Angel City Chorale — Competition for Young Composers (2026 cycle)

A choral commission in the form of a competition. Angel City Chorale, the Los Angeles community choir, invites composers aged 18 to 30 to write a new SATB work on a set theme. For 2026 the theme is Turning Point: a pivotal moment of change, personal, communal or global, where a direction shifts and a new path forward is forged.

The prize is 3,500 dollars in cash. Beyond the age limit and the SATB voicing, the detailed requirements sit in a downloadable guidelines document and a submission checklist, both linked from the competition page and both worth reading before you write a note — the page itself keeps only to headlines.

Submission is through a Google form. You send the score together with a recording of the piece, plus an optional written statement. Entries are first checked by a third party against the competition requirements, and anyone whose submission is not accepted for adjudication is notified.

The adjudication panel is named and published: Sue Fink, Cristian Grases, Susan LaBarr, Allan Petker and Tracy Wong. That is a useful signal, since you can look at their own work and the repertoire they champion before deciding what to send.

Final scores are due 1 September 2026, the winner is notified in the week of 2 November, and the result is announced in Los Angeles on 5 December.