Beginning in 2001, Chanticleer has held a biennial Student Composer Competition. The competition is designed to encourage current composition students to write quality works for high school-level choirs. The latest competition winner, “Chou Nu Er” by Yi-Wen Chang, won a featured spot on our National Youth Choral Festival in 2010 where it was sung by 416 high school students and Chanticleer. In 2008, Steve Kim’s “Sanctus” took the prize and subsequently was incorporated into several regional Youth Choral Festivals.  The quality of entries for 2006 was so high, that seven winners were announced. The 2003 competition winner was Eric Barnum’s work based on Lord Byron poem, “She Walks in Beauty.” The piece was included on Chanticleer’s 2004-05 national tour program. The first competition winner in was in 2001 by Kelly Crandell, then a student at the San Francisco Conservatory of Music.  He set music to the Shakespeare text, “Blow, blow thou winter wind.” Winning works “She Walks in Beauty” and “Blow, blow thou winter wind” have been published by Hinshaw Music of North Carolina (www.hinshawmusic.com); the winners of future competitions may also be eligible for publication by Hinshaw. For more information about our Education program, please call 415-252-8589, or email: Ben Johns.