Dawn Sonntag

Lecturer

Dawn Sonntag

Phone: 253-535-7602

Email: dsonntag@plu.edu

Website: //www.dawnsonntag.com

  • Professional
  • Biography

Education

  • D.M.A., Vocal Performance and Composition, University of Minnesota
  • M.M., Choral Conducting, Ohio State University
  • B.M., Voice Performance, University of Texas-El Paso

Responsibilities

Composition Lessons and Songwriting.

Accolades

  • Swedish International Cultural Exchange Grant, 2019
  • Music Teacher National Association - Ohio Distinguished Composer of the Year, 2010
  • Finalist - American Composers Forum Faith Works, 2008
  • Inge Pitler Prize for Lied Performance, piano and voice, Heidelberg, 1998 and 1999

Professional Memberships/Organizations

  • American Society Of Composers, Authors And Publishers (ASCAP)
  • National Association of Composers - USA (NACUSA)
  • American Choral Directors Association (ACDA)
  • National Association of Teachers of Singing (NATS)
  • International Alliance of Women in Music (IAWM)

Biography

The music of Dawn Lenore Sonntag spans from art song and instrumental chamber music to choral-orchestral works and opera. Her works have been performed by the Cleveland Opera Theater, the Fairbanks Arts Festival String Orchestra, the Delgani String Quartet, the Orchid Ensemble and more, as well as by soloists and choirs across the U.S. and in Europe. Her first opera, Verlorene Heimat (Lost Homeland), for which she composed both the libretto and music, received Honorable Mention in the American Prize Opera/Dance/Musical Theater/Film category. Commissioned for the Cleveland Opera Theater’s 2021 Operas in Place festival, Dawn’s mini- opera For Life was featured at the 2022 National Association of Rights Protection and Advocacy conference in Newark, New Jersey. Dawn has been honored as the Music Teachers National Association Composer of the Year in both Washington State (2021) and Ohio (2010) and was the 2019 recipient of a Swedish intercultural exchange fellowship at the Visby International Centre for Composers. She earned her Doctoral of Music Arts degree at the University of Minnesota, where she studied composition with Alex Lubet, voice with Wendy Zaro Mullins and Clifton Ware, and choral conducting with Kathy Saltzman Romey and Matthew Mehaffey.