Announcing the winners of the High School Composition and Songwriting Competition
The Don Wright Faculty of Music is pleased to announce the winners and runners up of this year’s Western University High School Composition & Songwriting Competition. Congratulations to all the winners and runners up, and sincere thanks to all those who entered.
Composition category
Winner: Xuting Gao
Runners up: Henrik Stephenson and Geoyuan (Thomas) Cheng
Songwriting category
Winner: Leticia Rodrigues
Runners up: Aziza Leotlela and Sherin Cheung
Pictured above, clockwise from left: Leticia Rodrigues, Aziza Leotlela, Thomas Cheng, Xuting Gao, Sherin Cheung, Henrik Stephenson.
In addition to cash prizes, the winners and runners up in both categories were offered a lesson or coaching opportunity at the Don Wright Faculty of Music.
Faculty member judges were impressed by the exceptional level of skill and creativity demonstrated by the top applicants and shared feedback on the prize-winning entries:
Composition category results with feedback from professor Paul Frehner
Winner:
Xuting Gao - Thrice Beats the White Bone Spirit Xuting Gao’s Thrice Beats the White Bone Spirit is a fun, exciting, and imaginative piece for wind ensemble. It displays a composer with an ear for timbral and harmonic contrasts, the ability to change directions on a dime and a sense of verve and panache.
Runners Up:
Henrik Stephenson, The Whale’s Song Henrik Stephenson’s The Whale’s Song is a gently evocative and spacious piece for orchestra. The instrumentation is subtle and colourful, with brief melodic motives grazing the surface of the musical texture. It is a delicately suspended moment in time.
Geoyuan (Thomas) Cheng: Refléxions sur le lac Refléxions sur le lac by Geoyuan (Thomas) Cheng is an effectively written piece for solo piano. It features expressive melody writing, harmonic control, clear phrasing, and idiomatic piano writing.
Songwriting category results with feedback from professor Bob Toft
Winner:
Leticia Rodrigues: How Could it End? Very good lyrics, good story line, with many cleverly written lines; strong imagery. Good differentiation between the song's sections; excellent melodies; catchy chorus; nicely rounded formal structure; lots of commercial potential
Runners Up:
Aziza Leotlela: Swim Nice melodic lines in the verses; chorus well differentiated from the verses. A good song. Has commercial potential.
Sherin Cheung: Turn to Eternity Excellent musically. Interesting chord progressions; lots of variety in the melodic lines, as well as the various sections; good formal structure; nice arrangement; commercial potential.
Related links
Music Research and Composition Department - Don Wright Faculty of Music
Popular Music Studies at Western
Western University High School Composition & Songwriting Competition
