Short Bio for Programs
Joan Szymko
With a catalog of over 100 published choral works, Joan Szymko's music is regularly performed across North America and abroad with performances at national and international choral festivals and competitions. She has presented her work in sessions at both regional and national confereneces of the American Choral Director's Association (ACDA) and was honored to have been selected to present at the (canceled) 2020 World Symposium on Choral Music in Aukland, New Zealand. Commissioned by all manner of choral ensemble (professional, community, church, academic and children's), Szymko is widely regarded as a foremost composer of literature for women's voices. The ACDA has recognized Szymko's lasting impact on the choral arts in America by selecting her as a recipient of the prestigious Raymond W. Brock Memorial Commission in 2010.
Szymko's many years of experience as a professional choral director animates her choral compositions; her embodied approach to singing and rhythm, dedication to craft and artistry, penchant for storytelling and insistence of quality texts-all relate to her predilections as a conductor and are reflected in her diverse, distinctive choral works. In addition to self published works, her music appears in the catalogs of Santa Barbara Music Publishing, Roger Dean Publishing, Oxford University Press, Walton Music, earthsongs and Treble Clef Press. Szymko was a founding member of the Independent Music Publishers Collective.
Joan Szymko lives and works in Portland, Oregon, in the beautiful Pacific Northwest region of the United States. A dynamic conductor, she founded and directed Viriditas Vocal Ensemble (1994-2002), has served on the choral music faculty at Portland State University (2013-15) and after 26 seasons, recently retired as Artistic Director of Aurora Chorus. As a visiting artist, Szymko workshops her compositions with choirs in a variety of educational and festival settings across the country and abroad.
(Szymko is pronounced: SHIM-koh)
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MORE DEATILED BIO (long version)
Joan Szymko was born in Chicago in 1957, the youngest of five children in a devout Catholic home where faith, education and the arts were core values. She began piano study at age eight, led liturgical music at Mass, sang in her high school choir, but most importantly she was an avid listener to a great diversity of music during her formative years. She began her focus on choral studies at the Chicago Musical College at Roosevelt University and received a B.S. in Music Education (1979) at the University of Illinois (Urbana) with a vocal/choral emphasis. She left for Seattle following graduation and soon began arranging and composing music to fill the repertoire needs of the progressively leaning women's and church choirs she directed there in the 1980's and early 90's. A year of composition study at the University of Washington (1988) and a successful musical theater collaboration, (Cradle and All, 1990), solidified her determination to continue the pursuit of a career in music with an emphasis on composition.
In 1993 Szymko was invited to Portland, Oregon to take on the leadership of Aurora Chorus, a 100 voice women's community chorus. This was the start of a very prolific creative period. In 1994 she began (and still maintains) a fruitful collaborative relationship with director/choreographer Robin Lane and Do Jump! Movement Theater creating underscoring for several major touring productions, earning praise from the New York Times for her "ethereal vocal music." Also in 1994 she founded the select women's choir, Viriditas Vocal Ensemble. She composed prolifically for this group as well as for Aurora Chorus and several of Szymko's best known early works were premiered by these two ensembles under her direction. With Viriditas (1994-2002) her mission was to provide an exceptional, eclectic choral experience for both singers and audience. Performances explored connections between music and ritual, invited unique collaborations, and were aimed at bringing down the "fourth wall" between performers and audience. With Viriditas, Szymko produced OPENINGS, an album of all original works. Several titles from this album were selected for publication by Santa Barbara Music Publishing (SBMP), beginning a decade long relationship with this premiere American publisher of contemporary choral literature. Two SBMP octavos have received multiple mainstage performances at National Conferences of the American Choral Director's Association(ACDA): It Takes a Village, which after 20 years remains a perennial best seller; and Nada te turbe, innovative as a bilingual setting of the famous prayer of Teresa of Avilá. Szymko is also proud to have presented sessions on her music at regional and national ACDA confereneces. However, most notable, her music has been presented on stage or in sessions at every ACDA National Conference since 2003.
Choral works by Joan Szymko can also be found in the catalogs of Roger Dean Publishing, Oxford University Press, Walton Music, earthsongs, and Treble Clef Press. However, desiring to own the copyright to her own creative work, Szymko turned toward the independent composer/publisher model and in 2011 became a founding member of the Independent Music Publishers Collective (IMP). Her website, JoanSzymko.com was inaugurated soon after. Szymko continues to live and work in Portland. She served on the choral faculty at Portland State University (2013-15) and after 26 seasons she recently retired from leading Aurora Chorus, now serving this amazing community of women in an advisory role as Artistic Director emerita. As a visiting artist and clinician, she continues to workshop her music with choirs in a variety of educational and festival settings across the United States and abroad.
Joan Szymko has been commissioned by all manner of choral ensemble: professional, university, church, LGBTQ, children's and community choirs. Her first large-scale work for chorus and orchestra was a commission by Eugene Vocal Arts; she was tasked with both composing and creating the libretto for an oratorio focusing on the tragedy of Alzheimer's dementia, Shadow and Light, an Alzeimer's Journey. This seventy minute work for mezzo-soprano, tenor, soprano, SATB chorus and 30 piece chamber orchestra is a major new addition to the choral-orchestral repertoire. Its premiere in April 2016 by Eugene Concert Choir won an America Prize for the recording. The process of creating the oratorio was followed by AO Films. Their award winning documentary, The Story of Shadow and Light: Giving Voice to an Alzeimer's Story is available for viewing here.