Shawn Kirchner

Shawn Kirchner is a composer, arranger, and songwriter based in Los Angeles whose choral works are performed throughout the world. His long creative relationship with the LA Master Chorale and Artistic Director Grant Gershon culminated in his tenure as the ensemble’s Composer in Residence from 2012-2015. Equally active as a performer, Kirchner has sung twenty seasons as a tenor with the LA Master Chorale and the LA Philharmonic in concerts featuring the world’s leading conductors, composers, and soloists. As a pianist, Kirchner appears throughout the country in performances of his music with collaborating choirs and is celebrated for his wide stylistic range, improvisation, and musicianship.

Kirchner’s music finds a middle ground between classical choral and instrumental traditions and the inheritance of the folk, carol, and hymn traditions. He is best-known worldwide for his lively, contrapuntal setting of the Kenyan song Wana Baraka, which went flashmob viral on YouTube, and for Heavenly Home: Three American Songs, praised by the LA Times as “arranged with mastery.” Kirchner has also written imaginative choral cycles on the poetry of Neruda, Plath, Hopkins, Blake, and the Psalms. More and more, his music has reflected issues of the day such as gun violence (Eye for Eye,) disinformation (Man of Truth), the refugee crisis (Little Rose), tyranny (The Light of Hope Returning), the environmental crisis (Courage to Care), and Russian aggression against Ukraine (Let the Loving Guides.) Kirchner is honored to serve with Dr. Lucy Jones on the TEMPO: Music for Climate Action leadership group.