Kensington Choralworks

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HERE'S WHAT'S NOTEWORTHY...

We're grateful for your comments!

"Anyone who can create as sophisticated and subtle and sensitive an arrangement as your HAVE YOURSELF A MERRY LITTLE CHRISTMAS is not to be patronized. Let me come straight to the point: it's an extraordinary achievement and I'm mad about it. It's full of ingenious surprises. I suspect that I'll discover hidden pleasures with each repeated playing."
        - Hugh Martin, Composer/Lyricist of 'Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas'

“...extraordinarily good secular pieces, A STRANGER YET (choral settings on nature poems of Emily Dickinson) ...exceptional attention to text/tone relationship ...challenging, but accessible to good high school or collegiate choirs, the members of which will be richly rewarded for the effort. Both the texts and the music are exquisite.”
        - Robert Provencio, DMA, California State University, Bakersfield, CA

“How wonderfully Mr Neufeld’s arrangement of O COME, O COME EMMANUEL was received by my students and their audience. We are also preparing his beautiful THREE SONGS OF INNOCENCE [Ed: published by Colla Voce]. Brilliant.”
        - Kelly DeHaan, West Jordan High School, Taylorsville, UT

“Neufeld’s setting [Ed: THE WATER IS WIDE - Boosey & Hawkes] is fabulous for choir and piano. The arrangement is simple when it is needed and complex both harmonically and musically when called for. Not an easy sing by any means, but always worth the effort. The accompaniment is reflective and independent. Adding a solo instrument to the upper voice in the piano may provide an added interest as well. (I added oboe in our performance of this last year.) Even with the thousands of arrangements you already know of this tune, this is still worth the effort to review...”
        - Richard Bjella, Lawrence University, Appleton WI

Kensington Choralworks continues to receive acclaim!
Since the inception of our company, late in 2001, our works have garnered local, national and international notoriety. Additionally, our award-winning catalog continues to grow from its original seven selections. More details below...

2020: Ensoma Creative releases a video of one of our works
On Memorial Day, under direction of talented composer, Townsend Losey, Ensoma selected and masterfully performed Ken Neufeld's striking SATTBB arrangement of "Taps" (final section of his "Battlecries of Freedom"). Their video garnered over 7,000 views in two days!

2018: Los Angeles Master Chorale premieres an arrangement
LAMC premiered Ken Neufeld's SSAATTBB setting of "What are You Doing New Year's Eve?" on this year's "Festival of Carols" program at Walt Disney Concert Hall. (For further information on this title, please contact us here, or via kenschor@yahoo.com.)

2016: ACDA - Pasadena and Kansas City
Kensington Choralworks exhibits in both regional conferences. In Pasadena, we teamed up with fellow independent publishers, Rhonda Sandberg of "Rhondalay Press" and Byron J. Smith of "Onyx Music Publishing" (the "Frank Pooler Publishing Group").

2015: Los Angeles Master Chorale records our song
When the LAMC released its "Festival of Carols" CD, in the Fall, we were pleased to received word that Ken Neufeld's arrangement of "Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas," (frequently offered on the Chorale's holiday concerts) would be included among the eighteen other wonderful Christmas works recorded therein. Each track has been wonderfully mastered from live performances at Walt Disney Concert Hall.

2014: Full-Length Sound Files
Complete recordings are introduced on our catalog page. This now provides full-length aural presentations of works within our library, AND showcases various performing organizations.

2013: J. W. Pepper & Sons
Our affiliation with Fred Bock Music ended in 2012, and with it, our distribution by Hal Leonard. However, J. W. Pepper & Sons will be abstracting us from the Hal Leonard catalog and listing us under our own label. We wish to thank the Pepper company, and in particular, Mr. Roy Schmidt, Pepper's Vice President of Purchasing, for continuing to represent us. Additionally, we thank YOU for your continued patronage, either through Pepper, your own local sheetmusic retailer, or here on our website!

2007: Choral Taste of L.A. - Hollywood Master Chorale - Cantori Domino
2007 might as well have been known as the year of Los Angeles composers! In January, "Choral Taste of L.A.", highlighting works of Los Angeles-based composers, included several selections from our catalog, by Ken Neufeld. The annual event, sponsored by NACM, encompasses two reading sessions, which "sandwich" a gourmet luncheon. Elfin Music and Bring Me the Sunset were well-received in a performance given by the Hollywood Master Chorale, in April. This concert also introduced concert-goers to twenty Los Angeles-area composers. Then, in May, Neufeld's 8-part a cappella setting of Veni Sancte Spiritus received its US premiere at Saint Augustine-by-the-Sea Episcopal Church, in Santa Monica, California. Along with Brahms' Requiem, Veni... and three other sacred works by (living) L.A.-area composers were presented by the ensemble, Cantori Domino.

