We're pleased to announce that the winner of this year's New Voices Project is Jarred Main for his piece "Cicadas," which will be performed on our upcoming concerts in March, 2019.

The New Voices Project  is San Francisco Choral Artists' annual competition for composers under the age of 30 with the goal of promoting the composition of new works for chamber choir by the next generation of composers in the United States.  

Jarred Main (b. 1999, Bellingham, Washington) was singing before he could talk. Born partially deaf, he found music a comforting way to communicate. He started composing originally to supplement his sight reading, but soon fell in love with the methods, freedom, and ideas behind composition. He has been passionately composing for six years and is currently a sophomore, double majoring at Western Washington University in Music Composition with Dr. Charles Halka and Music Education.

"Cicadas" is the first in a series of choral pieces that I am currently writing based on the poetry of Japanese poet Matsuo Bashō (1644-1694). I fell upon this text while researching kuhi, the practice of immortalizing haiku poetry by carving it into stone. I asked my college roommate, who had recently moved back to Japan, what his favorite kuhi was, and when I received Bashō’s poem I was inspired to set some of his texts.

The natural themes of Bashō’s work reflect my compositional style, painting a picture with simple, yet realistic elements. I hope this piece can help to bring the Japanese language into more vocal music, thereby adding more linguistic diversity to this traditionally European art form.