Congratulations to the winners of our Rachel Moore Choral Composition Contest – Kunal Gala, Hamid Alipourshirazi, and Cathryn Davis!The Second Place winner of this season’s Rachel Moore Choral Composition Contest is Hamid Alipourshirazi, a student at Tehran Music Conservatory of Music. His winning composition, » قزامت « (Qazamat) uses traditional Northern Khorasan poetry as its text. In addition to Conservatory, Hamid Alipourshirazi continues private study in composition, harmony, orchestration, and form in music via Skype with Professor Mr. Arash Teymourian in Canada. He is strongly interested in Iranian music and was inspired to compose “Qazamat” as an interesting play in rhythm and color. The text, which at first glance seems dark, is actually a string of symbols of love’s imprisonment of the heart. Although the captive speaker in the poem aches to be free, they also relish in the prison of love. The music reflects this in its joyful, dancing rhythms and interplays.