Compose Like A Girl

12/20/2025

Sherry Blevins is a sought-after artist, award-winning composer, lyricist, as well as an award-winning music educator and conductor!

Sherry has three works published through the Compose Like A Girl Choral Series: the dynamic, imaginative, and intimate, “If I Call to You, My Love”; fun, saucy, and a little naughty, “When I Become an Old Woman”; and “Looking for Light” which shares a positive message of hope.

Sherry Blevins is the founder of the International Choral Composers Institute (ICCI) which is a 5-day immersive program dedicated to nurturing & instructing choral composers and lyricists of all levels while connecting them with real-world editors and publishers. Both virtual and in-person options available!

Learn more about ICCI: https://www.internationalchoralcomposersinstitute.org/

Watch the full ICCI interview with Jocelyn Hagen and Sherry Blevins: https://youtu.be/UxaKFlzW9es?si=uq1gE1x6BN4dwzTY

Check out Sherry’s works: https://graphitepublishing.com/publisher/compose-like-a-girl/

12/13/2025

Inspired by the Capela dos Ossos (Chapel of Bones) in Portugal, Marybeth Kurnat composed a work that also takes the audience on a musical journey. Towering, colorful chords, swiftly changing keys, and creative meters all result in a rich and fascinating musical landscape.

Marybeth Kurnat (1987) is an emerging voice in choral music in the Chicago area. Her authentic compositional style, especially her harmonic language, is heavily influenced by her musical foundation as a jazz saxophonist. Her work, “I, Lover,” was the 2021-22 Winner of the Stephen Paulus Emerging Composer’s Competition. She was a 2023 Composition Fellow for the PREMIERE|Project Festival.

Marybeth holds a B.M. in Music Education from Northern Illinois University, and serves as a music educator in DeKalb, IL. She maintains an active performance schedule as a soloist and choral singer with several Chicago-area choirs.

Welcome Marybeth to the Compose Like a Girl Choral Series! Listen to the full recording of “for the sake of your journey” by Jeffrey Hunt and the St. Charles Singers now by visiting graphitepublishing.com!

11/08/2025

“Unlost” by Abigail N. Lewis pulses with a wandering heart, searching for peace amidst the constant changes of life.

Abigail shares some insight on her piece, “It's about leaving a familiar place, and the fear that comes along with that; we ask: will I be forgotten? This piece was written for the Austin-based new music organization Inversion Ensemble and is set to a beautiful poem by a good friend of mine, Riley Craig. Riley and I have known each other since 7th grade when we met in choir. The text and music for ‘Unlost’ were written in the spring and summer of 2024, when both of us were graduating high school. For us, graduation meant leaving home and planting new roots elsewhere. People often fear leaving their places of solace; ‘Unlost’ is an acknowledgement of that fear of the unknown. It’s encouragement that despite the change in your life, the good that you have done for others will leave a lasting impact. ‘The flowers may forget your face, but they will remember your heart.’”

Check out this SATB choir with vibraphone and piano work now by visiting the Compose Like A Girl Choral Series at graphitepublishing.com!

11/01/2025

Congrats MaryAnne!! We are loving your new single “Little Existence” and cannot wait to hear “I Am Not the Same” on November 7th and the FULL ALBUM in February!!

MaryAnne Muglia (she/her) is a composer, vocalist, and educator based in Arizona. She arranges and writes contemporary choral music, vocal jazz, and indie-influenced original songs. Her work has been performed by, and she has worked with or arranged for, ensembles across the country—including Lyyra, Chanticleer, The King’s Return, Säje Voices, and more. Recent commissions include works for community choirs, professional vocal groups, and student ensembles of all levels.

MaryAnne’s SSA div. choir and piano work, “Can You Hear My Heart Sing?” is a lovely, accessible song, great for younger treble voices available through the Compose Like a Girl Choral Series! Check it out now: https://graphitepublishing.com/product/can-you-hear-my-heart-sing/

Learn more about MaryAnne: https://www.maryannemuglia.com/about
Listen to “Little Existence” wherever you stream: https://ffm.to/littleexistence.OWE
Pre-save “I Am Not the Same”: https://ffm.to/iamnotthesame.OWE

10/22/2025

What sweet dreams our hearts take flight, two souls dancing through the night in Patti Arntz’s “What Sweet Love” available now from Compose Like A Girl Choral Series at graphitepublishing.com!

Patti Arntz has been a music educator and church musician in the Twin Cities area for over 40 years. She has degrees in music from Hamline University, St. Paul, MN and Drake University, Des Moines, IA and a Master’s Degree in Education from the University of St. Thomas, St. Paul, MN.

She recently retired from teaching elementary music with the Robbinsdale Area Schools in the Twin Cities. During her 30 years of instructing young children to sing and make music, she also directed the Robbinsdale All-District Elementary Honors Choir for 15 years. Throughout her teaching career, she served as an organist and director of youth/adult choirs in local churches.

