UH Music professor, Dr. Alec Schumacker, was named a winner of the National Collegiate Choral Organization’s (NCCO) 2025 Call for Scores contest. His composition, “My Name,” includes a compilation of words spoken by his daughter on her fourth birthday. “My Name” will be performed at the NCCO national conference in California this November, and will be published by E.C. Schirmer Music Publishing in the NCCO choral series.
Dr. Schumacker’s initial inspiration came from a list of humorous quotes from his daughter that he kept note of in his phone. The project to set those funny and joyful quotes to music came during the COVID-19 pandemic. “My Name” is one movement from that larger work, Funny Things Joy Said. When asked about the composing process of his piece, Dr. Schumacher shared, “The matter-of-factness that kids have while expressing ludicrous-to-adult thoughts is hysterical and inspiring. I tried to let the music reflect this daydreamy world that kids frequently inhabit and adults rarely do. True to her sentiment, each voice’s main melody only has three notes until getting to “four letters” when it adds a fourth pitch.”
Dr. Schumacker is a well-loved professor in the UH Mānoa Department of Music where he conducts both Chamber Choir and College Choir. He received his DMA in Choral Conducting from the University of Miami. In addition to conducting and composing, he is also an arranger, and many ensembles and choruses have performed his pieces.