Leah Childers is a 21-year-old composer from Christiansburg, Virginia, and is currently studying for her math PhD at Penn State. She has played flute and piccolo for ten years in high school and college bands and been composing for two years. To balance her math-heavy course load, she spends most of her free time listening to, playing, appreciating, and composing music.
Leah’s most influential composer inspirations include David Maslanka, Franz Liszt, Anton Bruckner, and Igor Stravinsky. A lover of Modern-era and Contemporary music, she composes mainly programmatic music for chamber groups and orchestra, aiming to be as heavy and technical as her inspirations.
Leah Childers (Winner of 2021 Call for Scores)
Duet for Clarinet and Piano No. 1 - $7
“Though I indicated my big inspirations in my bio to be heavy and technical Modern/Contemporary composers, Duet for Clarinet and Piano No. 1 very much contrasts my typical style. This duet is one of very few in my portfolio that is diatonic, consonant, and pleasing to the ears of most audiences. The piece I wrote directly before this duet was one of my most modern, atonal pieces depicting despair for the world, called “A Plea for World Peace.” I wrote Duet for Clarinet and Piano No. 1 to contrast that helplessness, and to find joy in the world.”