Introducing -- Our Fifth 2026 Distinguished Alumni Award Recipient!

Mr. Shank taught music at the high school and collegiate levels. This included vocal music, music theory, and composition. He is a world-renowned choral composer, and regularly writes program notes, conducts, and presents across the country. Josh facilitated the Musician Consortium Fundraiser and the Odyssey Youth Movement during Covid. He has been the conductor for community projects such as Spokane AIDS walk and Veterans for Peace Convention.

He has served as the composer-in-residence for ensembles nationwide. Josh is the youngest ever recipient of the Brock Award for Composition. In 2021, Josh won the American Prize in choral composition for the singers. He was awarded the Creative Programming Award and commissioned for over 75 works nationwide.

Mr. Shank attributed his leadership skills to his teacher, Ms. Kelly Zwagerman, who encouraged him become the editor-in-chief for the school newspaper, the Echo. Alongside two other editors, Missy Maas and Beth Grote, that newspaper landed in the top ten of all student newspapers in the nation in the 1999 school year.

When Josh moved from Iowa as a Junior, he was in the spring musical ‘Guys and Dolls.’ The choir director at the high school was Mr. Chris Harris, who encouraged him to sing in the Concert Choir. From then on, Josh says he became a choir geek of the highest degree.

Josh states, “Those two teachers changed my life.” The lessons he learned were about musicianship, collaboration, hard work, curiosity, justice, and mutual respect for all the people with whom he worked. Eventually he went on to become a high school choir teacher at White Bear Lake and Prior Lake, discovering along the way that he enjoyed writing music as well as performing it. Since that time, Josh has gone on to get his PhD in music and taught every grade from preschool to graduate students.

Mr. Shank is a founder of Graphite (Music) Publishing and dedicates much of his time and music to marginalized communities. In the world of choral music and composition, he is well known and highly regarded.