanied, with keyboard accompaniment, or with instrumental accompaniment of not more than three individual instruments
• Three to five minutes duration 
• Preference will be given to unpublished works that have not received premieres outside of informal academic settings
• Rights to text must be cleared and evidence of copyright holder’s permission must be shown
• Secular or sacred text
• Level of difficulty suitable for a college choir or community choir

The winner is announced in June on the Yale Glee Club website and through other communications. All entrants will be notified by e-mail. 

The winner receives $1500 plus travel expenses to New Haven for attendance at a premiere performance by the Yale Glee Club during its upcoming concert season and possible future publication in Yale Glee Club New Classics Choral Series.
 

Naomi LaViolette

Congratulations to the winner of the 2026 Yale Glee Club Emerging Composers Competition, Naomi LaViolette, for her composition of Brave Light.

Naomi LaViolette (she/her) is a composer, collaborative pianist, singer-songwriter, and recording artist based in Portland, Oregon. Recent choral commissions include Vox Femina Los Angeles, the Boston Gay Men’s Chorus, and Oregon Repertory Singers. She is a recipient of the Yale Emerging Composers Award, the CCDA/Heussenstamm Choral Composition Prize, and the Houston Choral Society Composition Prize. Praised by Fanfare Magazine for her “mastery of choral writing,” she is a published composer with Graphite Publishing and Santa Barbara Music Publishing.

Her versatile career as a musician includes appearances at Carnegie Hall’s Weill Recital Hall, CBS Sunday Morning, the Portland Jazz Festival, six singer-songwriter albums, solo piano releases as Lucente Skye, and over two decades as collaborative pianist for the Oregon Repertory Singers. She has also collaborated as both composer and performer on Billboard-charting and American Prize-winning recordings.

While continuing an active performing and recording schedule, Naomi shifted the focus of her musical career to composition in 2022, and is proud to now be a student of internationally acclaimed composer Raphael Fusco. She holds a master’s degree in piano performance and studied with Tanya Stambuk, Harold Gray, and Randy Porter.

Previous Winners

Season Winner Composition
2023-24 Ismael Huerta Marin Ten piedad de nosotros
2022-23 Corinne Klein to be one with each other
2021-22 Isaac Lovdahl Though the great Waters sleep
2019-20 Keane Southard Dona nobis pacem
2018-19 Karen Siegel ‘0 To Be Free
2017-18 Julian David Bryson Parable of Choices
2016-17 Jane Sheldon Testimony I: Ann Wood
2015-16 Martin Sedek Ah! Sunflower
2014-15 Dale Trumbore A Valentine for Hands
2013-14 Conrad Winslow Love (After Rouchfoucauld)
2012-13 Dominick DiOrio Ode to Purcell
2011-12 Kala Pierson Carry the Spark
2011-12 Joseph Gregorio Exsultate Deo
2009-10 Michael Gilbertson Weep You No More
2008-09 Cristian Grases Amanecer
2007-08 Robert Vuichard Zephyr Rounds
2006-07 Caroline Mallonee Wind Songs
2005-06 Jocelyn Hagen Laus Trinitati