Shawn Kirchner is a composer/songwriter best-known for his choral works that are performed throughout the world. He has served as the composer in residence for the Los Angeles Master Chorale and has collaborated with many of the country’s other leading choirs, including Tonality, a dynamic LA-based choir that fuses artistry with social justice and environmental activism. Kirchner’s songwriting ranges in style from jazz and gospel to folk and bluegrass, the latter featured on his album Meet Me on the Mountain.
In recent years his work with Lucy Jones’s TEMPO Music for Climate Action and Kirsten Hedegaard’s EcoVoice Project has stimulated new writing of earth-focused music, especially in collaboration with Canadian eco-activist/songwriter Luke Wallace. Their choral arrangement of Wallace’s song Easy on the Earth is now sung by choirs of all ages throughout North America. Kirchner has also become, through his viral choral arrangement of the Kenyan song Wana Baraka, an international partner with Philip Munyasia and his Kitale, Kenya-based organization the Organic Technology Extension and Promotion of Initiative Center that transforms local lives in through sustainable organic farming practices and community development.
As a classical choral singer, Kirchner has been a member of the Los Angeles Master Chorale for 20 seasons, performing with the LA Philharmonic in hundreds of concerts at LA’s Disney Hall and the Hollywood Bowl under the baton of the world’s leading conductors. He has also sung on dozens of feature film soundtracks, including Avatar, Frozen, La La Land, and the X-Men series.
Kirchner’s improvisational skills at the piano have fueled his creativity since childhood. His unique bluegrass/folk style, often featured in his choral works, synthesizes his classical background with the influence of his folk music mentor, Steve Kinzie. Kirchner was raised with his triplet siblings in Cedar Falls, Iowa. Growing up in a progressive church shaped his life-long focus on issues of peace and justice, inclusion and equity, and environmentalism. For more information, see: www.ShawnKirchner.com.