25th Anniversary Choral Composition Winners Announced

Natalie Stein (b. 1999) is an American composer, singer, and pianist based in New York City.

Natalie’s compositions have been performed by the Antioch Chamber Ensemble, Hypercube
(Charlotte New Music Festival), and Trio Immersio (ICEBERG Institute).

At The Juilliard School, Natalie works as the Manager of Student Development, excelling as a
young professional in supporting student growth and leadership outside the classroom.
Natalie’s love for choral music began at a young age and brought her to the National
Association for Music Education’s All-National Honor Ensemble Mixed Choir at fifteen. For five
years, Natalie sang under the direction of Gabriel Crouch as a member of the Princeton
University Glee Club and Chamber Choir, touring internationally and collaborating with
esteemed choral ensembles including Roomful of Teeth, Tenebrae, Basiani, and Calmus. As a
member of the Juilliard Community Chorus, Natalie has performed at Carnegie Hall and the
Peter Jay Sharp Theater with students from the Juilliard Orchestra, the Historical Performance
Department, and the Dance Division.

Natalie graduated summa cum laude with a Bachelor of Arts in Music and a Certificate in Vocal
Performance from Princeton University in 2022. She studied composition and music theory with
professors Steven Mackey, Donnacha Dennehy, and Juri Seo, classical voice with David Kellett,
and classical piano with Jennifer Tao. She served as the President of the Princeton
Undergraduate Composers’ Collective in 2019-2020.

Though she writes for a variety of instrumentations, Natalie’s artistry particularly shines through

Theo Greer

Theo Greer is a composer and music theorist from St. Louis, Missouri, who holds bachelor’s degrees in computer science and music composition, along with an MA in music composition from Truman State University. He recently completed an MM in music theory at Michigan State University, where he taught undergraduate aural skills and music theory classes. In addition to using his compositions as a vehicle for social advocacy, Theo often composes to process complex experiences and emotions that cannot be unpacked purely through prose, aiming to do so in ways that resonate with the audience’s own experiences.

Theo has been awarded grants for such projects as composing a collaborative work for string quartet and rap, and writing a piece for tuba and electronics. His music has been written for and performed by various chamber ensembles, Truman State University’s Concert Band, and Truman’s new music ensemble, Uncommon Practice. His a cappella piece, A Glimpse of October, was selected as the open choral honorable mention of the 2026 Missouri Composers Project competition.

Theo’s recent research explores text-music relationships and narrative in rap music, the effects of exogenous testosterone on the aural imagery and aural skills of AFAB trans musicians, and music theory and aural skills pedagogy more broadly. He is passionate about teaching music theory and composition to musicians of all backgrounds.

Nick Schumacher

Nick Schumacher is Assistant Professor of Music Theory at Michigan State University, where he teaches undergraduate courses in theory and aural skills and graduate courses in theory pedagogy, performance and analysis, and analysis of music for winds. As a clarinetist and theorist, Schumacher’s primary research interests include performance and analysis, theory and aural skills pedagogy, and the music of TV and film. In 2024, he was selected as a fellow for MSU’s Adams Academy, a year-long fellowship designed for educators to explore and share transformative approaches to teaching and learning.

Along with MSU colleague James Sullivan, Schumacher co-authored the forthcoming Open Educational Resource (OER)
Rhythm Through Repertoire, a sight-reading anthology of excerpts drawn from real musical literature.

Nick holds a DMA and MM in clarinet performance and MM in music theory from Michigan State University, as well as a BM in clarinet performance from the University of Northern Iowa.

Edmund Jolliffe’s music draws on a huge range of styles and influences and he is equally at home writing for film/tv and the concert hall.

Edmund’s recent commissions include pieces for the ABRSM, OUP, The ORA Singers, The Pink Singers and Odense Percussion. Composition Prizes include first prize in the Orpheus Academy Competition, 40th Ithaca College Choral Competition, the Eastern Michigan University Choral Competition, the Kantos Choir Competition and the Freudig Singers Choral Competition. His music is published (Hal Leonard, OUP, Stainer & Bell, ABRSM – set pieces for piano and clarinet grade exams -Edition Svitzer, Banks Music, Tetractys). In 2026 an album of his choral music ‘Choral Reflections’ (Convivium Records) was released. This was supported by the PRS Composers’ Fund.

Edmund has been writing music to picture for twenty-five years. Major series he has composed music for include ‘Who do you think you are?’, ‘Celebrity Traitors/The Traitors’, ‘Sort your life out’ (BBC1), ‘The Great War: The People’s Story’, ‘Long Lost Family’ (ITV1), ‘Homestead Rescue’ (Discovery) ‘Crazy Delicious’ (C4/Netflix) and ‘Unreported World’ (C4).

Edmund studied music at Oxford University and completed a Masters in Film Composition at the Royal College of Music under Joseph Horovitz and Academy Award winner Dario Marianelli. He also studied on the Advanced Composition Course at Dartington International Summer School and has attended composer residencies at the Banff Centre, Canada (Gladys and Merrill Muttart foundation scholarship), the Helene Wurlitzer Foundation, New Mexico and the Anderson Center, Minnesota.

Joe Elefante founded the Joe Elefante Big Band in 2001, which was the house band at Cecil’s Jazz Club for three years and featured on ABC’s Nightline and in the Wall Street Journal. He was named a Jazz Ambassador by the Kennedy Center and selected to the BMI Jazz Composers Workshop in NYC and Betty Carter: Jazz Ahead program at the Kennedy Center. Joe’s latest project is Wheel of Dharma, a jazz quintet performing all original material, but with a reverent eye on the past, present, and future of the music.

Joe has composed over 80 works for jazz ensemble, 30 for chorus, and several for orchestra, wind ensemble, and chamber groups. City of Ships (text by Walt Whitman), for SATB choir, won the 2018 Manhattan Choral Ensemble New Music for New York Commissioning Competition. Praise the Lord, for He Is Loving (based on Psalm 134), for SATB choir, organ, string quartet, flute, and percussion, won 2nd prize in the 2019 Notre Dame Folk Choir Liturgy Alive Choir Composition Competition. The Beauty of Cosmic Things (text by Alan Seeger), for SATB Choir, violin, cello, and piano, won 2nd prize in the 2019 Murau International Music Festival Call for Scores. Fluminis (based on Psalm 46), for SSATBB choir, received an honorable mention in the 2019 Siena College Choral Composition Competition. Dew, a song for soprano and piano based on a text by Kobayashi Issa, was selected and performed in the Trans-Pacific Trio’s 2024 Call for Scores.

Simon Pearson is a queer Welsh composer and arranger living in London, creating music for film, television, games, theatre and live ensembles. A keen chorister himself, he also writes and arranges extensively for choirs.

Simon’s recent choral works and commissions include These Are the Threads for Cantus Ensemble in Minneapolis; Softly Softly, for Gloria Choir in Dublin; Find Your People, for Cromatica, the association of Italian LGBTQ+ choirs; Homemade Musical Hope Machine, a 40th anniversary piece for The Pink Singers. Simon has also been commissioned for choral arrangements by groups around the world including English National Opera, The Pink Singers, Barberfellas, The Sunday Boys, Homonics, Melodiva, Singing Out Toronto, and Philhomoniker.

Simon holds a Masters degree in Composition for Screen (with distinction) from the Royal College of Music in London and the Eastman School of Music in New York where he studied with Jeff Beal, Mark Watters, Filip Sijanec and Enrica Sciandrone