The Alternative Press

Harmonium Choral Society has extended the deadline from March 4 to March 31 to allow for as many high school students as possible to participate in its 16th Annual New Jersey High School Student Choral Composition Contest.

As previously announced, the contest is open to all students enrolled in grades 9 through 12 in any public or private school in the State of New Jersey. It is also open to all students who are legal residents of New Jersey participating in home schooling at the high school level.

Student composers are encouraged to submit their original choral compositions to Harmonium on or before March 31. Compositions must be five minutes or less in length and based on selected texts by William Shakespeare, Percy Bysshe Shelley, W.B. Yeats, Emily Dickinson or Alfred Lord Tennyson. To view the list of texts, guidelines and additional contest materials, visit www.harmonium.org/contest.shtml or contact contest coordinator Matt Swiss at ccc@harmonium.org.

The winning compositions will be selected by a panel of judges consisting of professional musicians, composers and music educators. The Grand Prize winner will receive a cash prize of $1,000 and $250 will be awarded to a Runner-Up. In addition, the sponsoring teachers of the winning student composers will receive a monetary award. The winners will be notified in April.

The winning compositions will be performed and recorded live during the Harmonium June concerts "Winds of Change.” The concert presents choral works about singing and soul, peace and harmony, wind and wisdom. “Winds of Change” takes place on Saturday, June 1 at 7:30 p.m., and Sunday, June 2 at 7:30 p.m. at Grace Episcopal Church in Madison.