Awards and accomplishments:
Shirl Jae Atwell earned her Bachelor’s of Music Education degree from Kansas State Teachers’ College and a Master of Music Theory/Composition degree at the University of Louisville. She also completed four years of post-graduate work in music composition at the University of South Carolina.
In 1984, Ms. Atwell won the Clifford Shaw Memorial Award for Kentucky Composers; was commissioned to write Fear Not, Little Flock for the 175th anniversary of the Little Flock Baptist Church; and saw the New York City debut of her first opera, Sagegrass. In 1991, another of her operas, Esta Hargis, was premiered at Emporia State University in Kansas, followed shortly by the 1992 debut of Handelian, a work for string orchestra premiered by the Jefferson County All-County Middle School Orchestra. The Southern Baptist Seminary Orchestra in Louisville premiered her Movements Four South, an orchestral suite, in 1993. That year also saw the placement of six Shirl Jae Atwell scores in the permanent collection of the Paris Bibliotheque Internationale de Musique Contemporaine at the invitation of the Contemporary Music International Information Service. Ms. Atwell was named the 1996 winner of the National School Orchestra Association composition contest with her string orchestra piece Modus a Four. She is also the 1997 winner of the Texas Orchestra Directors’ Association contest with a string orchestra piece entitled Drifen.
In 2005 and 2006, Ms. Atwell was commissioned to write works for the McEachern High School String Orchesta of Powder Springs, Georgia, and the Oceanfront String Orchestra of Virginia Beach, Virginia. In 2007, she was commissioned to write a full orchestra piece for the 2007 Kentucky All-State Orchestra. With the coming of the bicentennial of Abraham Lincoln’s birthday in February 2009, Ms. Atwell was commissioned to write a full orchestra piece for the Jefferson County All-County Orchestra. This work, entitled Kentucke, was premiered in November 2008 and reprised by the Louisville Orchestra in February 2009. She has also completed work on her second ballet suite entitled Evoquer.
An active composer with many commissions and publications to her credit, Ms. Atwell retired from full-time string orchestra teaching with the Jefferson County Public Schools, Louisville, Kentucky in 2007. She is now spending her time composing, conducting, arranging, presenting, and working with string teachers in the Louisville area and throughout the southeast. Ms. Atwell is an active member of ASCAP.
Ms. Atwell’s published music can be purchased at any sheet music store or by contacting Alfred Publishing, Excelcia Music Publishing, Neil A. Kjos Music Publishing Co., Ludwig Masters, Kendor Music, or Wingert-Jones. A compact disc of the Lucy ballet music can be purchased from Albany Records.