Music Performance UNSW is delighted to announce Shauna Beesley as the winner of the Willgoss Choral Composition Prize for 2024, for her work, Journey.

The Willgoss Choral Composition Prize is generously supported by Dr Richard and Sue Willgoss, for rising composers to be celebrated within their community, and to create a lasting contribution to choral composition in Australia.

From the Panel
"Although there were numerous strong works, the winning composition stood out for its mastery of craft, a mature artistic voice, expertise in choral writing, and judicious use and thoughtful choice of text, promising a significant contribution to the world of choral composition."

About Shauna

Shauna Beesley is a composer, singer, pianist, organist and choir director. She has recently returned to Australia after spending many years working in England, Syria and Switzerland. In England she sang with the BBC singers, the Hilliard Ensemble and John Eliot Gardiner. She also worked on many community composition projects in London in collaboration with the Royal Opera House, English National Opera and Great Ormond Street Children's Hospital.

In Syria, Shauna sang in Dido and Aeneas; the first ever opera to be produced there. She later returned to create an opera company in Damascus under the auspices of the British Council. In Switzerland she produced her first opera Le procès de Michel Servet. She has been Music Director of Emmanuel church since 2000 where she served as organist and choir director. Shauna has written extensively for choir through her work at Emmanuel. Her song cycles Westminster Drolleries, Lest We Forget and The Other Side of Love have all had their premieres in Geneva and Amsterdam.

Statement from Winner

“I am delighted and honoured to have been chosen as the recipient of this year’s Willgoss choral prize. Richard and Sue Willgoss, in establishing this award, have created an exciting opportunity for young singers to experience new music, and to have input in its première. I am grateful to them for supporting new choral works and facilitating this partnership between composer and singers. It is more exciting because of the calibre of the musicians in Corde.

I am very much looking forward to hearing the choir discover this music and to hear how it will develop, under the excellent direction of Sonia Maddock, through the rehearsal process and final performance.”

About Journey

Journey is a poem by Edna St. Vincent Millay. It expresses dissatisfaction at being forced to race through life, and failing to spend time and absorb the beauty that is around us. It is very suited for choral writing where the texture of unaccompanied voices can create an atmosphere that expresses space, timelessness, shimmering heat, and open countryside.

Beesley states, “I wanted to capture, in music, a sense of longing that is constantly being forced to accelerate. In the poem Millay writes about Cat birds and Whip-poor-wills. I listened to recordings of these birds' calls and transcribed them into the music. They appear throughout the work and give the singers an opportunity to improvise as well as sing the written score. I also recently saw the film Maestro, about Bernstein. and he quotes Millay in the film: "I only know that summer sang in me A little while, that in me sings no more." I was writing Journey at the time I saw this, and it delighted me to know that Bernstein also knew and loved Millay's poems."

Journey will be premiered by Corde in October 2024 at Sir John Clancy Auditorium.