2006: Fred Bock - Hal Leonard - ACDA - NACM - NCCO
After negotiations with the Fred Bock Music Company, over preceding months, Kensington Choralworks and FBMC entered into an affiliation, in May. We greatly appreciate the interest and assistance the Bock company has afforded, and we are delighted to be associated with their fine name. Among many benefits of this union, came national distribution through the Hal Leonard Corporation, an unbelievable bonus! We thank the Hal Leonard group for partnering with Mr. Steve Bock in working out our entreé into their catalog. In February, Kensington Choralworks exhibited at the ACDA Regional Convention, in Salt Lake City. We were doubly pleased to be there, due to ACDA's honoring of friend and mentor, Frank Pooler (presented by another dear friend, Dr. Ed Thompson). We were invited to be part of the National Association of Church Musicians' reading session in Long Beach (CA), in July. Then, November included a trip to San Antonio, for the first convention of the newly formed National Collegiate Choral Organization (NCCO). Kensington Choralworks is pleased to be a founding institutional member of this fine group. It was a delight to exhibit, as well as attend many concerts presented by some of the finest college choirs in the States!

2005: Alfred Publishing - Piles Publishing - CMEA - ACDA
In a gracious agreement with Alfred Publishing Company, Ken Neufeld's setting of HAVE YOURSELF A MERRY LITTLE CHRISTMAS was made available for the first time. This arrangement has been featured, for two years running, in the seasonal concerts of the Los Angeles Master Chorale, at Disney Hall. VENI, SANCTE SPIRITUS was premiered in Segorbe, Spain, on July 23rd, at that city’s 23rd Annual Choral Festival. The work is now available to U.S., Canada, Australia, New Zealand, and Japan through our catalog. In arrangements with the Jaime Piles Publishing Company of Valencia, Spain, it is published for sale in the rest of the world. Earlier in the year, Kensington Choralworks shared exhibit booths with Rhondalay Press, at both CMEA Regional (Pasadena) and ACDA National (Los Angeles) conventions.

2004: Disney Hall - Segorbe, Spain - ACDA
2004 brought about triple recognition: Curtis Heard's THREE FOLKSONGS (for male voices) was featured in performances by the Notre Dame Glee Club (under the direction of Daniel Stowe), at their regional ACDA Convention; Mr Neufeld's VENI, SANCTE SPIRITUS won the Juan Bautista Comes Choral Competition out of Segorbe, Spain; and with benevolent permission of Warner/Chappell, Mr Neufeld's arrangement of 'Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas' was performed by the Los Angeles Master Chorale, under the direction of Maestro Grant Gershon, as part of their HOLIDAY WONDERS program, at the Walt Disney Concert Hall, here in L.A.

2003: MENC
MUSICA, DEI DONUM OPTIMI (Music, Exalted Gift of God) was selected by Jonathan Talberg (Director of Choral, Vocal and Opera Studies, at California State University, Long Beach) for inclusion in the program he conducted with the Women's Honor Choir, at the Northwest Division MENC Convention, in Portland.

2002: Zephyr: Voices Unbound records five works from our catalog
"Zephyr: Voices Unbound" (the L.A.-based, 12-voice, conductorless ensemble) has recorded THE LARK AT HEAVEN'S GATE SINGS, the three SONGS FROM TWELFTH NIGHT and COME, LIVE WITH ME on a unique DVD audio/video disc. Surround-sound stereo puts you in the middle of the circle of twelve singers.

2001: Our Beginning
BRING ME THE SUNSET won the first-ever California ACDA Composition Competition, and consequently became the impetus for our start-up. The work was premiered on August 7th, at a summer conference of the California chapter of the American Choral Directors Association. It was also included in the high school reading session at the Western Region ACDA Convention held in Hawaii, February 2002. The work has already received national notoriety, having appeared on numerous concert programs across the country. Additionally, in March '02, it was featured as the combined choir piece for an all-district choral festival, under the direction of Dr Ginger Colla. It has even been performed on (at least) one doctoral recital!

"Bring Me the Sunset" is the third in a set of compositions on poems of nature by Emily Dickinson. Along with "Mystery" and "Dear March," the partsongs are collectively known as A Stranger Yet. This title is a fragment from the first poem in the set, which reads: "But nature is a stranger yet; The ones that cite her most have never passed her haunted house nor simplified her ghost." ...quintessential Dickinson!