Wins pg 1 7-21-11
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- Category: Past Issues
caption, page 7:
Receives Award
Dorothy VanAndel Frisch of Woodstock, right, receives her international choral composition competition third-place award. Courtesy photo.
Wins third
in world
choral
composition
competition
WOODSTOCK --- A Woodstock woman, known for her "haunting" and "inevitable" compositions, took third place recently in an international choral composition contest.
Dorothy VanAndel Frisch said she's entered the Sorel Medallion Choral Composition before and made the finals in the 2010-2011 contest.
She said, "The concert was a glorious occasion! The Voices of Ascension sing with precision, beauty, and flawless intonation, and the 40 voices produce a tremendous full sound in the forte sections. Though it was a hot night in a church without air conditioning, the large and enthusiastic audience did not diminish after the intermission."
She won third for her “At a Solemn Musick,” a world premier. The win brought her a $1,000 prize. In addition winners received a complete trip to New York City, consultations with the director of the Voices of Ascension on their work, a "superb performance" by an outstanding choral ensemble and an archival recording of their compositions.
A composer, singer, organist, and pianist Dorothy VanAndel Frisch said she believes that "music is a gift for people of all ages and abilities." She specializes in composing and arranging music for unusual combinations of instruments and voices.
Her music has been called “haunting” and “inevitable,” in the sense that the music strikes the listener as “perfectly suited to the words.” Her choral experience includes singing with the Capella of Calvin College, the Pittsburgh Compline Choir, and the Ambrose- Romanos Singers. Her lifelong love of the pipe organ, her enthusiasm for choral music, her experiences as organist, choir director, chorister, soloist, and composer, her affinity for good literature, and her deep faith have all come together to create her setting of John Milton’s “At a Solemn Music” for the Voices of Ascension and the Pascal Quoirin organ.
Dorothy is a graduate of Calvin College and has a master's from the University of Akron. She is composer-in-residence and associate organist of Holy Trinity Episcopal Church in Southbridge. She is a member of the Holy Trinity Choir and sings alto in the Holy Trinity Quartet. Her anthem “All Who Hunger” won an honorable mention in the Voices Found Choral Anthem Contest, November 2009. On December 9, 2010, “Glory to God in Highest Heaven!” (from the Christmas cantata) was performed by the Holy Cross Choir in Worcester, as part of the Holy Cross Advent Festival of Lessons and Carols. For this occasion, Dorothy wrote a new accompaniment for brass quintet. On April 15, 2011, her eight-part a cappella setting of “O the Depth!” was premiered by the Capella of Calvin College. Dorothy is a member of the American Guild of Organists, Worcester Chapter, and a member of the Hymn Society in the United States and Canada.