(Photo credit: Pasadena Chorale)

The Pasadena Chorale is looking for new students to enroll in its student-mentor composition program – “Listening to the Future.”

Pasadena area high school students from ninth through 12th grade are encouraged to enroll in the “Listening to the Future” program that will begin in Nov. 2023 and run through June 2024. The free composition program culminates with the Pasadena Chorale performing the student composers’ new work at the Chorale’s “Listening to the Future” concert on June 15, 2024. A teacher recommendation is required to apply and applications are due by Nov. 6, 2023.

Selected students will work with professional composer Jen Wang on creating two pieces for the chorale: an arrangement of an existing melody, and an original work. At the premiere concert students will receive video and audio recordings of their finished work that they can include in their portfolios and college applications.

In the eight years since the free educational program began, “Listening to the Future” has seen six composer mentors guide 24 student composers in the creation of 62 original compositions. Alumni of the program have gone on to study at Stanford, Columbia, Yale, Chapman University, University of Michigan and more.