Episode
3.9 - Dawn Sonntag
- Podcast
- Composer Chats
- Published
- Apr 7, 2026
- Duration seconds
- 2879
- Processing state
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- https://composerchats.com/episode/3-9-dawn-sonntag
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Summary
Olympia, Washington based composer Dawn Sonntag’s music has been called “hauntingly lyrical,” “profound,” and “freshly relevant.” Her works have been performed by ensembles and soloists across the U.S. and in Europe, including Burning River Baroque, the Delgani Quartet, the Ensign Chorus and Orchestra in Seattle, the Cleveland Chamber Chorus, the Choral Arts Ensemble of Portland, the Fairbanks Summer Arts Festival Orchestra, the Cleveland Opera Theater, and many more. Her art songs have been widely performed in recital and are included in recordings by sopranos Michelle Murray Viertek (Every Tiny Thing) and Megan Ihnen ( Currents in Time ) and by Burning River Baroque duo Malina Rauschenfels and Paula Most, who commissioned the cycle Loves Poems in the Time of Climate Change. Her music has been broadcast on public radio in Ohio and Oregon and is published by Carl Fischer, North Star Music, and Dagny Press. ased on the true story East Prussian refugees during World War II, Sonntag’s first opera, Verlorene Heimat (Lost Homeland), was awarded Honorable Mention in the 2021 American Prize for Opera, Musical Theater, Dance, and Film composition. Her opera For Life, with a libretto by Harvard-trained psychologist Kermit Cole, was commissioned for the Cleveland Opera’s Operas in Place Festival, which won the 2023 Opera America Award for Digital Excellence in Artistic Creation. Sonntag was selected as the Commissioned Composer of the Year for the Music Teachers National Association state chapters in both Ohio (2010) and Washington State (2021). She won the Inge Pitler Prize for lied performance in both piano (1998) and voice (1999). As winner of the Kenwood Symphony Masters Concerto and Aria competition in Minneapolis, she performed the orchestrated art songs of Edvard Grieg. S…