2025 NYC songSLAM Competition

CONGRATULATIONS to the winners of the 2025 NYC songSLAM!

Sparks & Wiry Cries is happy to announce the 2025 commission prize winner as Joshua Bornfield.
Joshua premiered "Shift" as part of Team 2 (with Michael Manganiello, baritone and Stephanie Baird, piano, on poetry by Tom Haviv). The Sparks Administrative team was excited by Team 2's moving and interesting use of poetic language, descriptive piano writing, and overall structure of the composition. We are looking forward to our future collaboration with Joshua Bornfield!

Virtual Voting:

We raised a total of $3295.09 to be split between teams
& towards the future of art song!

1st Prize - Team 12 • Mother of Earth and Sky from Mothers of Ragnarök
Erik Franklin, composer & poet
Claire Galloway, soprano
John Henderson, piano

2nd Prize - Team 10 • Horror Movie
Marcus DeLoach, baritone & composer
Grant Loehnig, piano
Text by Howard Moss

3rd Prize - Team 2 • Shift
Joshua Bornfield, composer
Michael Manganiello, baritone
Stephanie Baird, piano
Tom Haviv, poet

Live Voting:

1st Prize - Team 15 • Alone
Patrick Michael Wickham, composer & co-poet
Hilary Baboukis, mezzo-soprano
Mark Wagner, piano
Text by Edgar Allen Poe

2nd Prize - Team 14 • Poems of Catullus
Deborah Mason, composer
Paul Max Tipton, bass-baritone
Molly Morkoski, piano
Robert Scotto, poet & translator

TIE 3rd Prize - Team 9 • The Banned Booked Tango
Jordan Rutter-Covatto, composer
Sydney Anderson, soprano
Mila Henry, piano
Fred Sauter, poet

TIE 3rd Prize - Team 5 • Glass Delusion
Elizabeth Gartman, composer
Laura Whittenberger, soprano
Austin Philemon, piano
Susan Bywaters, poet

We congratulate everyone who participated in this year's event. The extraordinary level of musical creativity was amplified by warm community interactions from the beginning of our recording process to the live event at National Sawdust.
We cannot wait for next year, our 10th Annual NYC songSLAM!
#livesongandprosper

The virtual component of the NYC songSLAM — a 50/50 fundraiser — was open from Friday, February 7th at 10 PM ET through Monday, February 17th at 5 PM ET. 

Voters listened to the songs and voted for their favorites via Give Lively . The funds that each team raised during the virtual event will be split 50/50 with the respective team members and Sparks & Wiry Cries. We reinvest any funds we receive into future competitions, commissions, and new art song initiatives.

2024 songSLAM Commission winner
World Premiere Performance

Songs of the Prince
by composer Jonathan Wyatt
World Premiere performance by
James Danner, tenor and poet, & Derrick Goff, piano
(Recording — Danny Zelibor, piano)

Jonathan Wyatt’s (composer) works often explore conceptualism and storytelling. He holds a Bachelor's in Music Composition from Shenandoah Conservatory and a Master’s in Music Composition from the Mannes School of Music. Jonathan has been a fellow at the Atlantic Music Festival, the Red Note New Music Festival, and the Lake George Composition Institute. Post-graduation, he worked as personal assistant to famed composer Philip Glass. Jonathan is now freelancing in New York City and documenting all composer-activities on his social media pages, which can be followed @ComposerJon.

Jonathan is the winner of the 2024 songSLAM Commission Prize.