Leanna Kirchoff
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A native of rural Colorado, Leanna Kirchoff has written vocal and instrumental chamber music, choral anthems, musicals and opera. In addition to frequent performances in the Denver area, her music has been included in performances at Carnegie Hall, NY; the 9th New London Wind Festival, UK; the Ernest Bloch Festival, OR; the Chamber Music Conference, VT; Stages Theatre Company, MN; American Choral Directors Association conference, MO; Colorado Music Educators Association conference, CO; Radford University, VA; Lewis and Clark, OR, University of Denver, CO; Regis University, CO and others.
Most recently Kirchoff was named the 2010 Colorado State Music Teacher's Association Commissioned Composer, with a new piece premiered at the 2010 June CSMTA conference. In 2007 Kirchoff’s Meciendo won the Sorel Medallion, an international choral competition. Meciendo was performed at Carnegie Hall by Voices of Ascension, a New York-based choir under the direction of Dennis Keene.
As part of a program sponsored by the American Composers Forum, Kirchoff was composer-in-residence with Temple Emanuel Synagogue and Twelfth Baptist Church, congregations based in the Boston area. The resulting works of the residency were performed at the North American Jewish Choral Music Festival in New York and at the Project Manna concert in Newton, Massachusetts.
Collaborative projects highlight Kirchoff’s catalog. With fellow MSU Denver faculty, Cherise Leiter, she co-wrote the libretto and music for the 2007 one-act opera, The Lady or the Tiger, premiered at MSU Denver. Kirchoff has worked on numerous musical theatre projects, composing music and lyrics for seven musicals produced in Minnesota. Her musical theatre experience also includes work as a conductor, musical director and performance keyboardist for musical theatre productions in Boston, Minnesota and Colorado. She was assistant musical director and keyboardist for the first national tour of Schoolhouse Rock Live.
Two of Kirchoff’s chamber works appear on the 2006 recording, Cross Currents and Other New Music for Row Twelve, released by Massachusetts chamber ensemble, Row Twelve. Her solo flute piece, Cantus Rosarum, was included on the 2004 release Airs to Charm a Lizard, music for solo flute recorded by flutist, Katherine Kleitz.
Kirchoff holds a Master of Arts in Composition from the University of Minnesota where she studied with Dominick Argento and Judith Lang Zaimont. Her undergraduate degree in Commercial Music is from the University of Denver where she studied composition with Donald Keats and piano with Alice Rybak. She has been a composition fellow in masterclasses with George Tsontakis, Paul Moravec, Donald Crockett, and Ellen Taaffe Zwilich.
A faculty member at MSU Denver since 2001, Kirchoff has taught composition, theory, and class piano. Currently, she pursues a Doctorate of Musical Arts in Composition at the University of Colorado.
