Finalist in Cantus Vocal Ensemble’s 2021 Young & Emerging Composer Competition
My choral piece, “Let Us Sing!” a TTBB setting of Ellen Watkins Harper’s poem, “Songs for the People” was among the top four finalists in the Cantus Vocal Ensemble’s 2021 Young & Emerging Composer Competition. The group gave me this feedback: “Let Us Sing” was a wonderful piece that the artists of Cantus thoroughly enjoyed reviewing. The Harper text is compelling language, and you set it beautifully.
Honorable Mention in Arcady Art Song Competition for Emerging Composers!
In an international art song competition sponsored by Canadian vocal group, Arcady, my piece, “Mirage” for soprano and piano, placed 3rd in the category for non-Canadian composers. Director Ronald Beckett said of my piece, “A wonderful work! We all loved the interplay between piano and voice and the opportunity that it presented for the singer to really be expressive.”
A Stellar Review of Daughter of the Stars in Fanfare Magazine!
“Heather Niemi Savage’s Daughter of the Stars is like stepping into a welcoming bath. Second prize winner in the 2020 American Prize in Composition, Daughter of the Stars includes a setting of “Shenandoah” (which word itself alludes to “daughter of the stars”). As the well-known theme emerges naturally from the texture, that sense of warmth is at least doubled (if not squared). The piece is less than five minutes in duration, but makes its point well; and the Czech players make a convincing case in their delivery of Americana.” Colin Clark, in the March/April 2021 issue of Fanfare Magazine (reviewing Ablaze Records’ album, Orchestral Masters Volume 7.
To be Presented on an Upcoming Radio Program!
Coming up on Wednesday morning April 7, 2021, my piece, Daughter of the Stars, will be presented on the weekly edition of Classical Discoveries, 7:00-10:00am on 103.3FM Princeton NJ or streamed online at www.wprb.com
Chosen for an Upcoming National Conference!
Daughter of the Stars has been chosen for inclusion in the National Conference of the Society of Composers, Inc. The conference will be streamed online in May 2021.
A Wonderful Review of Chant de benediction!
Chant de benediction for solo classical guitar was presented at the National Conference if the Christian Fellowship of Art Music Composers, streamed online this past October 2020.
Composer Walter Saul had this to say about the piece: “The work opens with the melody to the grace the orphanage community sings before meals, a robust melody of joy and thanks for daily bread. Much ink has been poured out lamenting the extreme poverty of Haiti and the misery under which its people live, but you would never know that from this grace, the lilting meringue rhythm and bubbly joy that saturate this guitar solo. Starting out in G major, it eases into a Mixolydian feel with all the F#’s becoming F naturals as gentle syncopations and triplets versus duples. Rev. Savage navigates this virtuoso writing nimbly along with hefty chords often involving four of the six strings, and he doesn’t strum the strings, but plays them all precisely together, a sound and technique I have never witnessed before on guitar. Heather Savage’s music takes us on a whirlwind of emotions. Midway through the Chant the music seems to die as it enters the relative minor key of E minor. The grace melody from the beginning becomes wistful and melancholy, perhaps a look at the bleak landscape around the orphanage, but that short-lived moment quickly transitions into a beautiful, heavenly recapitulation of the opening dance, up an octave from the beginning. Ms. Savage saves the highest note for this closing paean of praise to an always-providing God. Once again, “grace” is spoken at the end of the work as it ends in reverence and worship.”
New Recording!
The gorgeous recording of my piece, “Daughter of the Stars”, done by the Brno Philharmonic Orchestra, can be found here: https://heatherniemisavage.com/product/daughter-of-the-stars-mp3-recording/
Upcoming Performance – in Brazil!
I am very pleased to announce that my piece, “Impromptu No.1 for Solo Double Bass” has been chosen for performance at the VII Encontro Interncaional de Cordas in Brazil in June 2021!!!
Chosen for participation!
My piece for solo piano, “Meditation No.1: Sustenance and Praise” was chosen for the online Psalm Gallery as part of the 2021 Calvin Symposium on Worship, put on by the Calvin Institute of Christian Worship, January 6-26, 2021.
A great honor!
My piece for string orchestra, “Daughter of the Stars” won 2nd place in The 2020 American Prize for Composition (pops/light music division).
David Katz, Chief Judge of the competition said of it, “Traditional sounds and scoring for strings: attractive, competent. Has a nice feeling, vaguely nostalgic, leading to a rich setting of Shenandoah which is done so well as to catapult the piece to another level. Accessible to many ensembles technically, and worthy of many performances. Special.”