Kalispell teacher wins music composition award

James Stanard, a Kalispell vocal teacher and the former director of the Glacier Chorale, recently won an international music composition award.

Stanard’s piece, “How Beauteous Are the Feet Who Stand on Zion’s Hill,” received an Award of Merit in the 2015 Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints’ Annual International Sacred Music Competition.

It will be performed later this year on Temple Square in Salt Lake City.

Stanard chose the poem of the same name by famed 18th-century English hymn writer Isaac Watts and set it to music for choir and piano. This is the second time one of his compositions has won this award.

A native of Great Falls, Stanard was professor of voice at Humboldt State University in California from 1972-2006.

He has composed many choral and solo vocal pieces, including a Civil War cantata, “Fallen Heroes,” that was commissioned in California and scored for full orchestra, chorus, and soprano solo. The Glacier Symphony and Chorale performed this work in 2009.

After retiring from teaching in California, Stanard moved to Kalispell and became the director of the Glacier Chorale from 2007-14. He continues to stay involved in music by composing, teaching private voice lessons, adjudicating music festivals and coaching the male vocal quartet The Great Pretenders.