Joshua Shank: Bio & Choral Music | Santa Barbara Music Publishing, Inc.

Joshua Shank

[b. 1980] Joshua Shank’s works have been widely performed by educational and professional ensembles alike. His works often feature the human voice, and focus on social justice or the amplification of marginalized communities. His work, capable of anything, celebrated the passage of marriage equality in the United States, and his oratorio, Magnificat for the Mothers of the Plaza de Mayo, tells the story of the movement of Argentine mothers who campaigned for their children who had been “disappeared” by the military junta that formally governed the nation. His work, Primavera en silencio, is based on American conservationist Rachel Carson’s landmark writing on climate change, and his alleluia (from quarantine) was commissioned by a consortium of ensembles from around the United States in order to raise money for gigging musicians whose livelihoods have been decimated by the COVID-19 pandemic.

He has been commissioned by ensembles such as The Choral Project, Conspirare, the Lorelei Ensemble, and the Young New Yorkers’ Chorus. From 2004 to 2014 he served as Composer-In-Residence for the Minneapolis-based professional choir, The Singers: Minnesota Choral Artists, where he collaborated annually to expand and invigorate the repertoire for professional-caliber ensembles through innovative programming as well as new works written specifically for the choir. In 2002, he became the youngest composer ever awarded the prestigious Raymond W. Brock Composition Award by the American Choral Directors Association. The winning piece, Musica animam tangens (“Music touches the soul”), was premiered in Avery Fisher Hall at the Lincoln Center and has since been performed and recorded from Los Angeles to South Africa. His music was featured in a documentary about the extensive choral tradition in the Upper Midwest, Never Stop Singing, and his published works have sold over 150,000 copies worldwide.

Joshua received his undergraduate degree in Music Education from Luther College, and his doctorate in Composition at the University of Texas at Austin where he studied with the late opera composer, Daniel Catán. A native of Minnesota, he currently lives in the Boston area with his husband, Robert W. Ressler, a sociologist who focuses on child, youth, and family policy in education, and their cat, Obergefell. Joshua is an avid cyclist and is always attempting to be a better cook.

WEBSITE: www.joshuashank.com

Joshua Shank has 21 titles published with Santa Barbara.
Click on any title below to view the complete score and hear a recording if available.

Arrow and The Song, The

SSA

SBMP 597

Arrow and The Song, The

SATB

SBMP 605

Autumn

SATB div.

SBMP 560

Bar’bry Allen

SBMP 846

Boy Who Picked Up His Feet to Fly, The

SATB

SBMP 450

Boy Who Picked Up His Feet to Fly, The

TTBB

SBMP 1022

David's Lamentation

SATB

SBMP 416

Divine Image, The

SATB

SBMP 491

From Where I Stood

SATB

SBMP 822

Gabriel's Message

SATB / solo quartet

SBMP 644

Go, Tell it on the Mountain

SATB div.

SBMP 580

Musica animam tangens

SATB

SBMP 487

Naalah

SATB

SBMP 923

Sleeping Out: Full Moon

SATB

SBMP 769

Snow by Morning

SSA

SBMP 445

Spring

SATB div.

SBMP 1184

Summer

SATB div.

SBMP 1165

Three Nightsongs

SSAA

SBMP 598

Two Sisters, The

SBMP 936

when god decided to invent

SATB

SBMP 693

winter

SATB/solo quartet

SBMP 534

= See the complete score = Hear recording = Watch performance video