Toronto composer Joannie Ing has been awarded the Debbie Fleming Prize for Choral Composition for her composition The Good News Carol. This is the third year of the TMC’s Choral Composition Competition for emerging Canadian composers. For 2017, the competition called on unpublished Canadian composers to submit a sacred or secular work for the Christmas season, not more than five minutes in length, for SATB, either a cappella or accompanied by organ.
In November the jury assessed 14 impressive entries and awarded the Debbie Fleming Prize for Choral Composition to Joannie Ing. She receives the cash prize of $1000 and her work, The Good News Carol, will be premiered at the TMC’s Festival of Carols concerts at Yorkminster Park Baptist Church on Tuesday, December 5 and Wednesday, December 6, 2017. The December 6th concert will also be webcast live.
The Good News Carol is a work for SATB with descant and organ. Text and music of this Christmas work were composed by Joannie Ing. Noel Edison and the jury commented that it is composed in an accessible style that will tug on the audience’s heart strings – perfect for Festival of Carols.
Joannie Ing studies composition at York University, with an interest in choral and contemporary church music. She has sung with the York University Chamber Choir, the York University Gospel Choir, and currently sings with the Toronto Cantata Chorus and the Oriana Women’s Choir. Joannie is a worship leader at Scarborough Community Alliance Church. With her husband Justin Chow, Joannie released an album of contemporary hymn arrangements as the Hymn Remix Project. Joannie’s hymn, All I Understand, won Pax Christi Chorale’s Great Canadian Hymn Competition (October 2013). In addition, her piece, A Saviour is Born was featured in the Amadeus Choir’s 2015 Christmas concert. She is absolutely thrilled that the Toronto Mendelssohn Choir will be performing her work, The Good News Carol, at Festival of Carols. She has expressed the hope that all may find a genuine sense of joy, peace, and hope in the good news of Christmas.
The TMC Choral Composition Competition prize is made possible by a donation from Debbie Fleming, a TMC alumna who sang in the Toronto Mendelssohn Choir for 40 years and who retired from the Choir in June 2015. The TMC is grateful for her commitment to the enrichment of the TMC’s education program and to the growth of Canadian choral music.