Geoffrey Wilcken
Geoffrey Wilcken is a prolific composer, conductor, organist, and pianist. He has written for ensembles of all sizes and kinds, including solo, oratorio, concert band, jazz, and liturgical forces. Recent commissions include One Out Of Many (2015) for the 40th anniversary festival concert of the Lawrence Civic Choir, Rosette (2014) for the dedication of a new organ at Village Presbyterian Church, Prairie Village, KS, and Music of the Spheres (2014) for the combined bands and choirs of Johnson County Community College, Overland Park KS. He has also created numerous works for sacred and liturgical use, including Anthems for the Cross (2017) for St. Mary’s Episcopal Church, and arrangements such as Angel Noels (2009) for the Kansas City Fine Arts Chorale, and a number of charts for jazz bands in the Kansas City metropolitan area. He is also the composer of the score for The Midwest in Panels (2014), a feature-length documentary about comic book shops.
He has twice won the Music Teachers National Association composition contest, and has been awarded the Anthony J. Cius outstanding composer prize. In 2015 he received the first ever Kansas Choral Composition award for his work, “Life’s Symphony”, and was named second runner-up in the 2017 ACDA Brock composition competition. He has titles currently available from Alliance Music Publications, Colla Voce Music, LLC, and Alfred Publishing House.
Dr. Wilcken is an accomplished church musician, jazz pianist, conductor, and organist who can currently be heard on the organ of historic St. Mary’s Episcopal Church in downtown Kansas City. In addition, he has performed with various ensembles in Lawrence and the Kansas City area, including the Kansas City Fine Arts Chorale, Musica Vocale, and the Moon City Big Band, as well as serving as the artistic director of the Songflower Chorale, a semi-professional chamber choral ensemble in Kansas City.
Geoffrey earned his D.M.A. at the University of Kansas in the spring of 2018. He holds a Master of Music degree in choral conducting under Simon Carrington at the University of Kansas, and a Bachelor of Music degree in composition from Iowa State University