Keeping in touch with her elementary music roots, she serves as an online adjunct professor at Southwest Minnesota State University in Marshall, Minnesota, instructing elementary education majors on teaching and integrating music into their future classrooms. Continuing the concept of core subject integration with music, she has recently been writing curriculum for the Minnesota Orchestra’s Young People’s Concerts.

10/16/2025

Panoramic Voices presented, FEMMEGAZE this October featuring works from Compose Like A Girl composers Tara Mack and Ritika Bhattacharjee!

Learn more about the event and performers: https://www.panoramicvoices.org/20245-oct-program-femme-gaze

“Born in the late 19th century, Georgia Douglas Johnson was a very accomplished artist in many respects–publishing multiple volumes of poetry, writing plays and hosting salons for the leading lights of the Harlem Renaissance. But in other ways her ambitions as a writer and composer were thwarted, and much of her poetry explores the theme of unrealised ambition. I wrote A Bygone Sky in honor of the many African American women of the 20th century, who, like Johnson, were stymied by the twin forces of racism and sexism from fully realising their talents and ambitions,” writes Tara Mack about her work “A Bygone Sky.”

Ritika Bhattacharjee shares insight on her work “Overflow”, “Grieving is part of the femme experience. We grieve the loss of our rights; the loss of our innocence as the male gaze objectifies us; the loss of our identity as we conform for others’ convenience. As for my encounters with grief, my mother died of cancer when I was eighteen. Six years later in January 2024, I lost my partner of five years to a sudden stroke when we were 24 years old. This piece is about where devotion must go when the receiver is no longer physically here. The five soprano soloists represent the wild expansion of grief, the choice to feel in a world that favors patriarchal constructs of efficiency over expression.

The piece ends with a meditative wish: “let me hear you laugh, forever.” I miss their laughter the most. I anchor to those memories to survive. To love from the femme perspective is to love someone beyond physicality: I am still learning just how expansive that love is as I experience the many unmistakable miracles and messages they continue to send me.”

10/09/2025

A sophisticated and accessible unison and piano work, “Mr. Sun” by Hannah Jensen fills a special niche. A playful, innocent text hides a deeper meaning: the sweet things of life are only temporary. Just as the sun sets, our joys cannot last forever. Jensen’s sophisticated piano writing gives the keyboardist a voice to share with the choir.

Taken all together, “Mr. Sun” can help developing voices and minds find expression and affirmation of their emotions.

Listen to the performance now by Adams Central High School Choir at https://graphitepublishing.com/product/mr-sun-unison/

10/02/2025

10/02/2025

“Found,” by A.K. Carroll, takes the listener on a gentle journey from despair to hope. The long, sustained lines gradually rise and burst into a reassuring climax before ebbing away into a relaxed cadence. “Found” tells a story of metaphorical sunshine conquering a darkened sky.

A. K. Carroll is a current undergraduate student studying music and psychology at Luther College in Decorah, IA. A pianist from a young age, Abigail most enjoys making music in ensemble settings.

She participated in band, choir, jazz band, and chamber singing groups throughout high school, and especially enjoyed touring with the STMA Concert Choir. Abigail now sings in the Luther College Nordic Choir, and recently fell in love with playing the organ.

When she’s not making music, Abigail can be found reading a good book, hiking outdoors, spending time with loved ones, or playing with her dogs, George and Charlie.

Enjoy this SATB div. a ca****la piece now by visiting https://graphitepublishing.com/product/found/

09/26/2025

Respectable Birds don’t only live on Graphite Publishing’s website after all! Although we suspect it is their favorite home…

Compose Like A Girl composer, Suzy Johnson (pictured above) handpicked historic words, paired them with personal observations, sprinkled in scientific terms and facts, and drizzled on a dash of humor to create a year round musical main dish for the underappreciated turkey, “A Respectable Bird.”

This work is available for 3-part mixed choir, 3-part treble choir OR 2-part treble choir all with Bb clarinet and piano at graphitepublishing.com!

09/17/2025

Patti Arntz’s “What Sweet Love” dances with dynamic meter and tempo changes. The diatonic harmonies and lack of divisi make the piece easy to learn, but the legato textures and key changes will keep the singers on their toes. The strong, climactic and satisfying conclusion proclaims the power of love.

This new piece is now available for SATB, SSA, and TTB choir with piano at graphitepublishing.com - Program TODAY!!

09/10/2025

NEW COMPOSER ALERT!! Welcome Abigail N. Lewis to the Compose Like A Girl Choral Series!!

The addition of vibraphone to traditional piano accompaniments adds an ethereal color to Abigail Lewis’s “Unlost.” A play on words, to be “unlost” is to be found. The vibraphone suggests this inversion of meanings, almost like a mysterious reflection of the piano. “Unlost” pulses with a wandering heart, searching for peace amidst the constant changes of life.

The flowers may forget your face, but they will remember your heart.

Check out this SATB, vibraphone, and piano work now at graphitepublishing.com!!