Section: People
Adjunct professor’s music receives international award, debuts in Carnegie Hall
Oct 17, 2007

Adjunct Professor Leanna Kirchoff has a wide repertoire as a composer.

One Metro State music professor is now known for Rocking.

Metro State adjunct faculty member and composer Leanna Kirchoff's choral piece, “Meciendo” (Spanish for “rocking”), received first prize in an international competition culminating with a performance at renowned Carnegie Hall last week.

Women composers from across the U.S. and abroad submitted works for the concert, which was sponsored by the Sorel Organization. Named in memory of Claudette Sorel, a musical prodigy who graduated from the Julliard School of Music at age nine, the organization seeks to open new opportunities for women musicians.

Three finalists were chosen for the Oct. 9 concert sung by Voices of Ascension, a mixed chorus of 40 professional vocalists. The evening concert was held in Zankel Auditorium, one of three performing spaces within Carnegie Hall.Playing to a nearly full house, the choir performed each of the three finalists' works.At the conclusion of the concert a panel of judges from the New York City musical community selected Meciendo the winner and presented Kirchoff with the first annual Sorel Medallion.

“This speaks very well to the quality of our faculty and their training and skills,” said Walter Barr, professor of music and chair of the department. “It’s exciting when our professors achieve these types of awards, and Leanna’s was well-deserved.”

Barr quipped, “It’s like that old joke, ‘How do I get to Carnegie Hall?’ ‘Practice, practice, practice!’”

The text of Meciendo, according to Kirchoff, comes from a poem by Chilean poet Gabriela Mistral. “Against a background of flowing, rhythmic chants that evoke fields of wheat waving in the wind, a solo soprano voice raises a lyrical contrast as she reflects on rocking her child in her arms,” said Kirchoff.“There are at times nine separate lines calling and answering each other, then melding into a single voice at the end.” The piece was performed a cappella.

Kirchoff has a wide repertoire as a composer. She has written vocal and instrumental chamber music, choral anthems, show tunes, folk and gospel songs. Her instrumental music has been performed at festivals in Vermont, Oregon and London, with several performances of her choral music in the Denver area. In collaboration with fellow Denver composer Cherise Leiter, Kirchoff co-wrote the libretto and music for a one-act opera, The Lady or the Tiger, which premiered last April on campus. Kirchoff has also composed music and lyrics for seven musicals commissioned and produced by Stages Theatre Company in Minnesota.She was composer-in-residence with Temple Emanuel Synagogue and Twelfth Baptist Church in Boston.

Kirchoff’s activities in musical theatre also include work as a conductor, musical director and performance keyboardist for numerous productions in Boston, Minnesota and Colorado.