Choongwoo Steve Ko wins 2023 ACDA Composition Focus Prize

USC Thornton alumnus Choongwoo Steve Ko (MM ’16) has won the 2023 ACDA Composition Focus Prize for his Tenor/Bass Choir score, “A Thousand Winds.” The American Choral Directors Association describes this prize as “a new initiative structured to meet identified gaps in repertoire needs of ACDA members and their ensembles.” This year’s contest drew over 100 applications from the US and abroad.

Choongwoo Steve Ko is currently a first-year DMA student in Choral Conducting at the University of Texas at Austin. Ko’s compositions are largely inspired by his bi-culturalism in Korean and American cultures.