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Shirl Jae Atwell earned a Bachelor of Music Education degree from Kansas State Teachers College and Master of Music Theory/Composition
degree at the University of Louisville and completed four years of post-graduate work in composition at the University of
South Carolina.
In 1984 she 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.
Louisville's Southern Baptist Seminary Orchestra 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 Biblioteque 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.
Most recently, Lucy, with music by Ms. Atwell and choreography by Alun Jones, was premiered by the Louisville Ballet in
January 1999. Lucy, which was inspired by the discovery of a 3.2 million-year old skeleton, was the subject of a Kentucky
Education Television documentary that was aired on Nov. 10, 1999.
In June 2000, the televised production of Lucy was awarded the Arts & Culture Emmy by the Ohio Valley Chapter of the
National Academy of Television Arts & Sciences. In July, a Certificate of Merit was awarded to Lucy by Unda-USA, the National
Catholic Association for Communicators. And in January 2001, Lucy was awarded 2nd place by the National Education Television
Association for program performance. In 2002, the Greensboro Symphony Orchestra of North Carolina recorded the music to the
ballet Lucy which is now available from Albany Records. The compact disc also includes the orchestral suite Movements Four
South, and three string orchestra works: Pulsar, Meander, and Drifen.
An active composer with many commissions and publications to her credit, Ms. Atwell recently retired from full-time string
teaching with the Jefferson County Public Schools, Louisville, Kentucky and is looking forward to spending more time composing,
arranging, conducting, and presenting. She maintains active membership in ASCAP, Music Educators National Conference, Texas
Orchestra Directors Association, and Kentucky Music Educators Association.
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